My Notes on the Celts

It is believed that "Keltoi" was the Greek name for a particular linguistic group.  The name "Celtic" derived from the Greek "Keltoi" and was not a nationality but a language used by certain nomadic groups of people.  These groups travelled and settled throughout Asia Minor and Europe and eventually reached the British Isles.

 

Unfortunately, the Celtic people of old did not have written records.  Investigations of what records there are, in particular, ancient manuscripts and folk-law from Ireland and Wales suggest that the Celts may have been a more highly civilised people than the Roman historical accounts would lead us to believe.

 

The Druids were the intellectual caste of ancient Celtic society.  They were more than just spiritual guides but were philosophers, judges, historians, poets and musicians, physicians, astronomers.  The evidence suggests they had a deep respect for life, believed in the immortality of the soul and that one should live in harmony with nature.  They revered truth believing it had great power.  In modern Irish, one of the surviving Celtic languages, these words might be said when a person passes on to the next life 'Ta selsi in ait na fhirinne anos'  'he/she is in the place of truth now'.​  

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