Celt

Celt

(kĕlt, sĕlt) or

Kelt

(kĕlt). 1 One who speaks a Celtic language or who derives ancestry from an area where a Celtic language was spoken; i.e., one from Ireland, the Scottish Hebrides and Highlands, the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany. 2 A member of a group of peoples first found in SW Germany and E France early in the 2d millennium B.C., but perhaps much older than that. The Celts were a group of tribes speaking Indo-European dialects. Armed with iron weapons and mounted on horses, they spread rapidly over Europe, crossing into the British Isles, moving S over France, Italy, and Spain, fighting the Macedonians, and penetrating into Asia Minor, where they raided Hellenistic centers. The Celts introduced the newly developed iron industries. Their wealth from trade and from raiding helped to maintain their dominance over Central Europe during the Iron Age. The La Tène culture developed among the Celts. Greek influences that stimulated Celtic culture included the introduction of the chariot and of writing. Art flourished in richly ornamented styles. The Celts lived in semifortified villages, with a tribal organization that became increasingly hierarchical as wealth was acquired. Priests, nobles, artisans, and peasants were clearly distinguished, and the powers of the chief became kinglike. The Celts believed in a demonic universe and relied on the ministry of the druids. Much Western European folklore is derived from the Celts. By the 4th cent. B.C. they could no longer withstand the encroaching Germanic tribes, and they lost most of their holdings in the north and in W Germany. From that time on, Celtic history becomes confused with that of the many unsettled tribes in Europe. Celtic language and culture were variously dispersed among peoples of little historical identity, and until the 20th cent. historians obscured the very important differences among these groups by naming them all Celts. Further confusion has resulted from the designation of the Celts as a racial group. To the Greeks and Romans, the Celts were tall, muscular, and light-skinned, but it is believed that these were qualities of the Celt warriors rather than Celts in general. The term Celtic is actually a cultural one, unrelated to physical heredity. It implies a cultural tradition maintained through many centuries of common history in the same general area. See also Iron Age.

Bibliography

See N. Chadwick, The Celts (1970); D. Adam, The Edge of Glory: Prayers in the Celtic Tradition (1988); A. McBain, Celtic Mythology and Religions (1988).

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Celt

 

an ancient cutting tool, a special kind of bronze ax or adze, used in the working of wood and digging. The characteristic feature of the celt is a sleeve located at right angles to the blade into which an angular handle is inserted. Celts were used widely in almost all European countries in the second and first millennia B.C. In the USSR numerous celts of the Bronze Age and early Iron Age have been found along the lower Dnieper, along the middle Volga, in the Kama Region, and in Siberia near modern Krasnoiarsk and Minusinsk.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Celt

, Kelt

1. a person who speaks a Celtic language

2. a member of an Indo-European people who in pre-Roman times inhabited Britain, Gaul, Spain, and other parts of W and central Europe
www.ibiblio.org/gaelic/celts.html
http://celt.net/Celtic/celtopedia/indices/encyintro.html

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005