[[celtic-religion]] & [[otherworld]] # Celtic Otherworld [[nutt1907]] [[wentz1911]] ch6-7 [[annwn]] [[islands-isles-of-the-blest]] The Celts has a profound and positive attitude to death [Caesar]: The Gauls believed in an ancestor god, whom he identified with Dispater, the Roman god of the dead. • Descriptions are ambiguous (like the Norse Hel) § The Happy Otherworld □ Where the dead live again, in a world very much like on earth but better. The idealized mirror-image of the human world. There is neither pain, disease, ageing nor decay. It is a world full of music, feasting, and beauty. There is still combat between heroes. § Somber and full of danger, especially if visited by humans before death. § Welsh Annwn □ A court of intoxication, furnished with the best meat and drink, vessels of gold, and royal jewels. □ The Cauldron of Annwn ® A great diamond studded magical cauldron (the typical Otherworld vessel of regeneration) boiled by the breath of nine virgins (perhaps evocative of fertility...like Math's foot holder). [the Spoils of Annwn] ® It refused to cook food for a coward. □ The Hounds of Annwn (Cwn Annwn) ® White with red ears, a coloring associated with the Otherworld. ® Hell hounds, small, speckled, greyish-red beasts, chained and led by a black horned figure. ® They are death-omens, sent from Annwn to seek out human souls. □ Arawn has a dark side, Annwn can be dangerous □ [Spoils of Annwn]: Arthur barely escapes with his life after his quest for the magical cauldron. Is seems that if humans visit the Otherworld while still alive, they are in danger. § Irish Tir na n'Og ( the "Land of the Forever Young") □ Location: ® On islands in the western ocean ® Beneath water (Sea, Lakes) ◊ Ex. Lake of Cruachain ® Underground (Caves) □ The Tuatha Dé Danann dwelled in sídhe ("mounds") which were allotted to each god by the Daghda. ® Each sídhe hosts a feast, which include ◊ The inexhaustible cauldron, always full of meat. ◊ The ever-renewing pig, slaughtered each day by the presiding god, and reborn the next day. The divine lord of the feast is frequently represented as a man with a pig slung over his shoulder. □ It is a bruidhen ("hostel") situated in the countryside. □ Characteristics: ® Timeless, ageless, happy. ® The source of all wisdom, peace, beauty, harmony and immortality ® Full of magic, enchantment and music. □ If humans visit it, they remain young while there, but should they return home, their earthly age will catch up with them. Oisin instantly ages 300 years when he returns. One of Bran shipmates returns to Ireland and upon touching the shore crumble to dust. □ Some supernatural beings require humans for certain activities they cannot perform themselves. Pwyll is required by Arawn to fight Hafgan; Cú Chulainn fights battles for Otherworld beings; Finn is lured to the Otherworld by means of enchanted stags, boars, youths or women. □ Communication possible during Samhain □ The Irish death god Donn is a somber being □ Cú Chulainn sees fearsome monsters and horrific visions □ The tale of Derga's Hostel describes the bruidhen of a god wherein awaits the doom of the Irish king Conaire. On his way there Conaire encounters sinister harbingers of death, three red-clothed horsemen on red horses, their coloring indicating their supernatural origin. He also sees the Irish goddess of destruction, the Badbh, who appears in triadic form, as three hideous black hags, naked and bleeding, with ropes around their necks. The symbolism of death, perhaps even human sacrifice, is intense here. Derga is a god of the dead, the word can also refer to 'red', as if reflective of blood. The Badbh is a black, crow-like goddess and black is death's color. Reincarnation (Transmigration of the soul) The soul does not perish but passes after death from one body to another The druids promoted this idea in order that warriors would not be afraid of death [Caesar]. Death is merely the interruption in a long life, a stage between one life and another [Lucian]. men's souls are immortal and that after a number of years people lived again, inhabiting a new body [Diodorus Siculus]. Grave Goods May indicate: (a) belief that the deceased would need those items (b) rite of passage, a symbolic act of parting Feasting paraphernalia is a reflection of the Otherworldly feast. [France and Germany, 7-6th centuries BC, early Iron Age] Mounds, with wagons and rich grave-furniture indicative of feasting [Gaul and Britain, late Iron Age] Two wheeled chariots, weapons, and feasting paraphernalia (ex. joints of pork) [Hochdorf, Germany, 6th century BC] A prince laid on a bronze couch, accompanied by his cart, a vessel capable of holding 704 pints of mead and several drinking-horns [Grave at Somme-Bionne, France] A sword and spear [1st century BC-1st century AD, Late Iron Age] Amphorae, wine cups, firedogs to guard the cooking fire, meat In Britain, graves are rare, excarnation/exposure more likely Decomposition allows the spirit to leave the body. Once the soul had departed the bones could be disposed of without ceremony. [Welwyn, Hertfordshire] Cremation urns, feast equipment → Similar to Virgil's Underworld in book 6 of the Aeneid. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources: Celtic Myths by Miranda Jane Green Sidhe: Other world of supernatural spirits (ex. fairies) Can be connected to on the Holiday Samhain [[celtic-otherworld-apples]]