Download Celtic Britain and Ireland

Celtic Britain and Ireland in the Early Medieval Period
Hooker, Richard. “Celtic Britain and Ireland in the Early Medieval Period.” World Civilizations.
1996. Web. August 1, 2004. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/110/110SCHED.HTM
Britain
The British do not appear in history until Julius Caesar crosses the English Channel from northern
Gaul and began his failed conquest of Britain [55-54 BCE]. The Romans returned in 43 CE and
began a systematic conquest of the island until they reached the Pictish tribes in the Scottish
highlands. Rome would abandon northern England; however, in 117 CE the Romans found a
disunified group of tribal kingdoms organized around the same logic of warfare as the Gauls.
Most of the tribes were new arrivals—the bulk of southern Britain had been conquered by the
Belgae from northern Gaul. In the process of emigrating to the island, the Celts pushed the native
populations north—these refugee tribal groups would become the cultural ancestors of the Picts, a
mysterious culture that dominated Scotland until the Irish invasions [beginning in the seventh
century].
Many of the tribes, particularly those in Wales, however, were restive. The Romans were beset by
rebellions by some Celtic tribes and depredations by the northern Picts—throughout the fourth
century, as the Roman empire was strained in every quarter, the Romans slowly lost control of
Britain. The official break came in 410 CE when the Romans in response to a British plea for
help against the Picts and the Scots, declared Britain independent.
As in Gaul, the Romans brought Roman urban and military culture; however, other than southern
England, Roman institutions and culture were not enormously influential on the British Celts. The
Celts in the north and in Wales fiercely resisted Roman culture, and the Romans never even set
foot in Ireland. On the whole, the Romans more greatly respected and tolerated Celtic institutions
and religions in Britain, so there was considerably less assimilation than in Gaul.
Because of this, when the Romans left Britain, there was a renaissance of Celtic culture. The
British, however, had learned a very important concept from the Romans: political unity. The
most famous of the Celtic princes was Vortigern, who ruled over eastern Britain. In order to fight
against the Pictish invasions, he sent across the channel to get help from the Saxons, a Germanic
tribe [descended from the Celts of the continent] that had begun emigrating into western Europe
in the fifth century. The Saxon mercenaries, however, grew in number as more and more Saxons
came to Britain. Whether or not the story of Vortigern is true, Britain fell prey to the same
Germanic emigrations and invasions that spread across Gaul, Spain, and Italy. The Saxon
emigration began in eastern England until they spread entirely across lowland England. The
mountainous areas to the west (Wales) and the north (Scotland), however, remained Celtic, as did
Ireland. By the end of the fifth century CE, only Wales, Scotland, and Ireland remained of the
great Celtic tribal kingdoms that had dominated the face of Europe.
Ireland
It was in Ireland that Celtic culture and institutions lasted the longest—although Christianity was
introduced at an early date [late fourth-early fifth century CE], Ireland did not suffer any major
invasions or cultural changes until the invasions of the Norwegians and the Danish in the eighth
century. The Irish also represent the last great migration of Celtic peoples. In the fourth and fifth
centuries, the Irish crossed over into Scotland and systematically invaded that territory until they
politically dominated the Picts who lived there. The settling of Scotland in the fifth century was
the very last wave of Celtic migration.
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For Celtic culture, Ireland is much like Iceland was to the Norse. It was sufficiently removed
from mainstream Europe to protect it from invasions and to isolate it from many of the cultural
changes which wracked the face of early Europe. It allowed a singular perpetuation of pagan
Celtic culture to fuse with the Christian and the emerging European culture. This unique synthesis
would provide the single most productive line of cultural transmission between Celtic culture and
the European culture which grew out of classical and German sources.
Written history in Ireland began in the fifth century CE when Patrick came to Ireland and
introduced literacy. Patrick came to the Celtic tribal kingdom of Tara, which was ruled by Leary,
the son of Niall Noígallich. The sons of Niall ruled over two kingdoms in northern Ireland; these
rulers formed a dynasty that would be called the Uí Néill; the south of Ireland was largely under
the control of Munster. Patrick himself confined all of his activities to northern Ireland and the Uí
Néill, particularly around the area of Armagh. Because he introduced the Irish to Christianity,
European culture, and writing, he became the patron saint of Ireland.
In the 700s, Ireland became subject to Scandinavian raids and emigrations, just as most of the rest
of Europe. The first to arrive were the Norwegians who attacked various islands and some of the
headlands; in the 800s, however, the Norwegians began to attack the western coast of Ireland. In
the mid-800s and all through the 900s, the Norse actively began to build fortified towns along the
eastern coast of Ireland. In 841, they built the fortified town of Dublin, and would later establish
fortifications at Cork, Waterford, and Wicklow, some of the central towns of later Irish history.
Of these towns, however, Dublin was the center of all the Norse activity and served as their
central base for raids all around Ireland and the Irish Sea.
The Irish at this time did not concentrate their population along the coast but lived inland—the
Irish also did not live in large and fortified towns. The introduction of both fortifications and
something resembling urban life was originally introduced by the Norse.
Eventually, however, the Norse would come in conflict with the Danish and the area around
Dublin became part of the Danish kingdom that had been established in northern England. The
Irish, however, lived in individual tribal groups that were not united—it wasn't until 1014 that
Munster Irish under the leadership of Brian Bóruma defeated the Danish at Clontarf and finally
expelled the Norse for good.
The Norwegians and the Danish, however, had largely stripped Irish culture of its greatest
cultural artifacts. The only histories that were written of the Norse in Ireland were written by the
Irish—these historians were far from sympathetic to the invaders! Ireland, however, gained a
fundamental shift in its cultural and economic practices. The Irish inherited from the Danes and
Norwegians fortified coastal towns and a new economy based on trade and commerce with other
Europeans. They also gave to the Irish more sophisticated skills in ship-building and travel.
The most important legacy that the Irish bequeathed to Europe was Irish Christianity. When
Patrick came to Ireland in the fifth century, Christianity had spread across the face of Celtic
culture but hadn't really penetrated the various Celtic cultures. It was spread very thin and
practiced by a small minority in Gaul and Britain. It was also assuming a new, distinct character
among the Celts, who combined Christianity not only with native Celtic institutions and religions,
but with a plethora of eastern mystery religions…It was this Celticized version of Christianity
that Patrick brought with him to Ireland.
The Saxon invasions, however, wiped out Christianity in England, but not in Wales or Ireland or
Scotland, where the religion had been introduced by Columba, an Irish saint. It wasn't until the
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late sixth century that Christianity was reintroduced into Britain; this brand of Christianity, more
aligned with the practices of the Roman church, came into conflict with Celtic Christianity and its
unique practices. By the tenth century, the unique Celtic Christianity of Britain had largely been
subordinated [made inferior] to Saxon Christianity. It was in Ireland that Celtic Christianity
thrived during the Germanic invasions and then the later subordination of Celtic Christian
practices to Saxon practices.
The Christianity that Patrick brought to Ireland was episcopal or diocesan Christianity—the
standard form of Christianity in Roman occupied territories. Episcopal Christianity is oriented
around the organization of Christians as lay people under the spiritual and partially secular
control of a bishop (episcopus in Latin). Episcopal Christianity, however, was wholly unsuited to
Ireland, for it relies on a certain level of urbanization. For the largely rural, disorganized, and
tribal nature of early Irish society, the episcopal structure had nothing to work with. So Irish
Christianity soon developed into monastic Christianity, which is oriented around the
centralization of a small Christian community under the leadership of an abbot [similar to their
traditional structures of tribal authority]. This would become the uniquely Irish form of
Christianity that in spirit and in practice was much different from the predominantly episcopal
character of Roman Christianity.
The monastic centers became the areas where Irish Christian culture thrived—they also
introduced some political stability and agriculture into Irish society. While they were nominally
under the authority of Rome, because they were so removed they operated with relative
independence. This would eventually bring them in severe conflict with the Roman church.
Before that, however, Irish missionaries would spread Celtic culture and Christianity all over the
face of Europe. Even though the Irish Christians eventually submitted to Roman pressures, Irish
Christianity had diffused across the face of Europe.
This is because the most innovative and distinct feature of Irish Christianity was wandering,
called perigrinatio in Latin. While many Christians became monks in monasteries, some became
anchorites, that is, solitary monks. The Irish anchorites, however, saw their mission not as living
in isolation, but as wandering around by themselves. These were not specifically missionary
wanderings, but they had that effect. In the sixth century, one of Ireland's greatest saints,
Columcille (or "Columba" in Latin), successfully introduced Christianity to Scotland.
As the middle ages progressed, however, the uniquely Celtic character of the Irish church, with its
profoundly brilliant fusion of Celtic art with Christian art, its fusion of Celtic social organization
and laws with monastic life, and its unique perigrinative character disappeared into the
homogenizing trend of the higher middle ages.
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