UINC said she likes the grasslands of Ireland—what is so special about the Irish grasslands? Perhaps it is because Irish music (such as bagpipes) and Irish poetry (such as Yeats) are so impressive. But on this tiny speck of land called Ireland, what exactly is so special about her music and poetry, her nation and culture?
If I just say Irish music, I can’t quite bring it to mind, but if I say Celtic music, then I know what it’s about.
I once used a certain piece of background music for a while, and it was dismissed by UNIC as “the background music doesn’t seem quite good. A bit noisy~ but I still support one section with bagpipes! Mainly the opening~ and the overall tone~~~~ not very fond of it, not perfect.” — that piece was taken from R. Cooper’s flute album Secret Realm of the Mind, whose English title, however, was “CELTIC HEARTLAND” — CELTIC, that is, Celtic (Celt… kind of like CET… -_-!). It was precisely because I was curious about this English title that I bought the disc. Overall, the effect may indeed be, as UNIC said, somewhat noisy (too ornate, to the point of obscuring its original character), but on the whole Celtic-style music is still quite good.
I first heard of the concept of “Celtic” through many channels. First was through games: in the Heroes of Might and Magic series, the backbone of the forest faction, the “druid” unit (they are also important characters in World of Warcraft, Diablo, and other games), is the priest of the Celts, the embodiment of the forest (it is said that the English words Tree and Druid have some etymological connection).
Before converting to Catholicism, the druids were an important component of Celtic society (the other major classes included warriors, bards, and peasants). The druid priests controlled all the knowledge of the Celtic peoples—mythology, history, ritual, common knowledge, astronomy, and so on—and this knowledge was absolutely not allowed to be recorded in writing, but could only be transmitted orally from generation to generation by the druids (successors had to follow the druid into the forest for secluded study). It was only when the last of the Irish Celts were Christianized that everything the druids possessed had the chance to be put into writing, but this also marked the demise of the ancient religion.
The Celts were of course not absent from the Civilization series either—in Civilization V they appear as barbarians in some campaigns, while in the expansion they became a civilization (their unique unit is the Gallic Warrior, and their unique building is the Hillfort, which is rather useless -_-)
Even if one does not play games, most people have surely heard the legends of King Arthur and his Round Table knights. This legendary figure in European culture also belongs to Celtic civilization.
When reading history books, one often ends up overlooking Celtic civilization. When the Europe of ancient Greek and ancient Roman times is discussed, the map generally leaves blank the part of Europe northwest of Greek and Roman territory, as if it were a no-man’s-land. In fact, the entire European continent—from the Iberian Peninsula to Ireland to the Balkan Peninsula and even to Asia Minor—had once been Celtic land! I remember that back when I was reading about Alexander’s eastern campaigns, I had a question: why did Alexander’s territory not expand even a bit toward the northwest? Geography and climate were of course one problem, but what else was holding him back? — Now I know: there, after all, was the territory of the Celts, a warlike people whom Alexander judged that “to decide to ally with them was wise.”
The Celts were truly “war maniacs”; fighting was their way of life, and if they could not find an enemy, they would fight among themselves. Precisely for this reason, this great civilization was never unified, and its combative and bloody character often caused them to be mistaken for barbarians. In fact, unlike the nomadic Huns and Mongols, and the hunting Germanic peoples and other true barbarians, the Celts had cities and agriculture, a complex and brilliant culture and art, and a long history (they entered the Iron Age as early as 800 BC, earlier than China!). But they were too martial; their belligerence and ferocity were probably no less than the Mongols’, and perhaps even worse, so it is no wonder they were regarded as barbarians.
At the height of their power, the Celts even sacked the city of Rome (the Celts’ famous branch: the Gauls) — but after growing strong, the Romans, who held grudges, finally took revenge on the Celts, eventually driving them from the entire European continent. The Romans pursued them all the way to Britain, but for some reason, when the Celts were forced into their final stronghold, the island of Ireland, the Romans stopped the chase, allowing Celtic culture to survive in a corner of Europe.
Speaking of Britain, I long knew that the full name of the United Kingdom is the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,” a “union” of four places: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—why are there these four “kingdoms”? And what about the Isle of Man, which is neither an independent country nor part of the United Kingdom? Now I know: Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, among others, are precisely the descendants of the Celts. Scottish, Welsh, Manx, and Irish are among the very few surviving members of the Celtic language family; today, the population still using Celtic languages as their everyday language is less than 2 million. This may well be the world’s most urgently endangered language at present.
April 8, 2007, 2:04 AM
Latest comments
- Yi Wu
2007-04-08 16:46:09
Bards… war maniacs……..
I recommend reading
Still relatively objective. - Yi Wu
2007-04-08 16:49:57
The only instrument in the world that can drive me mad is the bagpipe.
The only music in the world that can drive me mad is FOLK, COUNTRY MUSIC, and Irish music.
Just thinking about it gets me excited…….. - Gu Chu
2007-04-08 17:26:32
I once flipped through that book in a bookstore, but it was too expensive so I didn’t buy it. The Lost Civilizations series seems pretty good too, but it’s too expensive.
Back when I was watching the anime Fate/stay night, I became interested in “King Arthur,” and that was when I started paying attention to Celtic stories. There are often many interesting cultural bits of knowledge in games and anime, worth digging into.
The Celts are a warlike people, without a doubt.
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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