celts and mythologyice-age geography • what happened to ireland in the last ice-age? • c....

Celts and Mythology

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Ice-age geography


Ice-age geography

• What happened to Ireland in the last ice-age?


http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlkik/ihm/gif/iceage.mov






Ice-age geography


• c. 125,000-15,000 years ago








Ice-age geography


• c. 125,000-15,000 years ago

• c. 6000 years ago Ireland becomes island again (England still part of mainland Europe)








Ice-age geography


• c. 125,000-15,000 years ago

• c. 6000 years ago Ireland becomes island again (England still part of mainland Europe)

Mesolithic houseWednesday, January 16, 2013







Stone-Age Irish


Stone-Age Irish

• Mesolithic peoples: hunters, c. 6000 BCE


Stone-Age Irish


• Neolithic peoples: agriculture, c. 3000 BCE


Stone-Age Irish


• Neolithic peoples: agriculture, c. 3000 BCE

Neolithic house


Neolithic archeology



Cairns



Cairns

Knocknarea



Cairns Dolmen (passage tombs)

Knocknarea



Cairns Dolmen (passage tombs)

The BurrenKnocknarea


The Bronze Age


The Bronze Age

• Begins in Ireland c. 2000 BCE


The Bronze Age


• New bronze-age culture came to Ireland c. 800 BCE


The Bronze Age



• In Greece, this is time of the Iliad (c. 1200s BCE)


The Bronze Age



• In Greece, this is time of the Iliad (c. 1200s BCE)

Crannog: Bronze Age house


Celtic expansion


Celtic expansion

• Iron-age civilization


Celtic expansion

• Iron-age civilization• Come to Ireland as

early as 600 B.C.E.


Celtic expansion


early as 600 B.C.E.• Invade from

Southwest (via Brittany) and Northeast (via Britain)


Celtic expansion


early as 600 B.C.E.• Invade from

Southwest (via Brittany) and Northeast (via Britain)

• Dominate the island by 150 A. D.


Book of Invasions


Book of Invasions

• Preserved in Book of Leinster (1150), Book of Fermoy (1373), Great book of Lecan (1418), et al.


Book of Invasions


• 1. Cessair (granddaughter of Noah), circa the Flood (only Fintan survives)


Book of Invasions



• 2. Partholon, greatgrandson of Noah, 300 years post-Flood; Fomorians attack; plague kills them


Book of Invasions



• 2. Partholon, greatgrandson of Noah, 300 years post-Flood; Fomorians attack; plague kills them

• 3. Nemed, great-grandson of Partholon’s brother; flood and Fomorians destroy them


• 4. Fir Bolg; descendents of the Nemedians (who were enslaved in Greece for 250 years)

• 5. Tuatha de Danaan; also Nemedian descendents, invade 37 years later and defeat Fir Bolgs; Fomorian Bres is king for 7 oppressive years till defeated by Lug; these are Yeats’s faeries

• 6. Milesians (humans): 150 years later


Real Heroic Age


Real Heroic Age

• Ends probably around 450, with Ui Neill’s destruction of Emain Macha (Navan Fort)


Real Heroic Age


• Oral tradition up to the 700s


Real Heroic Age


• Oral tradition up to the 700s

Emain Macha


Origins of the Mythology

Book of the Dun Cow



• Ulster Cycle: set in 1st Cen. A. D.

Book of the Dun Cow




• Fenian Cycle: set in 3rd Cen. A. D.

Book of the Dun Cow





• Oral traditions first recorded in 700s

Book of the Dun Cow





• Oral traditions first recorded in 700s

• Manuscripts survive from 1100s

Book of the Dun Cow


600 or so Existing Tales



• The Book of the Dun Cow, written at Clonmacnoise ca. 1100 A. D.




• The Leinster Book, compiled around 1150 at Terryglass in Tipperary





• Rawlinson Manuscript, compiled 1150 at Clonmacnoise





• Rawlinson Manuscript, compiled 1150 at Clonmacnoise

• Yellow Book of Lecan (c. 1390s)


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