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).

[oneiriad]

There's a book by Allan J. Frantzen entitled Before the Closet - Same-Sex Love from Beowulf to Angels in America. It deals with how homosexuality was viewed in the early anglo saxon middle ages - maybe a tad later than you're aiming for, but it might be relevant to your interests?

[lucre_noin]

Ohh I've seen this reply so late. I am sorry!
This is an amazing rec thank you!

[anonymous]

The thing is they were probably biased and misunderstood customs or did like they did with EVERYTHING ELSE THEY OBSERVED and pretty much everything else they observed. Everything had to fit their cultural model or they flipped out. Now this said I have found nothing in Celtic religion or mythology condemning homosexuality either so I can't say they despised it either.