Celtic stuff: Some favourites of mine!

Hi guys!

As you may know, music is the thing that got me into Celtic studies and I still love Celtic music so much! I did some posts on Irish music before but I wanted to share some more songs with you, and this time not only songs, but some movie tips as well! :)

Songs

Julie Fowlis is a Scottish singer and she sings in Scots Gaelic :) This song is called 'Tha mo ghaol air àird a' chuain' (literally 'my love is on the high seas'). I don't speak Scots Gaelic myself, but I recognise some words and grammar from Irish, which I am secretly kinda proud of.

 Sinéad O'Connor is one of the more known Irish singers. She isn't a native speaker of Irish, but has made an album 'Sean-nós Nua' (New Sean-nós) with some Irish traditionals, also in English. This one, Paddy's Lament, is about a young Irishman that migrates to America in the 19th/early 20th century during the Celtic migrations. I love this song, especially the melancholy about it. 'I wish I was at home in dear old Dublin..'

This is the soundtrack to 'Brendan and the Secret of Kells' (see below.. one of my movie tips!) I love this piece of music so much!


Movies
I have two Celtically related (I don't know if that's a word..) movies for you. One was very popular and won an Oscar if I'm corrected, the other is less known but just as amazing.

Brendan and the Secret of Kells!
An animation about the book of Kells. It has a lot of inside jokes about Pangur Bán, Colum Cille and other medieval Irish texts and history. I enjoyed this movie tremendously and I think I've watched it four times now.. Ánd, the book of Kells is as gorgeous in real life as it is in the movie!! So be sure to check it out when you're in Dublin.

This one you've probably heard of. Brave! It has some typically clichés in it (witches and magic etc.) but it has great music, even a Scots Gaelic one, and it is very funny. In the opening sequence you can see some Pictisch inscriptions that are actually real!


Well that's it for now, I'll probably do a blogpost like this more often because there are a lot of tips I'd like to give you :)
Until next time,
Lian

Linguistical fun: Figura Etymologica

Hi guys!

Today I have another linguistical topic for you. This isn't specifically Celtic, but it is found regularly in the medieval texts. It is called 'figura etymologica', and it is quite simple but very weird to translate if it's new to you.

In Celtic languages there is a thing called 'verbal noun', which is exactly as you would think, the noun of a verb. So 'to regulate' --> 'the act of regulating' (first verb that came to mind.. mm.) Got that? It's not as difficult as it may sound.

Now in the 'figura etymologica', the verbal noun is the subject of that exact same verb. So literally something like 'the act of regulating regulates'. Now that sounds incredibly silly to us, but in the medieval period people thought is was beautifully said.

A painting of Branwen

In the Welsh tale 'Branwen uerch Lyr' Branwen is married to the Irish king, but because her brother molested the king's horses (it's not a pretty text to read..) Branwen is put in the kitchen where she receives a blow every day. This is expressed by 'the blow that blows' etc.

In other languages the figura etymologica is used as well but not particularly in this sense. 'He drank a drink' is a figura etymologica as well. Now that doesn't sound so weird to our ears, it's just those Celts again that make everything weird ^^

Until next time!
Lian

Photography
en.wikipedia.org

Interesting Celtic Websites

Hi guys!!

I'd like to show you some very interesting ánd useful websites! I use some of them for studying but they are amazing to browse through as well.

Ogham
A new project by Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies is a website about ogham stones. Ogham stones are found in Ireland and some in Britain, and they usually are inscribed with a name or a place. They are our source for Archaic Irish (the main reason why I love them!) On the website is more general info.
They want to make around
400 Ogham stones available with details ánd 3D images! There are 52 stones online right now, and it's really fascinating to browse through them.

Ogham in 3D

Irish Scripts on Screen
Another website I enjoy using very much is Irish Scripts on Screen (short isos), also by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. This website has facsimiles of a very big corpus of Irish manuscripts! So you can look up the Book of Leinster, the Lebor na hUidre (book of the dun cow) or the Yellow Book of Lecan and leaf through them. Awesome.
Irish Scripts on Screen

Welsh law
This website is a very good starting point if you are interested in the Welsh laws. It has information about the manuscripts, law texts themselves and it sketches a lot of the context of these laws! If you're brave, you can look through the website in Modern Welsh. The research is funded by the University of Wales.
Cyfraith Hywel

Irish Archaeology
Not really a scientific website, but very interesting as well, is this blog on Irish archaeology. It focusses on a broad period of time, and deals not only with Irish stuff. You can follow it on Facebook as well!
Irish Archaeology

Well that's it for now, if I think of more tips for you I will let you know :)
Bye,

Lian

Photography:
Wikipedia
britannia-picture.com

Poems: A pagan psalm?

Hi guys!

Today I have another poem for you, just because Celtic poems are too damn awesome.This poem is written in Latin, so it's not linguistically Celtic, but it is written down (so it may have been written earlier) by Tírechán, an Irish bishop. James Carney dates the poem to the 6th century.
The translation is primarly by James Carney but I changed it somewhat because I like to translate more literally than he does.

Quis est Deus?                                      Who is God?

et ubi est Deus                                      And where is God

et cuius est Deus                                        And of whom is God

et ubi habitaculum eius?                            And where is his dwelling?

Si habet filios et filias,                           Has He sons and daughters,

aurum et argentum, Deus vester?                       of gold and silver, this God of yours?

Si vivus semper,                              Is He ever-living

si pulcher                                    Is He beautiful

si filium eius                                  Was his son

nutrierunt multi?                            Nurtured by many?

Si filiae eius                                         Are His daughters

carae et pulchrae sunt                         loved and beautiful

hominibus mundi?                            by the men of the world?

Si in caelo                                     Is He in the heaven

an in terra est?                                 or in the earth?

In aequore,                                             in the sea

in fluminibus,                                    in the rivers

in montanis,                                  in the mountains

in convallibus?                                 in the valleys?

Dic nobis                                 Tell us

notitiam eius:                                His tidings

Quomodo videbitur,                                  How will He be seen?

quomodo diligitur,                                 How is He loved?

quomodo invenitur?                                How is He found?

Si in iuventute,                                  Is it in youth

Si in senectute                               is it in old age

invenitur?                              that He is found?

Book of Kells

It is obviously a christian poem, but it doesn't feel like a standard psalm or praise-poem, which makes it way more interesting in my opinion. And if you look closely, it seems that the writer himself is a pagan, and asks a christian about his God, who is so different from the 'gods' of his pagan belief. The questions he asks even remind me of the people of the Otherworld, who never die and aren't young nor old, and live in the fairy mounds. 'Was his son nurtured by many?' It was an Irish custom to give your sons and daughters away for fostering, which is less normal in the christian customs. In the end, I think this poem sheds more light on the pagan beliefs than the Christian faith, and that's why I love this poem so much :)

I hope you have enjoyed it too,

Lian

James Carney 'Medieval Irish Lyrics' (Dublin 1967) 

A Celtic God: Cobannus

Hi guys!

A statue of Mars Cobannus in the Getty museum

I'd like to summarize a small research project I've done for the course Continental Celtic last semester. We were supposed to write a small essay about a Gaulish inscription and say something interesting about it. Well, of course, I got too excited and I actually went to do research.. And since it's about Celtic religion and I know a lot of people are interested in that aspect of Celtic culture I'd like to share my findings with you :)

My inscription was from Bern, with the romantic name 'L-106'. It reads 'dobnoredo gobano brenodor nantaror' and it is written in Greek script. Rudolph Fellmann has translated it as 'To Cobannus who travels the world with his chariot, the inhabitants of Brenodurum (Bern) in the valley of the Aare.'
So I went to research who this god Cobannus is!

There seem to be two logical hypotheses that determine the function of Cobannus in the Gaulish pantheon (if we agree that there was one..) was the patron of smiths ór a war-god. 'Cobannus' literally means 'smith', like Old-Irish gobae, gobann. But his later name is Mars Cobannus, so he is equated by the Romans with their war god Mars. But why would they equate him with Mars if he was a god of smiths?

Well, there are a lot of other arguments, but neither of them satisfied me in picking one hypothesis. So I think Cobannus wás a god of smiths, but more a maker of weapons for battle. Smiths were very important in the time of the Gauls (and not only then) because they made the weapons with which a Celt could raid neighbouring provinces and earn his place in society. This would mean Cobannus was very associated with war, more even then, say, Vulcan in the pagan Roman religion. And as the Gauls don't seem to have gods with one 'purpose', so to say, he would be more a patron of weapons, or other war-materials. And when the Romans invaded Gaul they thought 'Oh well, he looks like Mars. So he must be him!'. Cute.

So that is what I think on the subject, it is a very interesting field of research because we don't know ánything. This research is only done by the name 'Cobannus'. Fun huh? :D My professor used to say 'you're having fun now, but when you're dealing with the study of Continental Celtic you wíll become depressed because we. know. nothing.' Fortunately I still love it! But then, I don't have to focus on this field 24/7.

Bye for now!
Lian

bibliography
Lambert, Pierre-Yves 'Recueil des Inscriptions Gauloises'

Fellman, Rudolph 'Die Zinktafel von Bern-Thormebodewald und ihre Inschrift' Archäologie der Schweiz 14 (1991-1994) 270-273

Lavagne, Henri 'Un Nouveau dieu de la Gaule Romaine: Mars Cobannus (avec l'appendice de M. P. Y. Lambert)' Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 143 (1999) 689-720

Duval, Paul-Marie, 'Vulcain et les métiers du métal' Gallia 10 (1952) 43-57

  

Random Fun: Fer Loga

Hi guys!

I'm not the biggest literature-freak you can be within Celtic studies, but sometimes I definitely enjoy it. Mainly the weird inexplicable funny stuff. And that stuff I tell to my best friends. Now, one of my best friends happens to be really talented and she makes a funny comic every week. And when I told her of a passage from Scéla Mucce Mac Dathó she made a comic of it!
This passage tells how the great king Conchobar was accidently captured by a charioteer (who isn't really supposed to fight.. just steer the wagon of his champion) and Conchobar says 'I will give you anything you want, just release me!' and Fer Loga says 'I want every woman in Emain Macha (the capital of the Ulsterpeepz) to sing 'Fer Loga is my darling' to me everynight.' And thus happens.
I found this hilarious, because that isn't really the answer you would expect.. And every woman means every ugly old woman as well. And then my friend Eef made this comic. Be sure to check her website with all her comics on http://supereefsel.wordpress.com/. Every week a new one!

  

Until next time!

Lian

Music: Sean-Nós

Hi guys!

I am a big fan of Celtic music, which started when my grandfather would play some Clannad cd's when we would visit. The main thing that impressed me was the language, Irish, which sounded so beautiful. And that is where my love for all other Celtic stuff also began. So my love for Celtic studies is inevitably connected with music. I know this works the same way for many people, Celtic music is maybe the most widespread aspect of Celtic culture. Folky tunes with fiddles and whistles mainly, but there is a another genre within Celtic music that is less well-known, because it's a lot less catchy. Doesn't mean it isn't awesome.

It's called Sean-Nós, which means 'old way' in Irish, and it's a very peculiar style of singing. (It's also a style of dancing, by the way) Usually it is sung without musical accompaniment, and with highly stylistic melody lines and a lot of ornamentations. This makes it quite hard to listen to if you're not used to it, also because sean-nós songs can last for half an hour. The topics can vary from dramatical love stories to historical events, like rebellions and such (the Irish lóve rebellions and patriottic things, of course.) but sometimes songs can also be quite humourous!

Here are some short examples of it!

This song is called 'Cúnla' and is quite well-known, multiple bands made a 'regular' song out of it, but the original is a sean-nós song. The lyrics translate something like this; 'Who is that tapping the windowpane?' 'It's only me!' says Cúnla. 'O Cúnla dear, don't come any nearer me!' 'Maybe I shouldn't' says Cúnla'. And every verse Cúnla comes nearer the girl, until he tickles her you-know-what..

This song is 'Óró sé do bheatha 'bhaile' and it's a very patriottic song, about the return of Gráinne Mhaol to Ireland (Maybe I'll write a blogpost on her some other time) and with the 'real' Irish they will rout the foreigners. Also a song that is turned into a 'regular' song later, for example by Sinéad O'Connor.

Last but not least, this is an example of a sean-nós song in English! It is sung by the Dubliners, also unaccompanied and with ornamented melodies, but this time you may actually understand it if you don't speak Irish! Again it's a funny song, but I won't spoil the fun, just listen to it ^^




That's it for now! Until next time,
Lian