What do we know about Celtic pre-Christian religion?

[sionnach]

Re: What do we know about Celtic pre-Christian religion?

How much different were the Saxon's from the Celtic people of the British Isles? I ask this in reference to a book I read 'Pagan Goddesses in the Early Germanic World' by Philip Shaw. The recent genetic profile of Great Britain showed how the Saxons blended with the Celtic population whereas Roman and later Viking did not remain as a significant population. In his book he looks at the goddesses Eostre and Hreda using linguistic research. In his conclusions he warns of pan-Germanism in worship of the gods and goddesses. His research pointed towards the tribal, the local, and perhaps the familial/personal worship of deities. He argues that the notion of common religious patters across the entire northern Europe may have been similar but the gods and goddesses were more local in nature. There may have been less differential between what has often been seen as a division of the Celtic an Germanic beliefs.
What I remember from reading in the past on the Conversion of the Saxons to Christianity was that one of the greatest issues in the conversion was the concern of abandoning their ancestors or the ways of their ancestors. In Germany Charlemagne murdered thousands of Saxons because they did not want to abandon their ancestors n favor of the new religions. I also remember that their was less concern about the names of Gods and Goddesses that there was about other pagan beliefs and rituals which is why the days of the week in England were named after Germanic gods and goddesses. Ancestor worship/respect was probably important in both groups and there were enough similarities for the blending of the two cultures. There seems to have been less force used in the Christian transformation of the Irish which resulted in the translation of many more of the pagan beliefs, rituals and important places into the local Christian practice. At least that is what I have read from some sources. Thus Brigid is translated to St. Brigid.

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: What do we know about Celtic pre-Christian religion?

It's an interesting idea, sionnach. I think there is probably quite a bit of truth in it too, since places we think of as Germanic, are often also thought of as Celtic - the La Tene culture being a good example. And that's without taking into account any theories of an indo-european link between them.

One of the most interesting things about the Anglo-Saxon conversion is that it was never totally complete. There was a lot of mind-changing. And in the early Christian missionary period, it was a lot more anti-heathen than in the later period. Which is why prominent church leaders blamed the much later Viking invasions on clergy listening to heroic heathen sagas (I kid you not!)

I too, believe that Hreda and Eostre were regarded as goddesses, and see no real reason to doubt Bede's account of them. He would have known older monks who would certainly have known about them, and since he Bede is regarded as accurate for many other things, it seems strange to single out these two goddesses and say he made them up. When we think about it it would have been easier for him to have disregarded them altogether.