Celtic Origins

The constantly re-occuring question is "What is Celtic".

The answer to that is complex and elusive, as were the Celts. Most publications on the subject will mention that they were the people who inhabited Europe west of the river Danube all the way to the west coasts of the British Isles and Ireland. Based on what you might ask?Archeology has over the last centuries found links among many different locations and these all based on materials that have survived burial for thousands of years. There are few things that survive interment for that long, pottery and gold being among the best. Rock carvings are another, but all are subject to the wear and tear of time and weather.

In all of the things that do survive there has been a link in the decoration of the items that are found. They were given names like "Hallstatt","LaTene" early and late "Bronze Age", "Iron Age", etc, etc.

Having been born in the Netherlands, you might think my schooling would have exposed me to countless bits of information about the early inhabitants of the area. Well, on the contrary, a brief reference to the Cannifates and Batavi is all that I remember. Subsequent schooling in Belgium, France and Scotland did little to enlarge my knowledge on the subject of Celtic art, history, music or legends.

Not till many years later whilst running a craft shop and working on leather did a request for a music bag with an image of three interlaced figures to be tooled on the flap ignite my interest. This ostensibly was to represent three musicians for whom the bag was to be made. To me the image looked rather lonely, so after a little research I found a suitable design to enhance the flap of the bag. I still had no idea about Celtic art and this was a Greek key pattern that intertwined. It turns out the musicians decided to call themselves the "Celtic Circle", and to close this circle I received a dalmatian puppy that we called "Celtic", with a soft C rather that the usual hard C as in Celtic, since it was a female puppy.

From there I found George Bain's book on Celtic Art, and a wee while later Aidan Meehan wandered into the shop with his baby daughter because he saw a book cover of mine in the window with a Celtic design. The bairn went straight for the dogs ears, but the dog was not having any of that. She continued to evade the little girl and I finally called the dog into the workshop that was separated by a railing from the set of the Robert Altman's film "McCabe & Mrs.Miller" that had been filmed nearby. "Celtic here" and the dog was glad to escape, but Aidan hearing the soft rather than the hard C, asked my about my designs and before long invited me to join his Celtic Art classes.

Well, I'm still using the lessons that he taught and I have since traveled to most of the Celtic sites in the world, from Hallstatt to Neuchatel, Bibracte, Bobbio, Lutetia, Alesia, Rennes, Kells, Durrow, Dun Aengus and many more. My library on Celtic books now exceeds 350 volumes and hundreds - if not thousands of slides and pictures from museums and sites all over Europe.

I am now inextricably enmeshed in the pursuit of all things Celtic, and I hereby warn others, once you enter this maze, you may never leave.