Religion and Mythology.—A few notices in the classics and the Latin inscriptions of Gaul are our rather meager sources of information on the Celtic paganism. As the three chief gods, or three of the chief gods, Lucan mentions Teutates, .Thsus, and Taranis, all of them worshiped with human sacrifices. Taranis reappears as Jupiter laranucnus on an inscription; and from this identification with Jupiter, as well as from the fact that'.n Welsh taran means thunder, we may infer that he was the god of the thunderstorm. Other gods frequently occurring on inscriptions are Apollo Grannus, Apollo Belenus, Mars Camillus, Minerva Belisama, etc., all of them, however, empty names to us. A remarkable feature in Gaulish religion was the worship of certain Mother Goddesses (called on the inscriptions Junones, Matronre, Dew Matres, Campestres, Nymphre). They are frequently connected with special localities, as in the inscriptions dedicated to Matronis Lanehiabns, M. Hathavehis, M. Runianehabus, and on the one,in Gaul's]): Matrebo Namancicabo, the Mothers of Nimes." To thit class apparently belongs the Den Nehalennia, once represented on a relief with a basket of fruit, and a dog for companion. Mela, the geographer, speaks of an island in the Atlantic, near Gaul, where there was an oracle superintended by nine maidens, who could cause storms, take the form of any animal, could cure what otherwise was incurable, and predicted the future. These god desses, at once motherly and maidenly, residing in field and wood (campestres, nympine), givers of plenty and prophets of the future, are the heathen prototypes of the fees (fairies, as distinguished from " elfs") of the middle ages. The "little folk" were known to the Gauls under the name of Mad. They believed in the existence of individual tutelary genii, as a stone of Lausanne shows, being erected by three Gauls Sulfis sets (hence our sylph?). The belief in the transmigration of souls was common amongst the Gauls, or at least their priests the Druids, so called from their performing sacred rites in oak-woods ( \Welsh, derw, an oak; derwydd, a Druid). These Druids were also the depositaries of knowledge and tradition, and constituted, in Gaul at least, a powerful hierarchy, with a supreme pontiff. Druids are found both iu Ireland and in Wales, and the fees abound in Welsh tradition; but it is very doubtful whether the superhuman beings appearing in the Welsh poems of the 12th and 13th centuries—such as Ha Gadarn, the reputed founder of Bardic institutions (see beneath)—are genuine relics of the British religion. The belief in transmigration lasted very long, as the mediaeval Welsh tale of 2aliesin speaks dis tinctly of Talicsiv's successive existences. Though not properly mythological, we may mention here the romantic stories of the Britons about king Arthur and his knights. He is first mentioned by .Nennitts in the 9th e.; but his fable was further developed in the next centuries both in Wales and Brittany, then embodied in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Britonum, which served as the groundwork of the French Roman de Brut of Wace. Through these works, and partly, also, through the direct influence of the oral traditions of Brittany, it passed into French literature, and thence spread over all Europe.
Literature.—The Gauls learned writing from the Greeks; later, they employed the Roman alphabet, as do the Welsh and Irish, the now used Irish character being nothing but the common Anglo-Saxon form of the Latin alphabet. Besides, however, the Irish claim an old character of their own, the Ogham, in which the letters are represented by a number of vertical strokes put in a right angle to a horizontal line, or else by horizontal strokes to a vertical line. Some of the Ogham inscriptions are said to be older than Christianity. Even more doubtful is the antiquity of a Welsh so-called Bardic alphabet, in which there seem to be no inscriptions extant, and which is, at any rate, an alteration of the Roman character. A feature common to all Celts is the existence of a kind of
literary order, the Bards (q.v.), poets and guardians of tradition—in Gaul, nearly related to or part of the priesthood; in Wales and Ireland, in immediate connection with the kings.—A Gaulish literature there certainly was, as Ciesar informs us that, in the schools of the Druids, the young men used to learn by heart a great number of verses on theolog ical and historical subjects. But these poems were never written down. It is highly probable that rhyme, first used by St. Ambrosius (391) iu his hymns, is of Gaulish origin, this being the conunon form even of the oldest Irish and Welsh poems.—The Irish liter ature began with the conversion, but our existing manuscripts are not older than the 9th or 8th century. Interlinear versions of biblical and other theological, or of grammatical writings are about the oldest manuscripts, many of which, in consequence of the missionary zeal of the nation, are to be found at St. Gall, 31ilan, and other continental places. Then there are ecclesiastic hymns, one of the oldest ascribed to Patrick. A renowned author of poems, in the 10th c., was Eochad O'Flin. Secular poetry of ancient times there has come down to us none, but we have testimonies as old as the 12th c. of the existence of such, ascribed in a general way to the old pagan hero Oisin, son of Mac Cumhal. The existing specimens, mostly warlike—except some dialogues between Oisin and St. Patrick—are recent. Those Gaels that went over to Scotland, took, of course, similar traditions with them. With a partial knowledge of these, Macpherson composed (1765) the work which he declared (rather loosely) to be an English translation of the songs of the old Scotch poet Ossian, son of Fingal (the true Oisin was an Irishman). The would-be Gaelic original of Macpherson's work, edited in 1807, is either a compila tion or retranslation. Of Irish prose, the annals are the most important part: first, those of Tighernach (1088), then the Annales lnqatienses, A. Ullonknses; lastly, the Annals of the Four -Vaster*, being a compilation made (1634) from older sources chiefly by four Franciscans, beginning with 242 after the deluge, and ending with 1616 A.D.—The oldest remains of Ire/.11/ literature are the songs, so far as they are genuine, of the bards of the 6th c.—Litrareh. Hen, Aneurin, Tab:twin—having chiefly the life and deeds of contempo rary princes for their subject, but few in number. In the 10th c., we have the col lection of laws by Howe] Dda. The historians Gildas and Nennius, of the 9th c., wrote in Latin' The great age of Wag literature is the 12th and succeeding centuries, when the energies of the nation were roused in the struggle with England. In this contest, the bards played a conspicuous part as agitators. After a long interval, we bear again of a great bard, 31cylyr (1100); many follow, amongst whom Kynddelw (1200) deserves special mention. both as a poet (we have 49 pieces of his) and a patriot. Welsh poetry consists in-1. Political lyrics, war-songs, songs in praise of chieftains. elegies on the same. 2. Religious hymns. O. Pseudonymous poems, ascribed to Merddin (Merlin), the mythical enchanter, and Taliesen, the old bard, having generally the form of prophesies on the struggle between the Saxons and Welsh, and the ultimate triumph of the latter. Thus, in the Avalennau (or apple trees), attributed to Merlin, the Welsh nation is enig matically represented under the image of " seven score and seven sweet apple trees," whose fruits, princes (viz., the English) wish in vain to despoil. 4. The Triads, short memorial (?) verses in which three remarkable events, subjects, or persons are respec tively mentioned (hence the name), embracing history, theology, jurisprudence. 5. Dialogues of dramatic character. There were—apparently now lost—also miracle plays actually represented.