Celtic mythology

Group of traditional stories and beliefs ascribed to Celtic cultures. Evidence of their mythology can be gleaned from altars, inscriptions, and images in continental Europe, especially France (ancient Gaul), and in Britain, and from the mythological tales of Ireland and Wales. Many deities were probably local and tribal in character, but those with commonly attributed functions may have been known under more than one name, indicating a wider significance, such as the Gaulish Ogmios, Irish Oghma, and the Welsh Gwydion, gods of civilization, identified with Heracles or Hercules.

Celtic mythology is closely connected to medieval literature, many of its characters and themes being represented in such romances as the legend of King Arthur.

Gallic deities The ancient Gauls worshipped a multiplicity of gods with varying attributes. Julius Caesar claimed that the most popular deity of the Gauls was Mercury, followed by Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva, but though he describes their functions, he does not give the names of the local gods with which they were possibly identified. Those equated with Apollo include Borvo, Bellenos, and Grannos. Other gods were Taranis, the thunderer; Sucellos, the striker; and Cernunnos, the horned one. Animal and nature gods abounded, such as Mullo, the mule; Moccus, the swine; Tarvos, the bull; the goddess of horses, Epona, and deities connected with streams and rivers, or with Matronae, the earth and fertility.

Island Celts The principal deities of Ireland and Britain were the Dagda (Welsh Math), foremost of the gods, and his sister Danu (British Don), the mother goddess. Danu's three sons were Nuada (British Llud), the smith Goibhniu (Welsh Gofannon), brewer of a beer that granted immortality, and Amaethon, god of agriculture; her daughter was Arianrod, the mother of Lug (Welsh Lleu) who represented a power of good. Sea-deities included the Welsh Llyr and his sons Manawydan (Irish Manannan mac Lir) and Bran (Irish Bron). There were also fierce goddesses of war such as the monstrous Morrigu Morrigan. The Celtic pantheon inhabited an Otherworld free from sorrow and age, which existed parallel to the natural world, and could be contacted by mortals. A feature of Irish mythology is the personification of the sovereignty of the land as a goddess; a mate to be won by the king.

Epic origin of Ireland Irish tradition refers to successive waves of supernatural and mortal settlers in Ireland: the Fomorians led by Balor and Bres, a race of giants and the original inhabitants of Ireland; the Fir Bholg; and the Tuatha De Danann, people of Danu, led by Nuada. The Tuatha De Danann defeated the Fir Bolg in the first battle of Mag Tuiredh or Moytura, although Nuada lost his arm and was replaced by Bres of the Fomorians. After Bres was ousted, Nuada, fitted with a cunningly wrought silver hand by the healer Dian Cecht, retrieved his throne and defeated the Fomorians in the second battle of Mag Tuiredh. They in turn were defeated by the ancestors of the Gaels. Many of the tribes of De Danann retired to a distant country beyond the western horizon known as Tir nan-Og or Land of Youth, the British counterpart being Avalon, while the remainder withdrew to a subterranean land, leaving Ireland to mortals.

Mythology of Wales Welsh material is less extensive, but The Mabinogion includes tales of the families of the gods Llyr and Don, and the Great Queen Rhiannon and Great King Teyrnon. It also refers to Gwyn ap Nudd, known in later folklore as the king of the fairies, and the divine mother, Modron, and her son Mabon who was snatched a week after his birth, both of whose names occur on altars of the Roman period in northern Britain as Matrona and Maponus.