Homosexuality in Britain (5th/6th century AC): Celts, Saxons, Picts and Scots

[lucre_noin]

I usually write a lot of arthurian stories but this time I'd love to document well myself about homosexuality and arthurian times.
The story is in 5th/6th century and the societies/cultures in the stories are: Celts, Picts, Scots, Saxons and Celts conquered by Romans. And, of course, one of the male characters is in love with another male character.

Comments

[transemacabre]

I strongly advise you to read books about this subject, as most websites are going to range from useless to outright misleading. Obviously, you're dealing with multiple problems when it comes to researching this topic, not the least of which is derth of documentary evidence, but also what evidence we do have may be rendered questionable or obsolete considering the prejudices of authors and the cultural differences between far-flung Celtic tribes.

As noted by others, we have testimony from the Greek and Latin writers of rampant homosexuality among the Celts, dating back to Aristotle who in his Politics notes that the Celts "have manifestly honored sexual intercourse among males

[charlycrash]

Also, in people's full, full names you saw the sort of stuff like in my LJ name ("tribu Cantiaci domo Cantium").

[lucre_noin]

Do not worry, I'll only use Arthurian names XD but surely this will be useful for OC.

Thank you very much!

[sollersuk]

If you use Arthurian names, the manuscripts are all from the Middle Ages so the names are all in the Welsh form, from after the language shift around 600. We know the original forms of some names (Maelgwn was originaly Maglocunus) but even Roman names were altered (Constantine became Custennin).

[lucre_noin]

I will use the Mabinogion names for most of the characters and also for Malory, for commodity D:

[sollersuk]

Ah, then you're happy with anachronistic names. Even the Mabinogion forms are nearly 1,000 years later than the dates asked about.

[lucre_noin]

Yes : D
Mostly because I use some Italian translations because I write in Italian.

[sollersuk]

Well, okay, but it would feel to me as if someone writing about Romans in English were using French or Italian forms of the names. It rather takes away the point of doing research into the Late Antiquity period.

[lucre_noin]

That's the reason I did not research the words that existed in the 5th century (or their meaning- well, of course, I would never use words as radio, tomatoes because those were things that did not exist) but only the cultures : D

[transemacabre]

I have never come across anything about lesbians in Celtic cultures from this period, but if I do I will report back with my findings.

[profbutters]

Beware of anything written by Greeks or Romans (or anybody, really) about "barbarians." Men sleeping with men or boys is sometimes related as a slur, as is incest or bestiality: a way of justifying a sense of superiority. I should probably clarify here that *I* do not equate homosexuality with incest or bestiality; I'm saying that sometimes ancient writers do. Even contemporary sources can't necessarily be trusted. Suetonius says that Augustus slept with Julius Caesar and burnt his leg hair off with hot nuts to be more attractive to men, and then almost in the same breath relates a mythical story about "the God Augustus." Aristotle in particular doesn't scruple to write about things he knows nothing about in places he's never been.

Also, if you want to write about Celts or Picts, take into account that Celtic Christianity was to a certain extent its own thing, which caused trouble later on.