The Celts - Culture and Nature's Influence

Lost Civilizations: The Celts by Allison Lassieur was the first book that I read for my research paper topic. From what I had known about the Celts, they were ruthless warriors in the European Iron Age. It seems as though I was only correct with one aspect. Though the Celts did in fact live during the Iron Age, they had not been as savage as I once believed. Lassieur explains early on that the Romans had created a mask for the Celts that labeled them as "wild, uneducated, animal-like children", which influenced how later societies viewed the Celtic people and their culture. This skewed view of the Celts was tackled by recent discoveries, from the last two centuries, which looked into the reality of their culture. They were very skilled craftsmen, and held great intelligence through both their royal courts and their religious leaders. These people were primarily skilled in iron making, mining, and trade, and held great discoveries in science and medicine.

It is important that the Celtic people were not as barbaric as the Romans had made them out to be, but it is not the focus of my paper. The relationship between nature and Celtic religious belief is what I will be expanding upon, and Lassieur sets a sturdy foundation of information on this topic. The most important aspect that Lassieur highlights is that "gods and goddess did not control nature, they lived within it". They lived in the rocks, the rivers, the trees.. everything. The gods and goddess looked over the natural world, and even represented it. Metamorphism is a major element of Celtic religious beliefs, in that their deities could transform into animals that fit with their purpose. For example, Morrigan, goddess of war, was believed to shift into a carrion-eating raven because this animal was a manifestation of war and death, and Morrigan was.

There are many more important factors talked about within Allison Lassieur's  Lost Civilizations: The Celts that will be beneficial to my paper, but for the most part I will be utilizing the content on nature as it relates to the Celtic spiritual belief. Culturally, the Celts were a lot more advanced than I had once thought. This is important information that will help me get the full understanding of what the Celts were like. The next novel that I will read focuses mostly on the magic that is often associated with Celtic druids, which will hopefully give me a better understanding of how magic and nature correspond, and how the two work together to form the religious beliefs of the Celtic people.