The Celts
The Celts (Greek 'Keltoi') were an Indo-European people originating in the Alps. Their first known territory was in Central Europe around 1200 BC in the upper Danube, the Alps and parts of France and southern Germany. The Celtic culture spread from its heartland around the Rhine and Danube, reaching Spain and Portugal in the C6th BC and dominating central and western Europe as well as Galatia in modern Turkey from the C5th BC onwards. In the next three centuries, they also reached Britain, northern Italy, Greece, the Balkans and Asia Minor.
From discoveries of Chinese silk and items of Greek and Italian workmanship in their burials, it is clear that the Celts had a wide network of commercial contacts. Their leaders lived in hill-forts and made many raids on the Mediterranean lands, attacking Rome in 390 BC. The Celtic Iron Age is generally divided into two periods, the Hallstadt (C9th to 5th BC) and La Tène (after 450 BC), named after archaeological sites in Austria and Switzerland. Their characteristic style of decoration, ‘Celtic Art’, spread throughout western and central Europe including the British Isles, where it was still being used by the time of the illuminated gospels in the early Middle Ages. They also produced iron which gave them an advantage over those peoples who had only bronze weapons and tools.
Under the influences of both overcrowding (Milan was traditionally founded by the nephew of a Celtic king banished to alleviate this problem) and the rapid extension of the Roman Empire, migration continued. Control of Celtic lands, even the kingdom of Galatia, passed to the Romans as their Empire spread beyond Italy. The Celtic peoples became incorporated into it with the Mediterranean area of Gaul or Gallia (modern France), becoming a Roman province by the end of the C2nd BC. In Britain, the Belgae, a people of mixed Germanic and Celtic stock, became partially Romanized in the century between the first Roman invasion under Julius Caesar in 54 BC and the Roman conquest of AD 43.
They now mostly inhabit the Western seaboard of the British Isles, with traces of their languages remaining in Manx, Cornish, Breton and English as well as Scottish and Irish Gaelic and Welsh. They were recognised and described as possessing wealth, skills and culture by Ancient authors but never wrote down any of their laws, customs or beliefs. The oral tradition of storytelling was very strong, however, and survived particularly well in Ireland which was never part of the Roman Empire.
Celtic Swords
With the spread of the La Tene culture at the 5th century BC, iron swords had completely replaced bronze all over Europe. These swords eventually evolved into, among others, the Roman gladius and spatha and, and the Greek xiphos and the Germanic sword of the Roman Iron Age, which evolved into the Viking sword in the 8th century.
There are two kinds of Celtic sword. The most common is the "long" sword, which usually has a stylised anthropomorphic hilt made from organic material, such as wood, bone or horn. These swords also usually had an iron plate in front of the guard that was shaped to match the scabbard mouth. The second type is a "short" sword with either an abstract or a true anthropomorphic hilt of copper alloy.
Scabbards were generally made from two plates of iron, and suspended from a belt made of iron links. Some scabbards had front plates of bronze rather than iron. This was more common on Insular examples than elsewhere; only a very few Continental examples are known. ( Saxon Swords)
Anglo-Saxon swords were made of iron and had two sharp blades - one on each side of the sword.
They had a pommel at one end near the grip (or handle). The pommel helped balance the weight of the sword so it was easier to use.
Below the grip, there were guards to protect the hand.
The Anglo-Saxons carried their swords in scabbards which may have been decorated.
Anglo-Saxon swords were made by a process called pattern welding.
Steel, which is a mixture of iron and carbon, makes a better and sharper sword than iron. In the Anglo-Saxon period, steel was very difficult to make and not very good. So the Anglo-Saxon's used a mixture of steel and iron in their swords.
They used steel on the outside of the sword to give a strong and sharp blade. The inside of the sword was made of rods of iron twisted together.
The twisted iron created a decorative pattern which can be seen in the centre of some Anglo-Saxon swords
The Anglo-Saxons also used a type of sword with only one sharp edge or blade, known as a seax. They could be as long as other swords and possibly had similar fittings on the hilt (for example a pommel and guards).
Swords took a lot of time and effort to make. Therefore, they were relatively expensive and not that common. They would have been worn by important and wealthy men, such as kings and lords, known as theigns to the Anglo-Saxons.
Swords are sometimes found in burials with men but not always. Swords may have been heirlooms, handed down from one generation to the next. Christians did not bury people with swords.
Celtic Religion
Many deities seem to have been associated with aspects of nature and worshipped in sacred groves. Some appear in all Celtic areas while others have purely local significance. A large number of minor gods and goddesses are mentioned in inscriptions and sculptures but Lugh, Epona and Cernunnos were among the most important. The Celtic oral tradition meant that the myths and legends were not written down until after the Christian church had been established in Britain, so the versions that exist were subject to its influence. The deities were changed into fairies and their powers into magic while the great festivals were included in the Christian calendar.
The Druids or priests were more important than the kings in Celtic society, and their decisions were law. Even the king could not speak first. Their training took some years and there were special colleges in which philosophy, law, poems and stories were learnt by rote which preserved the mystery of Druidic doctrines. They were credited with supernatural powers of healing and prophecy and were believed to be able to enter the Otherworld.
Section 2 – Isle of Man
The island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century and the Manx language, a branch of the Gaelic languages, emerged. In 627, Edwin of Northumbria conquered the Isle of Man along with most of Mercia. In the 9th Century, Norsemen established the Kingdom of the Isles. Magnus III, King of Norway, was also known as King of Mann and the Isles between 1099 and 1103.[4]
In 1266, the island became part of Scotland by the Treaty of Perth, after being a part of Norway. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal lordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested into the British Crown in 1765, but the island never became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain or its successor the United Kingdom, retaining its status as an internally self-governing Crown dependency.
The culture of the Isle of Man is often promoted as being influenced by its Celtic, and to a lesser extent, its Norse origins. Proximity to the UK, popularity as a UK tourist destination in Victorian times and immigration to and from Britain, have meant that British influence has been dominant since the Revestment period. Revival campaigns have attempted to preserve the surviving vestiges of Manx culture after a long period of Anglicisation, and some increased interest in the Manx language, history and musical tradition has been the result.