THE RELIGION
OF THE
ANCIENT CELTS
BY
J.A. MACCULLOCH
HON. D.D.(ST. ANDREWS); HON. CANON OF CUMBRAE CATHEDRAL
AUTHOR OF "COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY"
"RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS" "THE MISTY ISLE OF SKYE"
"THE CHILDHOOD OF FICTION: A STUDY OF FOLK-TALES AND PRIMITIVE THOUGHT"
Edinburgh: T. & T. CLARK, 38 George Street
1911
Printed by
MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED,
FOR
T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED.
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
TO
ANDREW LANG
PREFACE
The scientific study of ancient Celtic religion is a thing of recent
growth. As a result of the paucity of materials for such a study,
earlier writers indulged in the wildest speculative flights and
connected the religion with the distant East, or saw in it the remains
of a monotheistic faith or a series of esoteric doctrines veiled under
polytheistic cults. With the works of MM. Gaidoz, Bertrand, and D'Arbois
de Jubainville in France, as well as by the publication of Irish texts
by such scholars as Drs. Windisch and Stokes, a new era may be said to
have dawned, and a flood of light was poured upon the scanty remains of
Celtic religion. In this country the place of honour among students of
that religion belongs to Sir John Rh[^y]s, whose Hibbert Lectures _On
the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom_
(1886) was an epoch-making work. Every student of the subject since that
time feels the immense debt which he owes to the indefatigable
researches and the brilliant suggestions of Sir John Rh[^y]s, and I
would be ungrateful if I did not record my indebtedness to him. In his
Hibbert Lectures, and in his later masterly work on _The Arthurian
Legend_, however, he took the standpoint of the "mythological" school,
and tended to see in the old stories myths of the sun and dawn and the
darkness, and in the divinities sun-gods and dawn-goddesses and a host
of dark personages of supernatural character. The present writer,
studying the subject rather from an anthropological point of view and in
the light of modern folk survivals, has found himself in disagreement
with Sir John Rh[^y]s on more than one occasion. But he is convinced
that Sir John would be the last person to resent this, and that, in
spite of his mythological interpretations, his Hibbert Lectures must
remain as a source of inspiration to all Celtic students. More recently
the studies of M. Salomon Reinach and of M. Dottin, and the valuable
little book on _Celtic Religion_, by Professor Anwyl, have broken fresh
ground.[1]
In this book I have made use of all the available sources, and have
endeavoured to study the subject from the comparative point of view and
in the light of the anthropological method. I have also interpreted the
earlier cults by means of recent folk-survivals over the Celtic area
wherever it has seemed legitimate to do so. The results are summarised
in the introductory chapter of the work, and students of religion, and
especially of Celtic religion, must judge how far they form a true
interpretation of the earlier faith of our Celtic forefathers, much of
which resembles primitive religion and folk-belief everywhere.
Unfortunately no Celt left an account of his own religion, and we are
left to our own interpretations, more or less valid, of the existing
materials, and to the light shed on them by the comparative study of
religions. As this book was written during a long residence in the Isle
of Skye, where the old language of the people still survives, and where
the _genius loci_ speaks everywhere of things remote and strange, it may
have been easier to attempt to realise the ancient religion there than
in a busier or more prosaic place. Yet at every point I have felt how
much would have been gained could an old Celt or Druid have revisited
his former haunts, and permitted me to question him on a hundred matters
which must remain obscure. But this, alas, might not be!
I have to thank Miss Turner and Miss Annie Gilchrist for valuable help
rendered in the work of research, and the London Library for obtaining
for me several works not already in its possession. Its stores are an
invaluable aid to all students working at a distance from libraries.
J.A. MACCULLOCH.
THE RECTORY,
BRIDGE OF ALLAN,
_October_ 1911.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See also my article "Celts" in Hastings' _Encyclopædia of Religion
and Ethics_, vol. iii.
[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Throughout this book, some characters are used
which are not part of the Latin-1 character set used in this e-book. The
string "[^y]" is used to represent a lower-case "Y" with a circumflex
mark on top of it, "[=a]" is used to represent a lower-case "A" with a
line on top of it, and "[oe]" is used to represent the "oe"-ligature.
Numbers in braces such as "{3}" are used to represent the superscription
of numbers, which was used in the book to give edition numbers to
books.]
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. THE CELTIC PEOPLE 8
III. THE GODS OF GAUL AND THE CONTINENTAL CELTS 22
IV. THE IRISH MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE 49
V. THE TUATHA DÉ DANANN 63
VI. THE GODS OF THE BRYTHONS 95
VII. THE CÚCHULAINN CYCLE 127
VIII. THE FIONN SAGA 142
IX. GODS AND MEN 158
X. THE CULT OF THE DEAD 165
XI. PRIMITIVE NATURE WORSHIP 171
XII. RIVER AND WELL WORSHIP 181
XIII. TREE AND PLANT WORSHIP 198
XIV. ANIMAL WORSHIP 208
XV. COSMOGONY 227
XVI. SACRIFICE, PRAYER, AND DIVINATION 233
XVII. TABU 252
XVIII. FESTIVALS 256
XIX. ACCESSORIES OF CULT 279
XX. THE DRUIDS 293
XXI. MAGIC 319
XXII. THE STATE OF THE DEAD 333
XXIII. REBIRTH AND TRANSMIGRATION 348
XXIV. ELYSIUM 362
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES THROUGHOUT THIS WORK
(_This list is not a Bibliography._)
BRAND: Rev. J. Brand, _Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great
Britain._ 3 vols. 1870.
BLANCHET: A. Blanchet, _Traité des monnaies gauloises._ 2 vols. Paris,
1905.
BERTRAND: A. Bertrand, _Religion des gaulois._ Paris, 1897.
CAMPBELL, _WHT_: J.F. Campbell, _Popular Tales of the West Highlands._ 4
vols. Edinburgh, 1890.
CAMPBELL _LF_: J.F. Campbell, _Leabhar na Feinne._ London, 1872.
CAMPBELL, _Superstitions_: J.G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland._ 1900.
CAMPBELL, _Witchcraft_: J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in
the Highlands and Islands of Scotland._ 1902.
CORMAC: _Cormac's Glossary._ Tr. by J. O'Donovan. Ed. by W. Stokes.
Calcutta, 1868.
COURCELLE--SENEUIL.: J.L. Courcelle-Seneuil, _Les dieux gaulois d'après
les monuments figurés._ Paris, 1910.
_CIL_: _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum._ Berlin, 1863 f.
_CM_: _Celtic Magazine._ Inverness, 1875 f.
CURTIN, _HTI_: J. Curtin, _Hero Tales of Ireland._ 1894.
CURTIN, _Tales_: J. Curtin, _Tales of the Fairies and Ghost World._
1895.
DALZELL: Sir J.G. Dalzell, _Darker Superstitions of Scotland._ 1835.
D'ARBOIS: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, _Cours de litterature celtique._
12 vols. Paris, 1883-1902.
D'ARBOIS _Les Celtes_: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, _Les Celtes._ Paris,
1904.
D'ARBOIS _Les Druides_: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, _Les Druides et les
dieux celtiques à formes d'animaux._ Paris, 1906.
D'ARBOIS _PH_: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, _Les premiers habitants de
l'Europe._ 2 vols. Paris, 1889-1894.
DOM MARTIN: Dom Martin, _Le religion des gaulois._ 2 vols. Paris, 1727.
DOTTIN: G. Dottin, _Manuel pour servir a l'étude de l'antiquité
celtique._ Paris, 1906.
ELTON: C.I. Elton, _Origins of English History._ London, 1890.
FRAZER, _GB_{2}: J.G. Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2}. 3 vols. 1900.
GUEST: Lady Guest, _The Mabinogion._ 3 vols. Llandovery, 1849.
HAZLITT: W.C. Hazlitt, _Faiths and Folk-lore: A Dictionary of National
Beliefs, Superstitions, and Popular Customs._ 2 vols. 1905.
HOLDER: A. Holder, _Altceltischer Sprachschatz._ 3 vols. Leipzig, 1891
f.
HULL: Miss E. Hull, _The Cuchullin Saga._ London, 1898.
_IT_: See Windisch-Stokes.
_JAI_: _Journal of the Anthropological Institute._ London, 1871 f.
JOYCE, _OCR_: P.W. Joyce, _Old Celtic Romances_{2}. London, 1894.
JOYCE, _PN_: P.W. Joyce, _History of Irish Names of Places_{4}. 2 vols.
London, 1901.
JOYCE, _SH_: P.W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland._ 2 vols.
London, 1903.
JULLIAN: C. Jullian, _Recherches sur la religion gauloise._ Bordeaux,
1903.
KEATING: Keating, _History of Ireland._ Tr. O'Mahony. London, 1866.
KENNEDY: P. Kennedy, _Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts._ 1866.
LARMINIE: W. Larminie, _West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances._ 1893.
LEAHY: Leahy, _Heroic Romances of Ireland._ 2 vols. London, 1905.
LE BRAZ: A. Le Braz, _La Legende de la Mort chez les Bretons
armoricains._ 2 vols. Paris, 1902.
_LL_: _Leabhar Laignech_ (Book of Leinster), facsimile reprint. London,
1880.
LOTH: Loth, _Le Mabinogion._ 2 vols. Paris, 1889.
_LU_: _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ (Book of the Dun Cow), facsimile reprint.
London, 1870.
MACBAIN: A. MacBain, _Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language._
Inverness, 1896.
MACDOUGALL: Macdougall, _Folk and Hero Tales._ London, 1891.
MACKINLAY: J.M. Mackinlay, _Folk-lore of Scottish Lochs and Springs._
Glasgow, 1893.
MARTIN: M. Martin, _Description of the Western Islands of Scotland_{2}.
London, 1716.
MAURY: A. Maury, _Croyances et legendes du Moyen Age._ Paris, 1896.
MONNIER: D. Monnier, _Traditions populaires comparées._ Paris, 1854.
MOORE: A.W. Moore, _Folk-lore of the Isle of Man._ 1891.
NUTT-MEYER: A. Nutt and K. Meyer, _The Voyage of Bran._ 2 vols. London,
1895-1897.
O'CURRY _MC_: E. O'Curry, _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish._ 4
vols. London, 1873.
O'CURRY _MS. Mat_: E. O'Curry, _MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History._
Dublin, 1861.
O'GRADY: S.H. O'Grady, _Silva Gadelica._ 2 vols. 1892.
REES: Rev. W.J. Rees, _Lives of Cambro-British Saints._ Llandovery,
1853.
REINACH, BF: S. Reinach, _Bronzes Figurés de la Gaule romaine._ Paris,
1900.
REINACH, BF _Catal. Sommaire_: S. Reinach, _Catalogue Commaire du Musée
des Antinquitée Nationales_{4}. Paris.
REINACH, BF CMR: S. Reinach, _Cultes, Mythes, et Religions._ 2 vols.
Paris, 1905.
RC: _Revue Celtique._ Paris, 1870 f.
RENEL: C. Renel, _Religions de la Gaule._ Paris 1906.
RH[^Y]S, _AL_: Sir John Rh[^y]s, _The Arthurian Legend._ Oxford, 1891.
RH[^Y]S, _CB_{4}: Sir John Rh[^y]s, _Celtic Britain_{4}. London, 1908.
RH[^Y]S, _CFL_: Sir John Rh[^y]s, _Celtic Folk-Lore._ 2 vols. Oxford,
1901.
RH[^Y]S, _HL_: Sir John Rh[^y]s, _Hibbert Lectures on Celtic
Heathendom._ London, 1888.
SÉBILLOT: P. Sebillot, _La Folk-lore de la France._ 4 vols. Paris, 1904
f.
SKENE: W.F. Skene, _Four Ancient Books of Wales._ 2 vols. Edinburgh,
1868.
STOKES, _TIG_: Whitley Stokes, _Three Irish Glossaries._ London, 1862.
STOKES, _Trip. Life_: Whitley Stokes, _The Tripartite Life of Patrick._
London 1887.
STOKES, _US_: Whitley Stokes, _Urkeltischer Sprachschatz._ Göttingen,
1894 (in Fick's _Vergleichende Wörterbuch_{4}).
TAYLOR: I. Taylor, _Origin of the Aryans._ London, n.d.
_TSC_: _Transactions of Society of Cymmrodor._
_TOS_: _Transactions of the Ossianic Society._ Dublin 1854-1861.
_Trip. Life_: See Stokes.
WILDE: Lady Wilde, _Ancient Legends and Superstitions of Ireland._ 2
vols. 1887.
WINDISCH, _Táin_: E. Windisch, _Die altirische Heldensage Táin Bó
Cúalgne._ Leipzig, 1905.
WINDISCH-STOKES, _IT_: E. Windisch and W. Stokes, _Irische Texte._
Leipzig, 1880 f.
WOOD-MARTIN: Wood-Martin, _Elder Faiths of Ireland._ 2 vols. London,
1903.
_ZCP_: _Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie._ Halle, 1897 f.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
To summon a dead religion from its forgotten grave and to make it tell
its story, would require an enchanter's wand. Other old faiths, of
Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, are known to us. But in their case
liturgies, myths, theogonies, theologies, and the accessories of cult,
remain to yield their report of the outward form of human belief and
aspiration. How scanty, on the other hand, are the records of Celtic
religion! The bygone faith of a people who have inspired the world with
noble dreams must be constructed painfully, and often in fear and
trembling, out of fragmentary and, in many cases, transformed remains.
We have the surface observations of classical observers, dedications in
the Romano-Celtic area to gods mostly assimilated to the gods of the
conquerors, figured monuments mainly of the same period, coins, symbols,
place and personal names. For the Irish Celts there is a mass of written
material found mainly in eleventh and twelfth century MSS. Much of this,
in spite of alteration and excision, is based on divine and heroic
myths, and it also contains occasional notices of ritual. From Wales
come documents like the _Mabinogion_, and strange poems the personages
of which are ancient gods transformed, but which tell nothing of rite or
cult.[2] Valuable hints are furnished by early ecclesiastical documents,
but more important is existing folk-custom, which preserves so much of
the old cult, though it has lost its meaning to those who now use it.
Folk-tales may also be inquired of, if we discriminate between what in
them is Celtic and what is universal. Lastly, Celtic burial-mounds and
other remains yield their testimony to ancient belief and custom.
From these sources we try to rebuild Celtic paganism and to guess at its
inner spirit, though we are working in the twilight on a heap of
fragments. No Celt has left us a record of his faith and practice, and
the unwritten poems of the Druids died with them. Yet from these
fragments we see the Celt as the seeker after God, linking himself by
strong ties to the unseen, and eager to conquer the unknown by religious
rite or magic art. For the things of the spirit have never appealed in
vain to the Celtic soul, and long ago classical observers were struck
with the religiosity of the Celts. They neither forgot nor transgressed
the law of the gods, and they thought that no good befell men apart from
their will.[3] The submission of the Celts to the Druids shows how they
welcomed authority in matters of religion, and all Celtic regions have
been characterised by religious devotion, easily passing over to
superstition, and by loyalty to ideals and lost causes. The Celts were
born dreamers, as their exquisite Elysium belief will show, and much
that is spiritual and romantic in more than one European literature is
due to them.
The analogy of religious evolution in other faiths helps us in
reconstructing that of the Celts. Though no historic Celtic group was
racially pure, the profound influence of the Celtic temperament soon
"Celticised" the religious contributions of the non-Celtic element which
may already have had many Celtic parallels. Because a given Celtic rite
or belief seems to be "un-Aryan," it need not necessarily be borrowed.
The Celts had a savage past, and, conservative as they were, they kept
much of it alive. Our business, therefore, lies with Celtic religion as
a whole. These primitive elements were there before the Celts migrated
from the old "Aryan" home; yet since they appear in Celtic religion to
the end, we speak of them as Celtic. The earliest aspect of that
religion, before the Celts became a separate people, was a cult of
nature spirits, or of the life manifested in nature. But men and women
probably had separate cults, and, of the two, perhaps that of the latter
is more important. As hunters, men worshipped the animals they slew,
apologising to them for the slaughter. This apologetic attitude, found
with all primitive hunters, is of the nature of a cult. Other animals,
too sacred to be slain, would be preserved and worshipped, the cult
giving rise to domestication and pastoral life, with totemism as a
probable factor. Earth, producing vegetation, was the fruitful mother;
but since the origin of agriculture is mainly due to women, the Earth
cult would be practised by them, as well as, later, that of vegetation
and corn spirits, all regarded as female. As men began to interest
themselves in agriculture, they would join in the female cults, probably
with the result of changing the sex of the spirits worshipped. An
Earth-god would take the place of the Earth-mother, or stand as her
consort or son. Vegetation and corn spirits would often become male,
though many spirits, even when they were exalted into divinities,
remained female.
With the growth of religion the vaguer spirits tended to become gods and
goddesses, and worshipful animals to become anthropomorphic divinities,
with the animals as their symbols, attendants, or victims. And as the
cult of vegetation spirits centred in the ritual of planting and sowing,
so the cult of the divinities of growth centred in great seasonal and
agricultural festivals, in which the key to the growth of Celtic
religion is to be found. But the migrating Celts, conquering new lands,
evolved divinities of war; and here the old female influence is still at
work, since many of these are female. In spite of possessing so many
local war-gods, the Celts were not merely men of war. Even the _equites_
engaged in war only when occasion arose, and agriculture as well as
pastoral industry was constantly practised, both in Gaul and Britain,
before the conquest.[4] In Ireland, the belief in the dependence of
fruitfulness upon the king, shows to what extent agriculture flourished
there.[5] Music, poetry, crafts, and trade gave rise to culture
divinities, perhaps evolved from gods of growth, since later myths
attributed to them both the origin of arts and crafts, and the
introduction of domestic animals among men. Possibly some culture gods
had been worshipful animals, now worshipped as gods, who had given these
animals to man. Culture-goddesses still held their place among
culture-gods, and were regarded as their mothers. The prominence of
these divinities shows that the Celts were more than a race of warriors.
The pantheon was thus a large one, but on the whole the divinities of
growth were more generally important. The older nature spirits and
divine animals were never quite forgotten, especially by the folk, who
also preserved the old rituals of vegetation spirits, while the gods of
growth were worshipped at the great festivals. Yet in essence the lower
and the higher cults were one and the same, and, save where Roman
influence destroyed Celtic religion, the older primitive strands are
everywhere apparent. The temperament of the Celt kept him close to
nature, and he never quite dropped the primitive elements of his
religion. Moreover, the early influence of female cults of female
spirits and goddesses remained to the end as another predominant factor.
Most of the Celtic divinities were local in character, each tribe
possessing its own group, each god having functions similar to those of
other groups. Some, however, had or gained a more universal character,
absorbing divinities with similar functions. Still this local character
must be borne in mind. The numerous divinities of Gaul, with differing
names--but, judging by their assimilation to the same Roman divinity,
similar functions, are best understood as gods of local groups. This is
probably true also of Britain and Ireland. But those gods worshipped far
and wide over the Celtic area may be gods of the undivided Celts, or
gods of some dominant Celtic group extending their influence on all
sides, or, in some cases, popular gods whose cult passed beyond the
tribal bounds. If it seem precarious to see such close similarity in the
local gods of a people extending right across Europe, appeal can be made
to the influence of the Celtic temperament, producing everywhere the
same results, and to the homogeneity of Celtic civilisation, save in
local areas, e.g. the South of Gaul. Moreover, the comparison of the
various testimonies of onlookers points to a general similarity, while
the permanence of the primitive elements in Celtic religion must have
tended to keep it everywhere the same. Though in Gaul we have only
inscriptions and in Ireland only distorted myths, yet those testimonies,
as well as the evidence of folk-survivals in both regions, point to the
similarity of religious phenomena. The Druids, as a more or less
organised priesthood, would assist in preserving the general likeness.
Thus the primitive nature-spirits gave place to greater or lesser gods,
each with his separate department and functions. Though growing
civilisation tended to separate them from the soil, they never quite
lost touch with it. In return for man's worship and sacrifices, they
gave life and increase, victory, strength, and skill. But these
sacrifices, had been and still often were rites in which the
representative of a god was slain. Some divinities were worshipped over
a wide area, most were gods of local groups, and there were spirits of
every place, hill, wood, and stream. Magic rites mingled with the cult,
but both were guided by an organised priesthood. And as the Celts
believed in unseen gods, so they believed in an unseen region whither
they passed after death.
Our knowledge of the higher side of Celtic religion is practically a
blank, since no description of the inner spiritual life has come down to
us. How far the Celts cultivated religion in our sense of the term, or
had glimpses of Monotheism, or were troubled by a deep sense of sin, is
unknown. But a people whose spiritual influence has later been so great,
must have had glimpses of these things. Some of them must have known the
thirst of the soul for God, or sought a higher ethical standard than
that of their time. The enthusiastic reception of Christianity, the
devotion of the early Celtic saints, and the character of the old Celtic
church, all suggest this.
The relation of the Celtic church to paganism was mainly intolerant,
though not wholly so. It often adopted the less harmful customs of the
past, merging pagan festivals in its own, founding churches on the sites
of the old cult, dedicating sacred wells to a saint. A saint would visit
the tomb of a pagan to hear an old epic rehearsed, or would call up
pagan heroes from hell and give them a place in paradise. Other saints
recall dead heroes from the Land of the Blessed, and learn the nature of
that wonderland and the heroic deeds
"Of the old days, which seem to be
Much older than any history
That is written in any book."
Reading such narratives, we gain a lesson in the fine spirit of
Christian tolerance and Christian sympathy.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Some writers saw in the bardic poetry a Druidic-esoteric system and
traces of a cult practised secretly by the bards--the "Neo-Druidic
heresy"; see Davies, _Myth. of the Brit. Druids_, 1809; Herbert, _The
Neo-Druidic Heresy_, 1838. Several French writers saw in "Druidism" a
monotheistic faith, veiled under polytheism.
[3] Livy, v. 46; Cæsar, vi. 16; Dion. Hal. vii. 70; Arrian, _Cyneg_.
xxxv. 1.
[4] Cæsar, vi. 15, cf. v. 12, "having waged war, remained there and
cultivated the lands."
[5] Cf. Pliny, _HN_ xvii. 7, xviii. 18 on the wheeled ploughs and
agricultural methods of Gauls and Britons. Cf. also Strabo, iv. 1. 2,
iv. 5. 5; Girald. Camb. _Top. Hib._ i. 4, _Descr. Camb._ i. 8; Joyce,
_SH_ ii. 264.