National Geographic and Celts

close
more_vert
PeterH P
PeterH Mar 15, 2006 20:42:43
Replying to gorseddphungus

It all needs a long cool look.. I found it most amusing when it turned out that the name of one of the first recorded Anglo-Saxon invaders was actually "Celtic" or British... Namely Cerdic. Look at the Arthurian stories again and you find that he wasn't fighting AS invaders, but other British warlords. That must have been the post Roman scene - exactly what it was before they came - constant tribal warfare, hence all those Iron Age hillforts built to defend themselves from each other and not the Romans.

Hmm - getting a bit OT now so I'd better shut up.

G gorseddphungus
gorseddphungus Mar 15, 2006 21:37:41
Replying to PeterH

yes, there is no doubt that the borders between celt (strictly speaking) and germanic in that part of europe (extending into eastern britain) were already too grey at that time.

That's why I use the same vague term (and for lack of something better) as in the modern antiquarian ('kelt') to avoid 'celt' and to refer to the far earlier ancient stratum of Ur-opeans (which includes the 'basques' and the rest of neolithic europe) slightly tinged by the earliest indoeuropean bronze age tribes that began to leak into the west with or without migration depending on the part of europe.

For that matter, and funnily, the further west, the less celtic but the more 'keltic'.