Rodney Castleden - The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts

The Celts sometimes engage in single combat at dinner. For they gather in arms and engage in mock battles, and fight hand-to-hand, but sometimes wounds are inflicted, and the annoyance caused by this may even lead to killing unless the bystanders restrain them. In former times, when the hindquarters were served up the bravest hero took the thigh piece, and if another man claimed it they stood up and fought in single combat to the death.

Feasts such as these were designed to reinforce the pecking order among the warriors, and to strengthen the ties among members of the band.

The main drinks in an Iron Age Celtic feast were beer and mead, though the nobility adopted wine as soon as the trade routes to the Mediterranean allowed. At first it was a very expensive luxury. There was even a tale current in Rome that the Celts had crossed the Alps and invaded Italy just to get closer to the vineyards.

On some of the hilltops there were large hillforts, surrounded by complex ramparts and palisades. Although called forts, they had several functions. They were stock enclosures and refuges in times of danger, they housed permanent settlements, and they were the focus of tribal gatherings and feastings ( See Food and Feasting , Tribes). They probably also had a ceremonial and religious function, as well as acting as clear territorial markers—literally landmarks—that would help to create a sense of cohesion among peoplewho were normally scattered across the landscape in separate homesteads.

The hillfort was usually laid out on the summit of a hill and surrounded by an earthwork that was intended to be clearly visible from below. The massive squared ramparts were faced front and back by rows of upright timbers tied by horizontal crossbeams. The earthen rampart was topped by a stout palisade, to defend the fighting-platform behind it, as at Hollingbury in Sussex. All the timber breastworks have disintegrated now, and the earth and rock they supported has slipped sideways, yet the ramparts can still be imposing. Maiden Castlein Dorset is the most impressive of the hillforts, with a complex mazelike entrance; it was the capital of the Durotrigestribe.

In Galicia, there were lots of defended homesteads built on hilltops. The presence of these castros distinguishes Galicia from the rest of the Iberian peninsula; they are the hallmark of its ancient Celtic past. The castro is a hilltop settlement, like a miniature hillfort, defended by multiple walls. Within, there is an ordered settlement, mostly with round stone houses built to a high density. Castro de Baroñais a fine example ( See Dwellings ).

One of the duties of a Celtic bardwas to write a funeral ode on the death of his king. A fine example has survived, entitled Marwnad Uthyr Pendragon , which can be translated as The Funeral Ode to the Wonderful Pendragon . For a long time this was thought to be the funeral ode for Uther, Arthur’s father, but the word “uter” can be an adjective meaning “terrible” or “wonderful,” while pendragon is a Celtic title for High King or dux bellorum. This means that the ode might have been addressed to Arthur himself:

The longing and lamentation of the multitude

Are unceasing throughout the host.

They earnestly yearn for the joyful prize of blue enamel.

There your stone with your name became a riddle.

They also wish for their Prince.

All around appears the rule of order at the head of the feast.

They seek to dress the head of the feast with black.

They unendingly shed blood among the war-bands,

Longing for you to defend them and give them succour.

The sword that was in the van in taming the brothers of Caw of the Wall.

They crave with longing for a portion of your cause

And for refuge in the manliness of Arthur.

They long for your coming in a hundred fortresses.

A hundred manors long for your assurances.

They long for your coming in a hundred schools.

A hundred chieftains long for your coming:

The great and mighty sword that supported them.

They look for your best judgements of merit,

The restoration of principalities.

Your sayings are remembered, soothing the aggressive.

The eloquence of the bards is not great enough:

Toiling for weeks with the eagerness of beavers,

With the names of men and war-bands to compare you.

Above the eagles, above the fear of disorder,

I am the one who is with the great Warrior.

I am the bard, the bagpiper. I am with the Creator;

Seventy musicians create the great rhapsody of the first power…

The Leader of Heaven has left the nation without a roof.

“Caw of the Wall” seems an odd phrase. The Life of Cadoc tells us that Caw ( Cauus) lived in southern Scotland, not far from Hadrian’s Wall; he was the father of Gildas.

In another poem, The Dream of Rhonabwy , Arthur is described as sitting with Gwarthegydd, another son of Caw.

Other evidence confirms that Arthur and Caw were contemporaries, so the ode was written at the right time to have been for Arthur. If it is his eulogy, it tells us a great deal about the way he was regarded at the time of his death. The final image is the most telling of all: “The Leader of Heaven has left the nation without a roof.”

See Bridei .

Celtic chiefs undoubtedly played board games and maybe their subjects did too.

Gaming pieces made out of wood have not survived, but a set made out of glass was found in a royal grave at Welwyn Garden City, just north of London. It consisted of a set of 12 white marbles and an opposing set of 12 black marbles, both highly decorated. The wooden game board was 2 feet (0.6m) square and badly decayed. This was a game similar to Ludo, and it was designed for two players. Although Ludo itself was patented in the nineteenth century, it was based on a very old board game.

Dice have been found at other sites, but in the Welwyn grave there were six fragments of beads and bracelets, which may have been thrown to determine the number of moves each player made.

Kings and princes were entitled to their privileges by birthright, in other words according to who their mothers and fathers were. They therefore had a strong vested interest in establishing and committing to memorytheir family trees. No doubt these were transmitted orally for countless centuries and written down only from about the seventh century AD onward, when the process of Christianization made written records much commoner ( See Writing ). The lack of interference from the Romans in Ireland has meant that more in the way of Irish genealogy has survived.

King lists were drawn up and doubtless recited on special occasions by bards. These were designed to establish the king’s entitlement to his position, and doubtless flattering connections with long-dead heroic figures were added as a matter of course. A considerable amount of invention is involved in some of them. The powerful Irish chiefs of the Middle Ages wanted to be descended from Celtic gods, or from Egyptian pharaohs. But sometimes the names of heroes and kings follow one another in a credible sequence that recurs in other genealogies, and this corroboration inspires more confidence.