Who are the Celtic Peoples?
Who are the Celtic peoples? In a certain sense this is potentially a more problematic question than the identity of the Germanic peoples. Tacitus referred to the Celtic peoples of the British Isles as having quite diverse physical characteristics.
"But their physical characteristics vary, and their variation is suggestive. The reddish hair and large limbs of the Caledonians proclaim a German origin; the swarthy faces of the Silures, the tendency of their hair to curl, and the fact that Spain lies opposite, all lead one to believe that Spaniards crossed in ancient times and occupied that part of the country. The peoples nearest to the Gauls likewise resemble them. It may be that they still show the effect of a common origin; or perhaps it is the climatic conditions that have produced this physical type in lands that converge so closely from north and south."
[Agricola II]
T.W. Rolleston in Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race wrote:
"To begin with we must dismiss the idea that Celtic was ever inhabited by a single pure and homogenous race. The true Celts, if we accept on this point the carefully studied and elaborately argued conclusion of Dr T. Rice Holmes, supported by the unanimous voice of antiquity, were a tall, fair race, warlike and masterful, whose place of origin[as far as we cantrace them] was somewhere about the sources of the Danube, and who spread their dominion both by conquest and by peaceful infiltration over mid-Europe, Gaul, Spain, and the British Islands."
"The ancients were not very close observers of physical characteristics. They describe the Celts in almost exactly the same terms as those which they apply to the Germanic races.
Ned Halley in the Introduction to the aforesaid work wrote:
"Who were the Celts? Their name came from the ancient Greeks, who used the sweeping term Keltoi for all the tall, fair-haired and warlike peoples who lived north of the Alps. Very broadly, the Celts of the ancient world were divided into two groups. The first were those of north-west Europe, including Scandinavia, later to be known as the Teutons, or Germans. Second were those of the regions of France we now know as the Auvergne, Brittany, and Normandy, Burgundy and Alsace-and beyond into Switzerland and Alpine Italy."
"But their physical characteristics vary, and their variation is suggestive. The reddish hair and large limbs of the Caledonians proclaim a German origin; the swarthy faces of the Silures, the tendency of their hair to curl, and the fact that Spain lies opposite, all lead one to believe that Spaniards crossed in ancient times and occupied that part of the country. The peoples nearest to the Gauls likewise resemble them. It may be that they still show the effect of a common origin; or perhaps it is the climatic conditions that have produced this physical type in lands that converge so closely from north and south."
[Agricola II]
T.W. Rolleston in Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race wrote:
"To begin with we must dismiss the idea that Celtic was ever inhabited by a single pure and homogenous race. The true Celts, if we accept on this point the carefully studied and elaborately argued conclusion of Dr T. Rice Holmes, supported by the unanimous voice of antiquity, were a tall, fair race, warlike and masterful, whose place of origin[as far as we cantrace them] was somewhere about the sources of the Danube, and who spread their dominion both by conquest and by peaceful infiltration over mid-Europe, Gaul, Spain, and the British Islands."
"The ancients were not very close observers of physical characteristics. They describe the Celts in almost exactly the same terms as those which they apply to the Germanic races.
Ned Halley in the Introduction to the aforesaid work wrote:
"Who were the Celts? Their name came from the ancient Greeks, who used the sweeping term Keltoi for all the tall, fair-haired and warlike peoples who lived north of the Alps. Very broadly, the Celts of the ancient world were divided into two groups. The first were those of north-west Europe, including Scandinavia, later to be known as the Teutons, or Germans. Second were those of the regions of France we now know as the Auvergne, Brittany, and Normandy, Burgundy and Alsace-and beyond into Switzerland and Alpine Italy."
The modern Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Cornish and Breton peoples all trace their origins to the Celts of ancient Europe but to what extent is this true, bearing in mind that these peoples do not share a common racial phenotype. This is an issue which we will explore in a future article.
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