In an interview on The Celts

When I think of the Celts, I think of Scotland and Ireland. But that’s not entirely accurate, is it?

That’s right. One of the things I argue in my book is that we can talk about a Celtic civilisation in early history, pre-history, antiquity. Even in the Middle Ages there was a Celtic civilisation to talk of. However, when you actually get to the modern Irish and Scots, they are, if you like, the descendants of that Celtic civilisation. But, in fact, the very idea that they are Celtic is a fairly recent one, dating back to the 18th century.

From around the fifth century AD to the 18th century, no one had any idea that, for example, the Welsh and the Irish had anything in common. No one would have thought to class them together as part of the same civilisation.

You’ve written your most recent book to prove the existence of the Celts. Why was there a question mark over this?

Well, for the last 20 years many different people have tried to argue that the Celts had never existed. One of the things I’ve done in this book is try to demonstrate that there really was a Celtic civilisation in the early centuries BC and that we can trace that civilisation through several centuries in Ireland and Britain especially.

What ties the Celtic people together?

Well, the ancient Celts were tied together by a common group of languages; we have evidence of common mythical heroes, a common religion, and there is also evidence of a common sense of identity, which is perhaps the most important. They thought of themselves as a people apart.

I see. So what sort of time period are we dealing with – some time between the Romans and the 10th and 11th centuries, isn’t it?

By the time you get to the 10th and 11th centuries things are falling apart, in the sense that it’s difficult to talk about the Celtic civilisation. About a third of my book covers this period, but I try to make clear that by this point we’re dealing with fossils of Celtic civilisation – I especially concentrate on the legends that have come down from the Iron Ages, an earlier period of Celtic history.

The first book you’ve recommended, Barry Cunliffe’s The Celts: A Very Short Introduction, is a very brief introductory text for what seems to be a very broad topic. How does he bring it all together?

The thing about Barry Cunliffe is that he’s written so many books on the Celts, and he’s clearly sweated a lot over these books. My impression with this book … my hypothesis is that he wrote it on a wet weekend and didn’t think too much about it. And I think it comes out so much better as a result. It’s just his reflections, his musings, and it’s a really fun read.

There must be quite a few colourful characters in Celtic folklore – and Celtic history as well.

That’s right. We have various interesting war leaders – Boudicca in Britain for example, just after the Roman conquest – and some of the figures I dredge up in the early part of my book are these Celtic tribal leaders from beyond the Alps that came crashing down to the Mediterranean in the early centuries BC.

One of the fascinating things is that it’s very difficult for us to separate legend from history – we’re really honestly not sure with the early figures whether they’re real or not, whether they’re heroes from Celtic mythology or real historical individuals.

It’s interesting that one of the early Celtic heroes was called Brennos, and he turns up about 15 centuries later in Welsh folklore – his name is Bran, which means raven, from which we get the legend of the ravens at the Tower of London.

 Boudicca is one of the few we can be sure about. Her name meant ‘victory’, a fairly common name, and she’s very well attested. But it looks as if legend and history did merge in her biography. So even if she existed, we can’t be absolutely sure how much of what’s written about her is true.

Could you give us a synopsis of Boudicca’s story?

Britain was conquered by the Romans in 43AD, and the first generation of Roman rule proves very onerous on the tribal Celtic societies of Britain. Boudicca is the great hope that the British Celts will be able to drive the Romans out of the island, and in 61AD this extraordinary civil war sets off in the Fens and in East Anglia, basically destroying everything Roman in sight.

There are very, very vivid archaeological records, where we’ve found statues that have been decapitated by the tribal Celts. The tribal Celts were always very interested in what we call ‘the cult of the head’ – not only did they decapitate people but, in their anger against the Romans, they also decapitated statues.

Then, of course, we have just levels and levels of burning in Eastern and South-Eastern cities across England, especially London; if you’re on the north bank of London and you dig down far enough you will coming to the burning from the time of Boudicca, where basically the city was set alight.

In the early 20th century, two boys went fishing in a river in Suffolk and actually fished up the head – a bronze head – of the Emperor Claudius, which would have come from the Temple of Claudius, near Colchester. This was one of these heads which had been decapitated by the Celtic warriors, and you can imagine these two boys’ faces when they found this great bronze head on the end of their hook.