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by Robert Kuttner, Ph.D
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A definite weakness in the psychological and intellectual armor
of the West is the vast void of ignorance concerning our origins. Our schools have a great plethora of courses teaching
the history of other races but our own racial past is consistently downgraded as being too banal to mention. Surely,
this is not because it lacks interest or deep significance for today, the reason for the condition should be known by every
conservative familiar with the aims and methods of the Culture Distorter. The Celtic homeland was in southern and western Germany. Only in later ages was the Rhine and Danube a frontier between Gauls and Teutons. The very names of these waters are Celtic, stong evidence that both banks were occupied by this people. The Irish 'Rian' (the sea) has its parallel in 'Renos' (the Rhine). The upper course of the Danube was called 'Danuvias' from the Irish root, 'Dana' (swift). Gallic tribes frequently took their names from rivers along which they lived. The Sequanni, for example, were named after the Sequana or Seine. This habit of nomenclature allows us to deduce that the Raurici, a Celtic folk, once lived by the Daura (the Rhur), a river on the right or Germanic side of the Rhine. Even more interesting is the fact that the great European wilderness, the Hercynian Forest, which stretched from the Jura mountains of France, through Germany, to the Carpathians, carries a Celtic name. Etymology derives Hercynia (or Erknia) from the Aryan word 'perpu' (oak tree). The dropping of the initial is a Celtic trick, and tells us who lived in and named this forest. The Celt allso left his mark in Bohemia. This Geographical term readily breaks down into Boiu-Heim, the home of the Boiu, a well known Celtic tribe (Tacitus, 'Germania'). Such analysis, showing that Celtic names still cling to regions now purely Teutonic by culture, is adequate proof of the location of the ancient Celtic cradle. THE CELTS EXPAND: The expansion of the Celt was underway by the middle of the Bronze Age (c.1500 B.C.). The primary impulse was probably population outgrowing the food capacity of the land. Pressure from Germanic tribes must also have been a factor. Ammianus Marcellinus, a Syrian Greek historian writing near the end of the 4th century, recounts an old legend of the Drysidae (Druids: Celtic priesthood) which attributed the Celtic migrations to wars and floods (Res Gestae). The threat of floods seems to indicate that a portion of the Celts lived on the North Sea coast. Tumuli (mound burials) began appearing in abundance in East France by the late Bronze Age (c. 1250 B.C.). A century later cremating Aryans were in Alsace and urnfield cemetaries became quite common. These new people were not culturally homogeneous since no uniform burial rite was practiced. That Celts were involved in this movement seems clear from the discovery of torques in many graves. Fine metal neck rings were prized ornaments of Celtic peoples at many periods of history. They passed out of fashion during the Hallstatt Iron Age (1000-500 B.C.) but returned in favor in the La Tene Iron Age (500 B.C. and on). Virgil mentions Gauls wearing golden torques in his writings (Aeneid) and Livy notes that 1471 gold torques were part of the loot taken from the Boli by the Romans.
The Celts entrenched themselves in Gaul (France) and gave their name to the region, Gaul and Celt being synonymous terms.
Classical annalists give us a rough timetable of their movements. Herodotus is very helpful. He reports the pre-Celtic
Lyges (Ligurian aborigines after whom are named the Ligurian Alps) still living above Marseilles in his time, circa 450
B.C.. Native resistance was less successful along the Atlantic coast since the Celts were across the Pyrennes before
they reached the Mediterranean. Herodotus placed the Celts outside the Pillars of Hercules, that is, along the Atlantic
sea coast of Europe, west of Girbralter. Tartessus,
in Spain, had a king with the Celtic name of Arganthonios, the arganto element in the word is the Celtic form of silver.
Since Arganthonios was dead before the Greeks colonized Corsica (564 B.C.), it follows that at least some Celts were in Spain
considerably before that date.
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The attempt to colonize Spain was not especially successful, for the peninsula
was already crowded with fierce Iberian tribes. We get a clue to the position of the Celts from Pliny's "Catalogue
of Spanish Cities". Many Celtic towns and place names terminate in the suffix briga, the equivalent of
the German burg (hill or fort) suggesting military awareness. Things were different in France where place names
usually end in magu, meaning plain or field. In Gaul, the Celts lived a satisfactory agricultural life;
in Iberia, they did not. In the course of time the Celts eventually mixed with the native Iberians to form the Celtiberian
people, but the region was never Celticized as was France.
Gaul itself was never entirely Celtic except in civilization. Caesar described it as being sectioned into three
parts. South of the Garonne River and down to the Pyrenees lived the Aquitani (a bloc of Iberian migrants, native Ligurians),
and Celtic conquerors. North of the Seine and the Marne were the Belgae, ancestors of the Belgiruss, a heavily
Celticized Germanic nation. Celtica proper was the middle region and was already overpopulated five centuries before
the Roman annexation. Livy, the Roman historian, tells us the story of King Ambicatus who, ruling over a crowded,
disorderly Gaul, sent out the surplus population under his sister's sons to find new lands. Bellovesus drew
one part of the nation over the Alps into Italy. The other contingent under his brother, Sigovesus, moved east through
the Hercyruan Forest. We shall pick up his trail later. THE MOVE SOUTHWARD: Bellovesus'
army defeated the Etruscans about 600 B.C. and founded the city of Mediolanium (Milan). A second horde followed two
hundred years later, lured into Italy, according to Livy, by a thirst for wine. With an army rated at 30,000 men, they
defeated the Romans in 390 B.C., captured the city, and laid siege to the citadel. A plague broke out in the ranks of
the Gauls who were not acclimatised to warm, sunny regions. Disease, coupled with a threat of an Illyrian invasion,
forced the Gauls to evacuate Rome, but not before they collected a considerable ransom. Thereafter, the attrition of
frequent wars kept the Gauls weak. For giving aid to Hannibal, during the Punic wars, they provoked Rome into destroying
their power. Half the Boiu army perished in 191 B.C.. Only old men and children were left.
The horde assigned by tradition to Sigovesus wandered some generations and then turned up in Thrace and Macedonia. Alexander
the Great entertained Celtic envoys from the Ionian Gulf while he was warring in Thrace. He was impressed by their size,
handsome appearance and haughtiness. The weak Macedonian princes coming after Alexander failed to suppress the unruly
Celts who poured into Greece, although a Celtic attempt to pillage the sacred temple at Delphi resulted in a serious defeat
administered by a coalition of Greek cities. The retreat up the Balkans left a party at Singidunum (Belgrade).
How thoroughly these Celts were dispersed is not known, but Plutarch mentions some living near the Maeotic Lake (Sea of Azov),
deep in Russia, and in 268 B.C., Nicomedes, a Bithyruan king, transported Celtic mercenaries into Asia Minor to aid him in
his wars, while smaller numbers settled in Egypt. These were veterans of the 4th Syrian War (217 B.C.), who received
lands from Ptolemy IV. The British Isles were colonized very
early. The Goidels were certainly in Ireland by the end of the Bronze Age. It is probable that the Brythonic Celts
joined the Goidels only a few centuries after the latter people established themselves in England. The mysterious Picts
who held Caledonia in Scotland and much of Ulster in Ireland were a Brythonic Celtic people.
Having covered briefly the Celtic expansion of ancient times, we turn now to the people and their civilization. Racially,
the Celt contained much Nordic blood as Classical observers will attest. The typical Celt was longheaded, blue-eyed
and probably red or brown haired. This is a type still common in Ireland today, and is so common in Northwest Europe
that one feels sure it must represent a genuine sub-race rather than a recent blend. THE
DRUIDS The most interesting single aspect of Celtic life
was the Druidic priesthood. The Druids were a body of pagan philosophers |
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who cultivated religious mysteries and trained young men of the nation in divination, metaphysics, morality
and science. Their colleges were established in sacred groves from which they obtain their name, the word Druid having
the same root as "tree" in Anglo-Saxon. This parallels the Teutonic respect for trees, especially the Oak,
Artoklus. The highest teachings of the Druids related to a life-after-death, a concept of bodily immortality found only
in the most sophisticated religions. Nor was this survival reserved only for great men or pharaohs, as in other cults,
but was the democratic right of every member of the tribe. Celtic
genius was not overly active in the field of mechanics but the products of its occasional efforts were not to be despised.
The Roman short-sword and military shield were copies of Celtic or Celtiberian designs. Chain mail was a Celtic invention
and the naval architecture of Gaul was superior to that of Caesar's admirals. To the agricultural arts, the Gaul
contributed the wheeled plough which made it possible to farm rough land.
The decorative arts of the Celts were of high quality but they were not strongest in this field. Their aesthetic forte
lay in literature for which they are justly famous. Before the age of the printed word only an oral literature existed,
and this was recited in verse form or sung to music. The Welsh and Irish bards who preserved much of Celtic poetry for
the delight of later ages were not suffering romantics but rigorously trained clans of professionals with great influence
in knightly courts. Their poetry was no mere lyricism but dramatic exercises of great impact. The Cornish tale
of Tristram and Iseult is an example. The bardic tradition with
its complex rules of composition and its huge catalogue of memorized verses was too unwieldly to be copied by other races
and nations. Yet, in a watered-down form, it was imitated. Tacitus tells us the Teutons kindled their courage
by chanting war songs called in their language by the name barritus. The rs element in the word identifies the term
as Celtic for 'bard'. Besides this prehistoric borrowing, Celtic was an important source for much Norman and
sacerdotal literature. The destroying vice of the Celt has always
been his disunity. Rarely has he erected or preserved a stable political government. To every public danger the
Celt has answered with a piecemeal and sporadic resistance which allowed his enemies to destroy him by installments.
Always valorous in foreign causes, he was indifferent to the sustained defense of his own interests. Today, having lost
his European empire, his prime hope for a historice reemergence depends on his willing participation in the forging of a new
fraternal Western Imperium.
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