Two; or, A Mostly Celtic Miscellany
Just got done with The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd the other day. I wasn't sure what to expect, but hey, it's Ireland, it's historical fiction, I had to read it. On the whole, I enjoyed it, though I had some nitpicks with the first part, set in the pre-Christian Iron Age.
Being familiar with the mythology, my brain kind of wanted to put a lot of the character names in the mythological framework and kept going "lolol Conall Cearnach" even after I told it not to. This was rather irritating, though I was ultimately able to make it stop.
There's a scene where the young hero, Conall, ultimately is offered (voluntarily) as a human sacrifice and goes bravely to his death. In terms of how the human sacrifice would have been offered, it's historically accurate. However, the nit that must be picked is a huge, bloated nit.
There is absolutely no evidence--archaeological, textual, artistic, folkloric, whatever, of any kind or type or class of any nature--that human sacrifice was ever, ever practiced at any point anywhere in Ireland. (And this isn't just because I want to defend the honor of my mothers, or stand up for the Gael, or any of that.) We are reasonably sure that it was likely practiced on the Continent, because there have been finds that bear this out, and there is some shakier evidence for it (in the form of Lindow Man) in Britain.
Persons wishing to check for themselves should be aware that classical sources are not always reliable evidence (perish the thought! SAY IT AIN'T SO L33) as far as the question of Celtic human sacrifice goes. First, Roman texts (which is primarily what you'd be looking at) deal with the wars against Celtic tribes on the Continent, and to some extent in Britain, but the Romans never made it to some parts of Scotland, or to any of Ireland. Their cultures would likely have been similar in many ways, but not the same. Second, Caesar (and the other Romans who came as conquerors) had an agenda, whose promotion relied in part on portraying the locals in the worst possible light.
In fairness to Rutherfurd, he's done his homework and acknowledges this in the afterword.
Also, I believe the word is geisa rather than geissi, but I've seen it spelled at least two different ways, so I can't be sure. Also also, I'm not familiar with Irish noun-case morphology. Whee, lookit l33 sling linguistic terms like she has any idea what the hell she’s talking about! (For those not familiar with the word, it is sometimes translated as "taboo" but also has overtones of "condition", in the sense that a condition is placed on one that one must commit or omit certain behaviors or acts, or in the sense that one lays such a condition on oneself.)
Oh, and this article should be required reading for canars new and old, or for anyone who has ever found it necessary or expedient to take on a magical/religious/magicoreligious name. (Yes, I do have one. Yes, I broke one of the rules mentioned herein, although not for that reason; I use an epithet of several goddesses, because of its meaning. You'd have to really know Greek religion to know the epithet in question, though, which I'm sure does not make it okay.) I shall excerpt just a bit for the delectation of dethorats, as her beloved cousin (or his namesake) is directly mentioned.
It took one person of Lady Pixie's acquaintance only a few minutes to blur together Gwydion son of Don, and Girion, Lord of Dale, into the craft name "Lord Gwyrionin"--and several months to find out that the name he had invented, and used throughout the local pagan scene, was also the Welsh word for "idiot".
Also, the enterprising Patrick Brown is in the process of turning THE ENTIRE ULSTER CYCLE into a webcomic. (I perhaps extrapolated a bit too much, but the impression I gained was that ultimately the story will cover the entire Ulster cycle.) What he has thus far is rockin' with Dokken. AWWW YEAH.
In conclusion, the ancient Celts. :D
Being familiar with the mythology, my brain kind of wanted to put a lot of the character names in the mythological framework and kept going "lolol Conall Cearnach" even after I told it not to. This was rather irritating, though I was ultimately able to make it stop.
There's a scene where the young hero, Conall, ultimately is offered (voluntarily) as a human sacrifice and goes bravely to his death. In terms of how the human sacrifice would have been offered, it's historically accurate. However, the nit that must be picked is a huge, bloated nit.
There is absolutely no evidence--archaeological, textual, artistic, folkloric, whatever, of any kind or type or class of any nature--that human sacrifice was ever, ever practiced at any point anywhere in Ireland. (And this isn't just because I want to defend the honor of my mothers, or stand up for the Gael, or any of that.) We are reasonably sure that it was likely practiced on the Continent, because there have been finds that bear this out, and there is some shakier evidence for it (in the form of Lindow Man) in Britain.
Persons wishing to check for themselves should be aware that classical sources are not always reliable evidence (perish the thought! SAY IT AIN'T SO L33) as far as the question of Celtic human sacrifice goes. First, Roman texts (which is primarily what you'd be looking at) deal with the wars against Celtic tribes on the Continent, and to some extent in Britain, but the Romans never made it to some parts of Scotland, or to any of Ireland. Their cultures would likely have been similar in many ways, but not the same. Second, Caesar (and the other Romans who came as conquerors) had an agenda, whose promotion relied in part on portraying the locals in the worst possible light.
In fairness to Rutherfurd, he's done his homework and acknowledges this in the afterword.
Also, I believe the word is geisa rather than geissi, but I've seen it spelled at least two different ways, so I can't be sure. Also also, I'm not familiar with Irish noun-case morphology. Whee, lookit l33 sling linguistic terms like she has any idea what the hell she’s talking about! (For those not familiar with the word, it is sometimes translated as "taboo" but also has overtones of "condition", in the sense that a condition is placed on one that one must commit or omit certain behaviors or acts, or in the sense that one lays such a condition on oneself.)
Oh, and this article should be required reading for canars new and old, or for anyone who has ever found it necessary or expedient to take on a magical/religious/magicoreligious name. (Yes, I do have one. Yes, I broke one of the rules mentioned herein, although not for that reason; I use an epithet of several goddesses, because of its meaning. You'd have to really know Greek religion to know the epithet in question, though, which I'm sure does not make it okay.) I shall excerpt just a bit for the delectation of dethorats, as her beloved cousin (or his namesake) is directly mentioned.
It took one person of Lady Pixie's acquaintance only a few minutes to blur together Gwydion son of Don, and Girion, Lord of Dale, into the craft name "Lord Gwyrionin"--and several months to find out that the name he had invented, and used throughout the local pagan scene, was also the Welsh word for "idiot".
Also, the enterprising Patrick Brown is in the process of turning THE ENTIRE ULSTER CYCLE into a webcomic. (I perhaps extrapolated a bit too much, but the impression I gained was that ultimately the story will cover the entire Ulster cycle.) What he has thus far is rockin' with Dokken. AWWW YEAH.
In conclusion, the ancient Celts. :D