United Celts

Murchad, son of High King Brian Boru, captures a Norse warrior at the Battle of Clontarf; 23 April, AD 1014. Art by Angus McBride. 🇮🇪

The battle of Clontarf, fought just outside Dublin, was the last major battle fought between between the native Irish and the Norse. Accounts of the battle can be found in the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh (Irish: “The War of the Irish with the Foreigners”) and Njál’s Saga, as well as in the various annals.

The battle was a result of a power struggle in Ireland between High King Brian Boru and the Irish king of Leinster, Máel Mórdha, mac Murchadha. The Norse of Dublin, Orkney and the Isle of Man took the side of Máel Mórdha’s and greatly bolstered his forces. Máel Mórdha and the Norse king of Dublin, Sygtrygg Silkenbeard, had revolted against Brian’s overlordship and called upon their allies to meet them outside Dublin for a violent showdown with Brian and his forces. The result was a brutal mutual slaughter, both armies suffering catastrophic casualties. Among the killed were king Brian himself, his son and designated heir Murchad, his grandson Toirdelbach, and the greater part of his army, including numerous provincial subject kings. On the other side fell the king of Leinster Máel Mórdha, the Norse jarl of Orkney Sigurd “the Stout” Hlodvirsson, the Manx leader Brodir (who was credited with having killed Brian personally), and nearly their entire armies.

Brian’s army had won a pointless, Cadmean victory (a victory involving one’s own ruin). The main beneficiaries of the battle were his son Donnchad, who became the next king of Thomond in succession to Brian, and king Sygtrygg of Dublin, who hadn’t fought in the battle and was thus rid of Brian’s oppressive yoke. The power of Dublin however, and of the Vikings in Ireland generally, had been permanently broken.

Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Reconstructed Gallic village near Steinbach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany: 2nd-1st century B.C. 🇩🇪 The interactive open-air museum is located beneath the highest mountain in the region, known as Donnersberg (images 5 & 6). Donnersberg once had a massive 240 hectare Celtic hill-fort built upon it; part of the wall of this settlement has been partially reconstructed (last photo).

Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

The Odyssey as Gaeilge translated by Monsignor Pádraig de Brun

The Iliad as Gaeilge translated by Archbishop John MacHale

Kilkenny Castle, Ireland

15th century portrait of king Coel Hen of northern Britain, from a Welsh language version of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Coel “the Old” was a 5th century ruler who founded a kingdom in northern England in the aftermath of the collapse of Roman rule. He is believed by many to have been the inspiration for the popular English nursery rhyme “Old King Cole”. Coel’s origins are obscure and it’s uncertain how he managed to coalesce such a huge polity, which stretched from the English Midlands to the borders of Scotland, and was probably centered in York. Certainly he had an alliance with the Brythonic Kingdom of Alt Clut, located in Scotland, and it appears that between them both they conquered all the kingdoms between Hadrian’s Wall and the Forth-Clyde Isthmus: All of these kingdoms were later ruled by dynasties descended either from Coel, or from king Cinuit of Alt Clut.

This policy of alliances and conquests in northern Britain was no doubt part of a strategy to bolster the frontier against marauding bands of Picts and Irish, who’d been plaguing Britain even before the collapse of Roman rule. This is probably where Coel got his other nickname: Godebog (“shelterer”). However, his efforts ultimately proved insufficient. Scottish and Welsh traditions, some recorded by Hector Boece, tell of a spectacular takedown of Coel by the invading Picts and Scots (“Scoti” was the name given in Latin sources to Irish people back then). Coel’s meddling in the north seems to have provoked the Picts and Scots to band together and raid Coel’s main ally, the Kingdom of Alt Clut. Coel responded by leading a huge army north, which overtook and surrounded the invaders in their camp near the river Doon in Ayrshire, Scotland. In a sudden turn of fortunes, the Scots and Picts made a desperate night attack on Coel’s camp, defeating his army with great slaughter. Coel fled from the battle, eventually being caught and killed in a bog near Tarbolton, which is still known as “Coilsfield”. After Coel’s death, his kingdom was divided between his sons Ceneu (in York) and Gorbanian (Kingdom of Brynaich in Northumberland). His disastrous end may be what inspired other British rulers, mainly Vortigern, to hire Germanic mercenaries, Jutes, Angles and Saxons, as a way to bolster the island’s defensive capabilities.

Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Portrait of king Urien of Rheged. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 credit: Web: www.arthwys.com / X: @ActualAurochs.

Urien, son of Cynfarch Oer, was a late 6th century king in Sub-Roman Britain. He ruled the Kingdom of Rheged, a large and powerful polity in what’s now northern England and some parts of southern Scotland. Rheged was one of many Brythonic kingdoms that emerged from the fracturing of a larger polity that had been formed by Urien’s ancestor, Coel Hen (“Coel the Old”). These included Brynaich, Elmet, Ebrauc (York), Rheged, and a few others. Coel had formed his kingdom in the aftermath of the collapse of Roman rule in Britain (mid 5th century), and dedicated his life to fighting against the Pictish and Irish raiders who’d been plaguing Britain at the time; tradition has it that he died in battle against them.

Urien was the last Celtic king to exercise dominion in the Brythonic “Old North” (i.e. northern England/southern Scotland). He and his son, prince Owain (the inspiration for the Arthurian character Ywain) were credited with winning several battles: At Gwen Ystrad/Catraeth against the Britons of the Kingdom of Gododdin, at Alclud Ford against Anglian invaders, and at Argoed Llwyfain, also against Anglian invaders. Sadly, these victories against the Angles proved insufficient, and it was during conflict with them that Urien’s downfall came about. While besieging the invaders at Ynys Metcaut (now Lindisfarne), Urien was assassinated at the instigation of his supposed ally, king Morcant Bulc of Brynaich. The northern kingdoms lifted the siege, leaving the astonished Angles to recover. They then fell to destroying each other in a brutal war of brothers; Owain himself ended up dying in battle against the same Morcant. Rheged was so beset by its fellow Britons that it was forced to ally itself with the Angles, precipitating their rise to power in the north and takeover of the Kingdom of Brynaich (later Anglicized to Bernicia). Bernicia became Northumbria by conquering the Angles of Deira in AD 604. By the mid 7th century, it had also absorbed Rheged, peacefully by means of dynastic intermarriage.

Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Adrian Guiu

A Companion to John Scottus Eriugena

Katharine Simms

Gaelic Ulster in the Middle Ages: History, culture and society (Trinity Medieval Ireland Series)

The nualeargais.ie website is down and having issues but someone made the entire website into a PDF, it’s in the Google drive above and is also broken down per section which can make is handy to print etc.

That website is prob one of the best resources for Irish grammar explanations thus download the pdf to ensure it always survives.

On the ridge of Mynydd Drws-y-Coed, in Snowdonia National Park, Wales. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Bronze shield discovered in a bog near Beith, in Ayrshire, Scotland; 13th or 12th century B.C. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope