 What does Celtic even mean, and is it still relevant today? In a famous speech in the 1960s to an academic audience that was mostly filled with Celtic specialists, J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings books, made the following remarks. Celtic of any sort is a magic bag, into which anything may be put, and out of which anything may come. Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight, which is not so much a twilight of the gods, but as of the reason. Although his remarks refer to linguistic etymologies specifically, as after all, Tolkien was a philologist, one who studied the limage of oral and written historical sources. His eloquent and poetic remarks raise an important question, what does Celtic even mean? The first reference to the Celts in the historical record came in 517 BC, when the Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus referred to people in Massilia, modern-day Marseilles, in southern Gaul as the Keltoi, shortly after in the 5th century BC. The Greek historian Herodotus, known as the father of history, once again referred to the Keltoi, this time referring to people who were living close to the source of the Danube, in the southwest of modern Germany, and people in the far west of Europe. The etymology of Keltoi is debated. Some say it comes from an Indo-European word meaning stranger or enemy. Others say it comes from variations of the Indo-European word kegel, meaning to hide, to heat, or to impel. Others suggest it meant the people or descendants of the hidden one, noting that certain Gauls claimed descent from an underworld god, yet others suggest it means the tall ones. Despite its debated meaning, one important point to know is that the Celts is the word that the ancient Celts themselves used to refer to themselves, which is quite refreshing, considering that many tribes or many peoples of the ancient world essentially just have names that Roman or Greek writers wrote down, and we do not know what they called themselves. The Celts however, the ancient Celts, referred to themselves as the Celts. That is perhaps one reason why the word Celtic has a magical quality, as Tolkien said. It's a direct connection to an ancient civilization that many people in western Europe are connected to, and it's a word that would have had a deep meaning to the ancient Celts themselves. In the opening line of Caesar's commentaries on the conquest of Gaul, a brutal Roman conquest of Gaul, the home of Celtic civilization, that wiped out large parts of Celtic civilization. Caesar wrote that. Gaul comprises three areas, inhabited respectively by the Belge, the Aquitanni, and a people who call themselves Celts, though we call them Gauls. It is hard to say whether Celts was a word that the Celts themselves actually initially gave themselves, or it was a word that the Greeks initially came up with, and then the Celts later adopted. What we can say is that the Celts called themselves Celts. Quite remarkable and quite fascinating. Like I say, many names of ancient peoples are Roman or Greek names, and we do not know what these people called themselves. The word Celt is not just a word that has been in use for thousands of years. It is a word that the Celts themselves would have used. Now we know a little more about the etymology of the word and the history of the word Cel or Celtic. What is the broader meaning? Simply put, Celts are largely identified by their use of Celtic limeges and other cultural similarities. The Celts were one of the great civilizations of the ancient world, along with the likes of the Greeks, the Persians and the Scythians. Celtic limeges themselves are a branch of the Indo-European language family that contains both ancient and modern languages. Ancient Celtic limeges include Celtiberian, spoken by the Celtiberians who inhabited the Iberian Peninsula until they were conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC. Gaulish was another ancient Celtic language, spoken by the inhabitants of Gaul and other parts of continental Europe. Common Barthonic was another ancient Celtic language, spoken by the people of ancient Britain. Pictish was arguably a sister or connected language to this, and modern Celtic limeges that are descended from common Barthonic, include Welsh, Breton and Cornish. Gaudelic limeges are another branch of Celtic limeges, with Irish, Scottish Gallic and Manx, spoken on the Isle of Man. All Gaudelic limeges still spoken today, of course. So, as we have seen, limeges is a major way to understand what Celtic means, and the associated cultural traits have evolved over time, creating connections over thousands of years between a once great ancient civilisation, along with the Greeks and the Scythians and the Persians, to the Celtic nations of today, as well as other nations where the Celts played an important role in their history. Now that we have a better understanding of what Celtic means, who were the ancient Celts? The Celts were a group of ancient people, bound together by their use of Celtic limeges, as well as other similar cultural traits. They went on to occupy large parts of the British Isles, western Europe, and then migrated east into eastern Europe, and parts of Anatolia, modern-day Turkey. To be clear, the Celts weren't a unified empire as such. They were a collection of various different groups, they were bound together by shared cultural traits, shared societal structure, shared belief in certain gods, etc., and obviously more prominently, their use of Celtic limeges, such as Gaulish and Brothonic. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when looking at countries such as Scotland and Ireland today, the ancient Celts loved to drink, and were particularly fond of wine. Many Celtic societies also had commonalities in their societal structure, such as the Druids playing an important role, a priestly, magical, spiritual, but also a judicial role in many Celtic societies. Various Celtic peoples also worshipped the same Celtic gods, such as the Tatus or Cernanos, from the Gaulish word Karnan, meaning Horan or Antlar. The first recorded use of the word Kel comes from the Greek geographer Hecateus of Miletus in 517 BC, describing a people in Southern Gaul in modern Marseilles. As for the origin of the Celts in general, there is a debate. The traditional argument states that the Celts grew out of the unfilled and holstered culture of Germany and Austria, around 1200 BC, and then migrated in various directions from there, particularly spread through the La Tène period, the La Tène culture, which started around 450 BC, up until the 1st century BC. This tradition of use has been challenged, however, by the likes of Barry Cunliffe, an archaeologist, the Emirates Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford. He essentially argues that the proto-Celtic language could have originated in the Atlantic zone, basically in the British Isles, Ireland, and parts of maybe Western France. This Atlantic zone that the proto-Celtic language could have originated as a lingua franca or trading language, basically a language that was used by people that spoke different languages but wanted to communicate or had to communicate for the purposes of trade, etc. Cunliffe argues that the proto-Celtic language, where the Celtic languages originated from, would have originated much older than 1200 BC as does lingua franca in the Atlantic zone. Irrespective of their origins, most Celtic people were conquered by the Romans. The most famous example of this was Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul between 58 and 50 BC, with Gaul being a territory which included large parts of most of modern France, Belgium, Switzerland, and parts of Germany. That general area was the home of Gaul, the home of Celtic civilization, that Julius Caesar famously conquered and then wrote a book about. Not all Celtic civilization was wiped out, however, by the Romans. Celtic languages are still spoken today, six remaining Celtic languages. Irish, Scottish Gallic, Welsh, Manx on the Isle of Man, Cornish and Breton. Speaking of the Celts, what did Celtic warfare look like? To find out, please click here. Thanks for watching. For ways to support this work, I'll be in the description below, including through my merch store or through Patreon or buymeacoffee.com. Please subscribe and hit the bell until you're friends and family about this channel. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.