Understanding Celtic Religion: Revisiting the Pagan Past

Description

Although it has long been acknowledged that early Irish literature contains both pre-Christian and Christian elements, there’s been no sustained study of the challenges involved in understanding the interrelation of these worldviews. Understanding Celtic Religion draws attention to the importance of reconsidering the relationship between religion and mythology, as well as the concept of “Celtic religion” itself. When scholars are attempting to construct the Celtic belief system, what counts as religion, and how does that differ from mythology? This volume, the first interdisciplinary collection of articles to critically re-evaluate the methodological challenges of the study of Celtic religion, will appeal to both scholars and lay readers of Celtic literature, as well as anyone interested in ancient and medieval cultures. Front Cover Understanding Celtic Religion Contents List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations List of Contributors Foreword by the Series Editor 1 Introduction: ‘Celtic Religion’: Is this a Valid Concept? Notes 2 Celtic Spells and Counterspells Introduction Celtic conversion Celtic opposition Mirrors and layers Conclusion Notes 3 The Old Gods of Ireland in the Later Middle Ages Notes 4 Staging the Otherworld in Medieval Irish Tradition Notes 5 The Biblical Dimension of Early Medieval Latin Texts The scope of the question The fundamental assumptions The milieu of scripture ‘The highest truth and true sublimity’ Notes 6 Ancient Irish Law Revisited: Rereading the Laws of Status and Franchise Notes 7 A Dirty Window on the Iron Age? Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Pre‑Roman Celtic Religion Introduction Recent archaeological developments Druid hunting Funerary archaeology: underworlds and afterlives Bounded ritual: sanctuaries and other ‘cult’ sites From Romano-Celtic to Celtic: Looking back on the Iron Age gods Interpretatio Romana: mutual accommodation or resisted strategy? The reluctant synthesisers: the creole gods of the Roman west From all change to no change: recent archaeological dialogues with medieval texts Rosmerta/Hwicce: the undying goddess? Interpreting the Forty Metre Structure, Navan Fort Diachronic homologies: the Viennese approach to ‘Celtic’ comparison Our ancestors, the Celts, again? Notes Bibliography Index Back Cover