Animals in Celtic Life and Myth
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For the Celts, a rural people whose survival depended solely upon their environment, natural phenomena, the elements, and animals, especially, merited their extreme respect. The Celts made both wild and domesticated species the focus of elaborate rituals as well as the basis of profound religious beliefs. Animals in Celtic Life and Myth examines the intimate relationship between humans and animals, in a society in which animals were special and central to all aspects of life.Miranda Green draws on evidence from a variety of early Celtic documents, as well as archaeology and iconography, revealing that the Celts believed many animals to be sacred, either possessing divine status in their own right or acting as mediators between gods and humans. She covers the crucial role of animals in the Celtic economy; in hunting and welfare; in Celtic art and literature; in religion and ritual. The attitude of the Celts toward animals closely connected the Celtic with the everyday: warfare was bound up with religion; the killing of animals was a ritual act; in stories, heroes talk to animals in their own language and gods change at will from human to animal form. The book covers the important period between 8 B.C. and 1 A.D., during which much of Europe, ranging from Ireland to Czechoslovakia, was turning to Christianity. Animals in Celtic Life and Myth is invaluable to students of archaeology, anthropology and history, as well as to the general reader with an interest in animals.
List of figuresPrefaceAcknowledgements1The Natural World of the Celts12Food and Farming: Animals in the Celtic Economy53Prey and Predator: The Celtic Hunter444Animals at War665Sacrifice and Ritual926The Artist's Menagerie1287Animals in the Earliest Celtic Stories1628God and Beast1969Changing Attitudes to the Animal World239Notes243Bibliography265Index274
