THE CELTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 13, 15 July 1936, Page 16

THE CELTS

ORIGIN AND HISTORY

NO FIXED PLACE OF ABODE

AGE-OLD INFLUENCE

The origin and early history of the Celts were dealt with by Professor H. MacKenzie in an address given recently to the Wellington Gaelic Club.

The question of the origin and early history of what has come to be regarded as a race or a nation belongs for the most part to the domain of the prehistoric, said Professor MacKenzie. In trying to determine such an origin and history one is almost inevitably confronted with much that is problematic and conjectural. Several of our latter-day learned sciences such as archaeology, ethnology, and- philology help us considerably in solving toe proolems connnected with the origin and early history of a race or peopie. What I am asKed to do, however, is to indicate in a simple and popular fashion wnat the generally accrecaiea view of preseni-aay nisiorians ana scnolars is as to tne ongj.n and eariy history of the so-calied Ceixs (or Keits).

Sinctiy speaKing, it cannot be maintained tnat tne Ueits ever represented a '"race," or ever attained to sucn political or social unity as is implied in the term "nation." The Celts nave exercised very considerable influence in the worm's history for the past 3000 Cor more), years without acquiring any fixity of tenure as a race or nation. We have heard of a Hebrew "dispersion," well, there would appear (in later days) to have been a Celtic dispersion —so. that the Celts, like the Hebrews, while making their presence felt, and while exercising a powerful influence in many of the nations of the world, have no fixed place of abode, no motherland or fatherland. Ethnologists, that is to say experts whose special study has been the problems connected with the origin and history of the human varieties or races constituting communities and nations, are satisfied that Celts occupied parts of. central and eastern Europe during what is known as the Stone Age, some 4000 years before the Christian era, and that they acquired distinction during tHe Bronze- Age, between 3000 and 1000 years 8.C.; and greater distinction still during the so-called Iron Age, during 1000 years before the Christian era. WORKING OF METALS. In the course of their history they had developed the working of copper and discovered bronze (which is an alloy or combination of copper and tin), and later acquired the secret of the art of smelting iron. The invention of iron tools and weapons may be said to have thrust greatness on the Celts, and rendered them an irresistible influence in the world of the future. For three or four centuries before the Christian era they appear to have contributed very largely to arts and industries which advanced the material well-being of the communities in which they lived and worked. They might "well be, regarded as pioneers, or missionaries, in the arts and industries which were later to revolutionise the social and economic activities of. the great communities and nations of the subsequent centuries. - Several centuries B.C. the Celts were found by peaceful penetration, judicious colonisation, or by their conquests, in possession of numerous sporadic settlements all over the Continent of Europe, and it would appear that they had even before the Christian era found their way into Asia Minor, While there is (as must be conceded) not a little that is obscure and problematical about the ethnological or race history of the Celts, a great deal of valuable information regarding them is available from the history of their language and literature. AN ANCIENT LANGUAGE. It is now fully recognised by experts in the history of language and literature that: Celtic is one of the oldest of the Indo-European family and is entitled, in roint of antiquity, to a place beside Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. It took, a long time to discover its true relationship to the languages of classical antiquity. This was due, of course, to the fact that until well, on in the nineteenth century no competent philological or classical scholars had even casually studied the Celtic language. They had been so preoccupied with their studies in other languages and literatures, and so satisfied in their consummate ignorance_ of the Celts and of things Celtic, that it never occurred to them that the humble Celts of." the modern world still retained a language almost, as closely related to classical antiquity as modern Greek. In fact, most philologists and classical scholars until some 70 or 80 years ago regarded the Celtic languages as a survival from the days of barbarism, and as the patois of a generate variety of the human species which never in the world's history had acquired sufficient unity or prestige to be entitled to be regarded as a race or as a nation., For the past 200 years scholars who i had a fair acquaintance with Hebrew, I with Scythian, and members of the Teutonic group of languages, and some slight knowledge of Celtic, suggested that Celtic had something in common with Hebrew, with Teutonic and Scythian, but the suggestion was not regarded ..seriously. In 1707, however, Edward Lhuyd published in Oxford a work- entitled "Archaeologia Britannica," and in this work he dealt with the varieties. of Celtic comparatively, but it appears to have completely escaped the attention of . scholars and philologists. At the close of the eighteenth century an eminent German grammarian and philologist, I. C. Adelung (1732-1806), classified the Celtic dialects under two heads: (1) the Gpidelic (or true Celtic) and (2) the Brythonic (or Celtic uninfluenced by Teutonic). It is rather humilmting'for us to discover that almost all the really valuable original contributions to both English and Celtic philology have been by German scholars and philologists. It was. long after Adelung's day that ■t was fully realised that Celtic belonged to the great family of languages which have given us the world's grandest and best cultural and literary treasures. "A CHARMED CIRCLE." Franz Bopp, a German (1791-1867), one of the most distinguished philologists of the nineteenth century, who specialised in the study of Oriental languages, and who possessed ati intimate knowledge of the Teutonic lan- . guages and at least a working acI quaintance with Celtic, while recognising considerable resemblances between Celtic and Sanskrit, did not feel justi- | fled (in' the earlier editions of his fam- ! ous "Comparative Grammar") to accord it a place in the Indo-European family of languages. Eventually this great philologist, in his 1838 edition of his great grammar, not only admitted Celtic into the "charmed circle" of the .Indo-European family, but even contributed materially to the elucidation of the phonetic and phonological I changes accounting for the variations undergone by Celtic in the course of its development. The first scholar to indicate the true . relationship of. the Celtic languages to 1 the Indo-European family was Dr. ; James Prichard (1786-1848), whose ' work, "Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations," was published in London in 1831; even thereafter one or two philo- ,. logists of distinction persisted in diss crediting the suggestion of such a rei lationship! Before 1840 all philologists » came to admit the validity of the re- " lationship, and from that day till now ' eminent scholars and philologists have .. seriously and systematically studied » Celtic and furnished us with valuable and unchallengeable philological and 1 historical evidence as to the origin and f history of the Celts and their lan- [ guage. For the past fifty years experts in comparative philology have been en--1 gaged in research work in connection , with the origin and development of the t Celtic languages ... so that in the i near future thoroughly reliable and scientific knowledge of the subject will be available; and this should widen the - horizon of the accredited philologists

of the future. It must prove gratifying and reassuring to all Celtic communities to find that the world's greatest scholars and experts have now come to recognise the claims of the Celtic language to a place in the cKarmed circle of the languages of classical antiquity; and it^must prove equally gratifying and reassuring for them to know that the Celts of the Celtic dispersion (with no definite racial or national ancestry) should have counted for so much as a cultural influence in human history. They certainly appear to have been a well-bred as well as a crossbred variety, of the human species— even if they had completely lost any identity they ever possessed as a racial unity. Their way of life, their sporadic dispersion, saved them from the degeneracy which almost inevitably results from racial inbreeding. COLONISATION OF SCOTLAND. In his final remarks Professor MacKenzie dealt with the origin and early history of the Celtic colonisation of what was today known as Scotland. If any Scotland, possessing real geographical existence, was to be found during the early Christian centuries, he said, it was in Ireland. The Scotland of today has existed geographically for about 1000 years. The Scots of Scotland were Irish Celts who began to make descents on North Sritain, or Caledonia, during the Roi.nn occupation, say, during the third and fourth centuries, A.D., but it took from 600 to 700 years before modern Scotland acquired the name Scotland. There are fairly sound reasons for believing that Celts, known as Picts, had found their way into what is now known as Scotland before the Christian era. We know irom the later historians of the Roman Empire that .in the third century A.D. the Romans in Britain had to take precautions against raiding marauders from Ireland, and that those marauding adventurers or invaders were designated Hiberni, or Attecotti, or Scotti.

The name Scotti is said to be of Gaulish origin, and to mean raiders or skirmishers—possibly (it has been suggested) because they were armed, wearing shields (Latin scuta). At any rate, Scotti from Ireland are credited with having dispossessed in certain parts of North Britain (Scotland) the earlier Picts and Caledonians.