3611
Online museum and repository for historical and ancestral knowledge.
Pictish symbol stone depicting “serpent and Z rod” and “double-disk” symbols, from Glen Urquhart, near Inverness and the shores of Loch Ness, Scotland; 6th or 7th century AD. 🏴
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Bardenas Reales, a rare desert in Navarre, Spain. 🇪🇸
This arid badlands region was located near the borderlands of the middle Ebro river valley, which were disputed between the Celtiberian Lusones tribe and the Basque people. The conflict seems to have usually favored the Celtiberians, as we know of at least one Basque town, Ilurcis (now Alfaro, La Rioja), which had been taken by the Lusones. It was later taken by Rome and renamed Graccurris. The Basques eventually benefitted from the Sertorian War (82-72 B.C.), siding with the Roman government against the insurgent general Quintus Sertorius. The Celtiberian town of Calagurris (now Calahorra, La Rioja) —an ally of Sertorius— was besieged and taken after putting up stiff resistance, then handed over to the Basques as a reward for their loyalty. Other nearby Celtiberian towns included Cascantum (now Cascante, Navarre). The Bardenas themselves have historically been a useful hideout for bandits and marauders, such as the famous Sancho Rota (hunted down and killed by king John II of Aragón in 1452). They were probably also a useful hideout in more ancient times, likely for Basque raiding-bands targeting Celtiberian settlements to the south and west. The Romans certainly encountered bands of marauders in the area: The warlord Tanginus, who was defeated in 141 B.C; by Roman consul Quintus Pompeius, had probably been using the Bardenas Reales as his hideout.
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Gauls and Phoenicians clash with Romans at the Battle of Cannae; Italy, 2 August 216 B.C. ⚜️🇫🇷⚔️🏳️ Art by Peter Dennis.
Cannae was one of the worst military defeats ever suffered by Rome. The victor was the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca, who’d crossed the Alps to invade Italy during the Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) Upon entering Italy, Hannibal was immediately bolstered by the Cisalpine Gauls, eager to avenge themselves on the hated Roman Republic. Winning battle after battle, Hannibal seemed unstoppable. But he utterly blundered when he had Rome right in front of him for the killer blow, but chose to go campaign in southern Italy instead. Rome took advantage to muster a massive army to crush him once and for all, which the cunning Hannibal virtually annihilated at Cannae, luring the Romans into a trap and enveloping them on all sides. Over half of Hannibal’s army at the time were Celts: Either his Gallic allies or Celtiberians he’d brought from Spain; and they were by far his best troops. Livy stated that nearly 50,000 Romans were slaughtered at Cannae, with another +19,000 taken as POWs. Among the slain was one of the consuls elected that year, Lucius Aemilius Paullus. In spite of the impressive victory, Hannibal’s luck began running out shortly thereafter: A large contingent of Celtiberian cavalry deserted upon hearing that their people had switched sides in Spain, as did most of of the Gauls, unhappy at having suffered heavy casualties in a campaign rendered pointless by Hannibal’s failure to destroy Rome. Without most of what had been his best troops, Hannibal was never able to repeat feats like the ones he’d worked at Cannae, Lake Trasimene, and the Trebia. His campaign stalled in southern Italy for years, winning only minor victories and wasting time, while the Iberian theatre of the war went worse and worse for Carthage, depleting her resources.
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Celtiberian winged helmet of “Hispano-Chalcidian” type, found —with many others— among the ruins of the ancient city of Aratis, near Aranda de Moncayo, Spain; 2nd century B.C. 🇪🇸
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Norse-Gaelic chieftain. 🇳🇴🇮🇪🏴 Art by Joan Francesc Oliveras Pallerols.
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Flight of King Gradlon; oil on canvas by Évariste Vital Luminais, 1884. 🇫🇷
Gradlon (or Gralon) was a Breton ruler of the 5th century AD; supposedly a son of the founder of Brittany, Conan Meriadoc. He was said to have hailed from Cornwall and to have founded an eponymous polity in Gaul: Cornouaille. Gradlon ruled from a city on an island or promontory in the Bay of Douarnenez, which was called Ys, or Kêr Ys. Different versions of his story exist, generally agreeing that Gradlon’s witch daughter Dahut brought calamity on Ys by stealing the silver or gold key to the sluice-gates that kept the water at bay, in order to sneak a lover of hers into the palace. Mistaking the sluice-gates for the entrance gates, she opened them, causing the sea to overflow and engulf the city in a deluge. A Christian monk —either St. Gwennole or St. Corentin of Quimper— awakened Gradlon from his sleep to alert him, whereupon they fled the sinking city. As Gradlon escaped with his daughter on the back of his horse, the sea began to overtake them. Dahut either fell or was thrown off by her father, enabling him to escape while she drowned. Her ghost is said to have become a Mari-Morgan, i.e. a mermaid, haunting the nearby seas from thence forward. Legend has it that the church-bells of Ys can still be heard under water, and that the city will one day emerge from the its watery grave, while Paris will be swallowed up.
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Pictish carved stone from Bullion Field near Invergowrie; Perthshire, Scotland. 🏴 The stone dates to the early 10th century, by which time the Kingdom of Alba (i.e. Scotland) was in existence. It depicts a horseman drinking from a large horn with a bird-head terminal. It bears a strange resemblance to bronze horns found in Scotland from much earlier periods, namely, those found attached to the Iron Age Torrs Chamfrein. The Bullion Stone is one of the most ancient depictions of “drinking while driving” in existence.
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Greater Appalachia was founded in the early 18th century by wave upon wave of rough, bellicose settlers from the war-ravaged borderlands of northern Ireland, northern England and the Scottish lowlands. Lampooned in popular culture as “rednecks,” “hillbillies,” “crackers”, and “white trash,” these clannish Scots-Irish, Scots, and northern English frontiersmen spread across the highland South and on into the southern tiers of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks; the eastern two-thirds of Oklahoma; and the Hill Country of Texas, clashing with Indians, Mexicans and Yankees as they migrated. In the British Isles, this culture had formed in a state of near-constant war and upheaval, fostering a warrior ethic and a deep commitment to individual liberty and personal sovereignty. Intensely suspicious of aristocrats and social reformers alike, these American borderlanders despised Yankee teachers, Tidewater lords and Deep Southern aristocrats. In the Civil War, much of the region fought for the Union, with secessionist movements in western Virginia (creating West Virginia), eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama. During Reconstruction, the region resisted the Yankee effort to liberate African slaves, driving it into a lasting alliance with its former enemies: the overlords of the Tidewater and Deep Southern lowlands of Dixie.
The borderlanders’ combative culture has provided a large proportion of the nation’s military, from officers such as Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett and Douglas MacArthur to the enlisted men fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. They also gave the continent bluegrass and country music, stock-car racing and evangelical fundamentalism.
Dragons of Europe: (1) Common Adder - Vipera Berus (2) Sand Viper - Vipera Ammodytes, (3) Lataste’s Viper - Vipera Latastei, (4) Iberian Cross Adder - Vipera Seoanei, (5) Asp Viper - Vipera Aspis, (6) Ottoman Viper - Montivipera Xanthia. All are venomous and potentially dangerous, though Vipera Berus is rarely lethal. None are aggressive and usually won’t bite unless provoked. Various types of venomous snakes can be found in every part of Europe except Ireland. The Sand Viper is usually regarded as Europe’s most dangerous snake.
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Tomorrow I’ll talk about serpent myths again, but in a more specifically Celtic context. 🏴 These posts will serve well as an introduction.
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Serpent gods: The Iberian mausoleum of Pozo Moro; Albacete province, Spain. 🇪🇸
Pozo Moro dates to the end of the 6th century B.C; and contains the burial of an Iberian ruler. Grave goods included fine Greek amphorae, evidencing Spain’s long-distance commercial ties at the time. The stone mausoleum is decorated with mythical and animal scenes, which show strong Middle Eastern —particularly Hittite and Phoenician— influences. One particular scene is striking: Reptilian deities glut themselves at a feast; one of them receives an offering that would appear to be a human child-sacrifice. The scene reflects common motifs of the pagan world: That of the civilizing serpent gods, and also that of child-sacrifice. Across many ancient pagan cultures, the myth of serpentine deities who bring civilization is a recurring phenomenon: In India and southeast Asia it was the Nagas, in China the Heavenly or King Dragon, for the Mayans it was Kukulkán, known also in central Mexico as Quetzalcóatl; the feathered rattlesnake. Without exception, all the lores from these disparate cultures tell a version of the same story: Otherworldly serpent beings gifted mankind with the knowledge to build civilization and even spawned ruling dynasties to lord it over them. Note that this pattern occurs also in the Bible (Genesis 3 & 6), the angelic serpent being identified as Satan. It’s from the Bible that we get the notion that man paid a steep price for this “gift” of god-like civilizing wisdom, although the pagan worldview reflects this as well, since the “gods” require sacrifice, and as the Akkadian Atra-Hasis myth tells us: The “gods” go so far even as to take credit for supposedly having created mankind, with the explicit purpose of being a slave species to build civilization for them.
Child-sacrifice was another commonly recurring phenomenon in the ancient world, being most often associated with the Ammonite god Moloch or Milcom. We know the cult of Moloch was exported —as Biblical commentators lamented— to neighboring peoples. In Jerusalem, the place where children were offered and their remains disposed of became synonymous for the eternal damnation of the wicked: The Valley of Hinnom, a.k.a. Gehenna. This is perhaps because it was a landfill where garbage was burnt, but also undoubtedly because of how abominable the practice was regarded by more sensible minds. The Phoenician version of Moloch was Baal-Hammon, whom Greco-Roman historians identified with Saturn. Archaeology has shown that the Phoenicians exported the abhorrent cult throughout the Mediterranean, as far as Sardinia and Iberia. The Irish pagan cult of Crom Cruach —mentioned in the Dindsenchas and Tripartite Life of St. Patrick— is identical with that of Baal-Hammon/Moloch, so it seems possible that the cult was exported even farther that previously supposed. Other pagan child sacrifice rites are harder to explain, like for example the yearly Aztec rain sacrifice, which involved taking a procession of children up to a mountain and cutting out their hearts as an offering to the rain god Tlaloc. To this day, no one has been able to explain the recurring motif of the tyrannical civilizing serpent gods —who demand human sacrifice as payment— appearing in nigh every ancient culture on earth, many of which had no contact with one another as far as we’re aware. The snake gods of Pozo Moro could perhaps be thought of as a result of diffusion from Middle Eastern cultures, but other occurrences —like that of Kukulkán— would appear to have no natural explanation.
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American tourists are now exposing and beating up gypsy scammers in Paris. ⚜️🇫🇷 Vercingetorix, Joan of Arc, and Louis IX would all be proud.
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Bronze decorative plate for a belt, from a princely grave near Mörsingen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany; 8th century B.C. 🇩🇪 On display at the Wurttembergisches Landesmuseum in Stuttgart, Germany.
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Chorges, France. ⚜️🇫🇷🇨🇭
The name of this village is a shortened form that derived from Gaulish Caturigomagos, meaning “Plain of Caturix” or “Plain of the Caturiges”. The Caturiges were a Gallic tribe who inhabited the Alpine valleys in a huge arc from Chorges all the way to Le Bourg d’Oisans by the river Romanche (that town appears to be the location shown as Catorissium in an ancient map known as Tabula Peutingeriana). They were known to have joined two neighboring Alpine tribes, the Ceutrones and Graioceli, to wage guerrilla warfare against the legions of Julius Caesar when the latter crossed the Alps in 58 B.C. They were later incorporated into the Roman Empire after a series of military campaigns to conquer all Alpine peoples waged between 16 and 7 B.C.
Pliny the Elder claimed that the Caturiges were an offshoot of the Insubres of Cisalpine Gaul (Natural History; Book III, 125), but this is likely a confusion on his part. Notably, the tribe derives its name from a deity: Caturix. Caturix is attested only among the Helvetii Gauls of Switzerland, where votive inscriptions equate him with the Roman Mars (and the name Caturix means “Battle King”). Other Gallic peoples gave a different name to their god of war, sometimes Camulus, sometimes Segomo, etc; Mars Caturix seems to have been particular to the Helvetii, and their principal deity. Also notable is the name of a nearby town of theirs, Embrun, it being the same name as a Helvetian town in Switzerland: Yverdon-les-Bains. Both names, Yverdon and Embrun, are derived from Gaulish Eburodunon, meaning “Yew Fortress”. It would thus seem more likely that the Caturiges were an exiled clan of the Swiss Helvetii, who named a town in the French Alps after another one in their original Swiss homeland. A Helvetian origin is also suggested by the fact that ancient historians told us the Helvetii were divided into four clans or “cantons”, but only three are named by Caesar and Posidonius: The Tigurini, Verbigeni, and Tougeni. The Caturiges would thus seem to fit neatly into that fourth piece of the puzzle.
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Funny part is that he is in down town London
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Emhain Macha: Navan Fort, in county Armagh, Northern Ireland. 🇬🇧🇮🇪
Navan Fort is the site where ritual inaugurations were made for the ancient kings of Ulster; it was formerly known as Emhain Macha. The Clanna Rudhraige dynasty ruling Ulster at that time (late La Tène and early Roman periods) were apparently connected to Scotland somehow, since they are traditionally identified as Cruithne, i.e. Picts. However, genetic data has not been able to confirm this. Rather, paternal lineages (I2a) seemingly originating in southern Scotland —particularly Dumfries and Galloway— are common in eastern Ulster, even among people of native stock, suggesting a gene-flow that predates the Plantation of Ulster with mostly-Scottish Protestants. It’s possible that ‘Cruithne’ was just an archaic Gaelic rendering of the Brittonic word Prydain, meaning Britain or Britons (Q-Celtic languages had no P, substituting a hard C instead). Formerly, there was no distinction made between Britons and Picts, both being thought of as belonging to the same ethnos and called ‘Men of Britain’ (Welsh: Gwŷr Prydain or Gwŷr Prydyn).
Tradition from the Ulster Cycle, the various Annals, and the Cycle of Kings, tells of how the Kingdom of Ulster was broken down by the High Kings of the Connachta dynasty —particularly Cormac, son of Art, and eventually mostly destroyed by the invading Airgíalla in the 4th century AD. Centuries before that, we are told in the Ulster Cycle that it had been the mightiest of the Irish kingdoms, the Clanna Rudhraige being noted as “one of the three races of mighty men” in Ireland at that time, alongside the Gamanraide of north Connacht, and the Clanna Dedad of far west Munster. Still, for centuries the inhabitants of Ulster —particularly the Connachta-derived Uí Néill— continued being known as the most warlike and indomitable of all the Irish, and under the Uí Néill, Ulster soon recovered its place as the most powerful of the Irish provinces. As for Emhain Macha, centuries after its destruction and abandonment, it experienced a resurrection of sorts, when St. Patrick founded the city of Armagh, which was destined to be Ireland’s chief ecclesiastical centre for centuries to come.
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King Ailill mac Máta of Connacht. 🇮🇪 Art by Cormac McCann.
Different accounts of Ailill’s origins exist, with some saying he was a son of king Ross Ruadh of Leinster and a Connacht princess, others stating that he was of the Érainn people of Munster and was raised at queen Medb’s court in Connacht since childhood. The tale Cath Boinde (The Battle of the Boyne) tells of how his grandfather, Sraibgend, son of Niul, accompanied High King Eochu Feidlech when the latter assembled a large army to attack Ulster in retaliation for its king, Conchobar mac Nessa, having raped Eochu’s daughter Medb —who was queen of Connacht by then— at the Feast of Tara. The Battle of the Boyne was fought, resulting in defeat for the High King. Ailill —then still a boy— was thereafter raised at Medb’s court, until he became her bodyguard, and eventually her lover. Eventually, he killed her husband, king Eochaid Dála, in single combat, after the latter challenged him in a fit of jealousy. Medb then took Ailill as her husband, and the two ruled Connacht together for years.
Ailill’s relationship with Medb was tense: Another war with Ulster broke out as a result of a wealth comparison between Ailill and Medb. She invaded the northern province to capture the Donn Cúailnge when she realized Ailill’s herds exceeded hers by one prized bull, the Finnbhennach. The campaign was a disaster in spite of having taken the bull, and the latter ended up fighting Finnbhennach over the latter’s cows upon arrival, with the result that both of them died. Years later, Ailill would suffer the same fate as his predecessor: Seeing his wife cavort in a lake with the Ulster exile Fergus mac Róich, he gave in to jealousy and told his blind brother Lugaid Dalléces there were some deer in the lake that he should throw a spear at. The blind man’s cast killed Fergus, and Medb never forgave her husband. Years later, she also found out Ailill was having an affair with another woman, and decided to kill him. She instigated the old Ulster hero Conall Cernach —who was a guest with them at the time— to assassinate him. Conall killed Ailill, but was identified and pursued, being caught and killed near Ballyconnell, in what’s now county Cavan, Ireland.
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The modern concept of a “dragon” (winged, fire-breathing creature) is most commonly thought of as coming from Europe. The oldest depiction can be found in an English manuscript, Harley MS 3244 (AD 1260; 1st image), although older depictions of wyverns exist, like a medieval French-style buckle found in Norfolk, England (12th century; 2nd image) and an image of St. Michael killing the Cuélebre from a panel on the Romanesque church of Turienzo de los Caballeros, in León province, Spain (12th century; 3rd image).
The “dragon” as we know it, seems to have evolved from the wyvern, being essentially the same creature, but with an extra pair of limbs added. And while the oldest depictions are medieval, descriptions in folklore are far older. Dragons like such are described in Germanic folklore telling of events in the 5th century, including notably the English poem Beowulf and the Völsunga Saga’s Fafnir. The original word to describe these beasts was worm (“lindworm” in some parts). At that time it was a word for a snake, not what we call a worm today. The word wyvern came later, and is telling: It comes from French guivre, which in turn comes from Latin vipera; a viper. The creature was clearly thought of as a venomous snake in the viper family, just like Cerastes and Crotalus. The fire-breathing function is likely to have evolved in the human mind from the fact that vipers inject venom with their mouths, and tissue necrosis can appear like the victim has been burned. The wings on the other hand, are enigmatic… until we realize that they are an expression of the same feathered feature we see on the Mexican Quetzalcóatl and the Chinese Tien Long. These beings are depicted as winged or feathered because they are thought of not as mere snakes, but as supernatural entities that came from heaven. Note also that the Biblical Satan came from heaven (see Revelation 12; Greek: ouranos).
But the winged or heavenly serpent has even more ancient attestations in Europe than those in Germanic lore: Greek myth tells of the serpent Typhon who battled Zeus. This Greek connection is also evident from the pattern of dragons living in caves and guarding treasure: Ladon guards the golden apples of Hesperides, and the Hydra lives in the spring-caves by Lake Lerna. Both are sometimes said to have been offspring of Typhon, and both were confronted and slain by Heracles, son of Zeus. Like the Hydra, Fafnir and the dragon in Beowulf dwell in caves, and like Ladon, they guard treasure. The north-Spanish Cuélebre is in like manner, a cave-dwelling monster who broods over treasure. And then of course we have the Welsh dragons living in spring-caves beneath Dinas Emrys, just like the Hydra. The winged or feathered serpent —originally from heaven— always lives in the cavernous underworld. In the case of the Biblical Satan and the Greek Typhon, we see that this was a punishment for the sins of arrogance and lust for power, and also the result of losing a cosmic battle. Another typical sin we see is greed, the dragons hoarding and guarding treasure in their lairs. Again we see this reflected in the Biblical Satan, who’s characterized by greed (note John 13:27 where he causes Judas to betray Christ for money).
Now the Bible of course, takes us out of Europe to the Middle East, and farther back in time. Here too we find creatures in extra-Biblical sources that just might be expressions of the same heavenly-dragon phenomenon, like the Egyptian winged-cobra goddess Wadjet and the Babylonian Mušhuššu. The dragon appears to be as old as civilization itself. Shouldn’t be much of a surprise, since the dragon is credited with actually imparting civilization.
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The Celtiberian city of Aratis, near modern Aranda de Moncayo, in Zaragoza province, Spain; 3rd-2nd century B.C. 🇪🇸 3D reconstruction by 3dstoa.com.
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Yesterday was Columbus Day. 🇪🇸 Total Celtiberian Domination.
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Bronze sword found at an unknown location in Ireland; 12th-9th century B.C. 🇮🇪 From a private collection in Germany. The sword has a nick on the blade, likely the result of use in combat. It is of “Ewart Park” type, closely resembling contemporary British weapons; these are the types of bronze-age swords most commonly found in Ireland.
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Map of Greater Appalachia 🇺🇸 and other American cultural regions from the website of the same Dr. Ian Adamson. He needs clarified on one small detail of his above statement: He says “much of the region” fought for the Union during the Civil War. By “much” he means half or less (Texas is pretty big, so...)
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Digital facial reconstruction (various renditions) of a Gallic nobleman, from a burial at La-Gorge-Meillet in Somme-Tourbe, France; 4th-3rd century B.C. ⚜️🇫🇷 Reconstruction done by VisualForensic on behalf of the National Museum of Archaeology in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France.
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The flag of Wales 🏴 probably owes its origin to a type of Dacian military standard in the form of a windsock, known as draco, which had become popular in the late Roman empire. Still, it’s also probable that the draco evoked serpent myths that had existed in British lore long before: Welsh myths have dragon lore that seems quite ancient, while Pictish symbols carved on stones in Scotland often depict snakes. 🐍
The most ancient dragon myth we know of from Britain is Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys, found in the Mabinogion and Brut y Brenhinedd. It tells the tale of Lludd Llaw Eraint (“Lludd of the Silver Hand”; he was the Welsh version of the Irish god Nuada Airgetlám), who ruled as king of Britain in the far distant past. During Lludd’s reign, the island was plagued by various afflictions, one of which was two terrible dragons —one red and one white— that would battle each other starting on May Day of each year, terrorizing the people so much with their shrieks that they caused all pregnant women on the island to miscarry. Lludd overcomes the plagues with advice from his wise brother Llefelys, who happens to be king of Gaul. In the case of the dragons, they were caught in a pit near what’s today Oxford, rendered drunk with mead, then imprisoned in a cavern under a hill in Wales — later known as Dinas Emrys.
The tale of these dragons is picked up again by Nennius in Historia Brittonum: He states that in the 5th century, the British king Vortigern was dethroned and banished by St. Germanus of Auxerre, for having invited the Anglo-Saxons to Britain and for having married his own daughter. Advised by twelve “wise men” (possibly druids), Vortigern retreated to north Wales and sought to build a fortress at the same location where the dragons had long ago been imprisoned; he was oblivious to their presence. His plans were frustrated as the masonry kept being destroyed before the work could be completed. Baffled, he consulted his twelve wise men, and they advised that he appease the otherworldly powers with: A child sacrifice. They sought out a fatherless boy, and in south Wales located one of Roman descent: Ambrosius Aurelianus. The boy was taken to the construction site to be ritually killed, but refuted the “wise men” and showed how it was the two dragons imprisoned there that were knocking down the masonry with their fighting. The red dragon he told them, represented the Britons, while the white was that of the Saxons; he went on to foretell an ultimate victory for the people of the red dragon. The place was hence named after him (Welsh Dinas Emrys = Fort of Ambrosius). Vortigern gave up on his project and went elsewhere to build his fort, while Ambrosius grew up to be a renown war leader who achieved notable victories against the Saxon invaders. Dragons continued to be symbols of warlike ferocity and kingly bearing: The bards Aneirin and Taliesin eulogised rulers like Mynnyddog Mwynfawr of Gododdin and Urien of Rheged as “dragons”, while other Welsh kings are known to have had similar nicknames: Selyf Sarffgadau (“Solomon the Battle-Serpent”) of Powys, and Maelgwn “the island dragon” of Gwynedd (per Gildas).
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The ancients seemed to have had very specific snakes in mind when telling us of the serpent deities:
The Biblical Satan was most likely associated with the Saharan Horned Viper (1st image: Cerastes Cerastes), since the Biblical Book of Revelation depicts him as having horns. Cerastes Cerastes can often have reddish spots, which also evokes Revelation’s depiction of a red dragon (Greek: drakon = “serpent”). In Mexico, Kukulkán/Quetzalcóatl was specifically depicted as a rattlesnake. Likely inspirations for Kukulkán were Crotalus Tzabcan (2nd image), which is still sacred to Mayan peoples, and Crotalus Mictlantecuhtli (3rd image), which is named after the Aztec underworld lord. Interestingly, in the American southwest, it’s also possible to find horned rattlesnakes (4th image: Crotalus Cerastes). One can’t help but wonder: Why a rattlesnake? Why not something more dangerous, like the aggressive Fer-de-Lance (Bothrops Asper)? It’s possible that an association with arid climates was the factor. Even in tropical parts of Latin America where the Kukulkán myth is first attested (Olmec Culture), rattlers tend to prefer more arid savannah-type habitats. It’s possible that the serpent deities were associated with the desertification of our planet, or that they were thought of as preferring and dwelling in deserts, like the Biblical Azazel, who was thought of as a desert entity (Leviticus 16).
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🏴 Scottish Gaelic language maps: (1) Percentage of speakers in 2011, (2) place-names containing the Gaelic element bal- (from baile meaning ‘village’, ‘town’, ‘home’, or ‘farmstead’). The 2022 census showed a significant increase in Gaelic speakers across Scotland (over 10,000), suggesting a possible resurgence in interest.
A common misconception is that Gaelic is only a Highland language. As a matter of fact, Gaelic was spoken in the Scottish Lowlands by all or a majority of people for centuries, even after monarchs like David I (1124-1153) began planting Scotland with Norman settlers. Norman lords in the Lowlands often ruled over large majority Gaelic-speaking serf populations who only gradually became Anglicized. Galloway in particular retained its Gaelic speech up until the 16th and 17th centuries. Use of the language there didn’t fully die out until the 18th century; Margaret McMurray (d. 1760) being the last known Gaelic speaker there.
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Bronze mirror decorated in La Tène style, found in a hoard of objects buried in a bog near Balmaclellan, in Galloway, Scotland; 1st or 2nd century AD. 🏴
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Rosnaree House (left), by the river Boyne, in county Meath, Ireland. 🇮🇪
Rosnaree House appears to be built on top of what once was the House of Cleíteach, which was the principal residence of the High Kings of Ireland. Their inaugural site, the Hill of Tara, is only 7 or 8 miles away. Nearby are other important mythical sites such as Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth. Nearby was also supposedly fought the Battle of Ros na Ríg in the 1st century B.C; between king Conchobar mac Nessa of Ulster and Cairpre Nia Fer of North Leinster. The latter was killed in the affray by the Ulster hero Cú Chulainn. The last High King to have his abode at Cleíteach was Muirceartach, son of Muiredach, alias “Mac Ercae”, of the northern Cenél nEógain. Muirceartach was a folk-hero of the Northern Uí Néill, credited with many successful battles against enemies throughout Ireland. He was also said to have treacherously murdered a king Loarn mac Eirc of Dál Riata in Scotland by burning him in his feasting hall. Muirceartach was himself killed in a similar fashion in the year AD 534, when his hall at Cleíteach was attacked by enemies from the rival Kingdom of Leinster. He is said to have been drowned in a vat full of wine and the house of Cleíteach burned with him inside it, never to be rebuilt. The contemporary accounts describe the event with supernatural overtones: Muirceartach is said to have had visions of warrior-bands prior to the attack, attacking them deliriously outside the house before real ones showed up and surrounded the place. The attack was apparently led by a woman bent on revenge: Sin, daughter of Sighe, son of Dian, a Leinster chief whom Muirceartach had killed in battle three years earlier.
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Celtic gold torc from the hoard found at Erstfeld, in the Uri canton of Switzerland; 4th century B.C. Displayed at the Swiss National Museum, Zürich. 🇨🇭
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Brass statue of Donn Cúailnge, the Brown Bull of Cooley; Cooley Peninsula, county Louth, Ireland. 🇮🇪 Cooley was the home not only of the bull, but also of the famed warrior Cú Chulainn.
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