The following article is a guest blog contribution by Jonathan G 'ODonoghue, originally published on Our Irish Heritage, (January 11, 2012). We send our thanks to Jonathan for allowing us to republish this article on BermudaQuest.

Lettergorman/Leitir Gormáin, Cork 
Five-stone circle 
Guest blog by Jonathan G O'Donoghue

Lettergorman in Cork is a five-stone circle, there is a 6th stone lying next to the stone circle, which is a block of white quartz, these stones are often associated with stone circles, quartz in Irish being 'Grianchloch', which means 'sun stone', and also in this stone circle one of the two portal stones has fallen. The name Lettergorman comes from the Irish 'Leitir Gormáin' meaning cornflower/blue bottle hillside, Leitir being Hillside or wet hillside, and gormáin meaning either the plant blue bottle or cornflower.

Stone Circles of Folklore

In the 17th and 18th centurty folklore stone circles were seen as petrified dancers who dared dance on a Sunday. This period found the Catholic as well Protestant churches making Sunday an issue to have meriment so throughout Europe you have this story of stone circles being petrified dancers. But in Ireland this is very rare, only found in a small area in the east of the country, which was probably imported from Wales and Cornwall, where this story was much more prevalent.

Lettergorman Five-stone circle
Illustration by JG O'Donoghue

Stone Circles of Archaeology

In Britain it has been found that there is a correlation between stone circles and stone axe factories, this is of yet unproven in Ireland. Stone circles near trackways may have been places of acquisition and distribution of stone axes and from there brought to richer settlement areas. In Ireland the main factory of stone axe production was in Antrim, stone axes originating from there have been found in Britain, mostly scotland and throughout Ireland as far south as Lough Gur. The Common orientation of earlier wedge tombs with that of stone circles of a later period shows some continuation of belief between the two, this is further emphasised by the regional distribution of these monuments, suggesting stable settlement patterns over a long period.

Munster Stone Circles

Many stone circles in Munster only have 5 stones, like the one illustrated here, but can go up to 19 stones, commonly among these southernly stone circles is the axial or recumbent stone, which is usually in the southwestern area of the circle, directly accross the largiest two stones, the portal stones, which mark the entrance, from there the stones decrease in size till the recumbent stone.

Jonathan G O’Donoghue is a freelance illustrator from Cork, Ireland. His work focuses on aspects of Irish identity, including but not limited to Irish archaeology, language, or typography. His work exploes and celebrates these issues and subjects and attempts to raise awareness and interest in them. His work is in the traditional medium of pen and ink as well as painting with colored inks. For more information about Jonathan please visit his site or contact him at info@jgodonoghue.com.

Newgrange

Newgrange, UNESCO World Heritage Site

Newgrange is a monument constructed in prehistoric times approximately 3,300 B.C. during the Neolithic period, This makes it even older than England's Stonehenge or The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. It is located on the eastern side of Ireland, County Meath, slightly to the north of the river Boyne. Newgrange forms part of a larger historic complex named bru na Bóinne containing three tombs, Dowth, Knowth and Newgrange, the largest of the three is Dowth. Throughout the area there are around thirty five more smaller mounds. Newgrange remained undiscovered until the 17th century and was later excavated in 1962 and 1975. UNESCO has since designated the area as a World Heritage Site. It is believed to have been built by a thriving farming community who lived well on the rich land that forms the Boyne Valley. 

Passageway cross section

Newgrange covers an area of more than an acre and is a kidney shaped mound. At the base are ninety seven retaining stones, known as kerbstones. It was obviously constructed by skilled workmen from a well organized society and there would have been specialized groups dealing with the various aspects of building. There is a 19 meter long inner passage leading to a cruciform chamber which has a corbelled roof. Originally believed to be a passage tomb, Newgrange is now recognized to be much more and is thought to have been used in a similar way to present day cathedrals as a prestigious place of worship, weddings and a resting place for important people. 

Megalith, triple spirals

At the entrance to the passage is a large rock intricately carved with Celtic designs which features the only Celtic triple spiral motif ever discovered. The kerbstones surrounding Newgrange are also carved with Celtic designs. These carvings were created later than the original construction possibly by a man from Italy or France. The Celts themselves arrived in Ireland during the Iron Age, which was around 600 B.C. The height of the passage is low until the entrance to the main chamber which is in the shape of a cross. Again, Celtic designs can be seen both in the passage and also the chamber which had been used as a tomb, five bodies were discovered when excavations were carried out. 

One remarkable feature of Newgrange is that at the winter solstice once a year, the rising sun is perfectly aligned with the long passage and shines all the way through to the chamber, illuminating it for about seventeen minutes by means of a 'roof box' located above the passage entrance. Because of the way Newgrange was constructed, it is too exact to be coincidental. Demand to witness this amazing sight is high and only a fortunate few who hold special invitations are permitted inside the chamber as it happens. 

photograph by Cyril Byrne, courtesy of The Irish Times

image courtesy of The Office of Public Works, Ireland

It is only possible to visit Newgrange by guided tour from the Brú na Bóinne Centre south of the river Boyne. As Newgrange is on the north of the river, visitors cross by a pedestrian bridge and catch a special bus to Newgrange. There is no public access by road except in the winter at the time of the solstice. Although there are a great many places of historic interest to be seen in Ireland, Newgrange has to rank among the ones not to be missed.

About the Author: Steven Forsyth has studied Celtic Mythology and Irish Folklore, he has worked in the Jewelry industry for over 7 years with Celtic Rings Ltd in Dublin, Ireland.

“Celtic Culture – An Overview”

Although the Celtic peoples were a large and influential society during the classical period of ancient European history, their lack of a written language makes their culture somewhat difficult to define and describe. The Celtic tribes never had a common leader and may never have spoken a unified language. Ancient place-names considered to be in the Celtic language were also used by non-Celtic tribes, making it seem likely that the language was never linked to one distinct ethnic or national group.

 Image courtesy of the Newgrange Vistor Centre
at the monoliths in Boyne Valley, eastern Ireland

In the 8^th-7^th centuries BCE, approximately the time of the founding of the city of Rome, the Celts are believed to have moved into the British Isles. Their territory expanded far beyond England and Ireland, though. It included parts of modern Turkey at the easternmost, much of Central Europe north of the Alps and Balkans, the Rhine Valley, much of modern France and Spain, and the whole of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

 Image courtesy of the Newgrange Vistor Centre
at the monoliths in Boyne Valley, eastern Ireland

The earliest historical mentions of the Celts come from the ancient Greeks, in about 500 BCE. The Greeks described them as the westernmost people of Europe. Around 390 BCE, the Celts sacked Rome. The Greeks and Romans considered them barbarians, and they bedeviled a number of civilizations until about 279 BCE. The end of the classical period of Celtic culture came in the first century BCE, when the Romans under Julius Caesar conquered the British Isles and Germanic-speaking tribes attacked Celtic territory from the north. After that time, Celtic cultural traditions become heavily influenced by the Roman and Germanic cultures.

Although Celts from different regions appear to have worshipped different gods and goddesses, there is some commonality in their religion. Their goddesses seem to have been associated with the running water of rivers and streams. They worshipped a horned god, sometimes known as Cernunnos, associated with deer and bulls. Other gods were represented with a wheel and with a cauldron.

The writers who lived as contemporaries of the ancient Celts all agreed their most sacred places were groves of trees, particularly oak trees where mistletoe grew. A class of priests called the Druids, or “knowers of the oak tree,” performed their rituals and sacrifices, among other secular functions. The Druids also memorized the Celts’ oral histories in the form of genealogies and epic poetry. By the time of the Roman invasion, the common Celtic people were still largely illiterate, but the Druids were able to read and write both their own language and Latin.

Archaeologists who study the early Celtic cultures of central Europe come to these conclusions about their culture:

*The men wore woolen kilts.

*They lived in square and round huts with thatched roofs.

*Most were cremated when they died and were placed in urns, which were then buried in neat rows. A few people, perhaps tribal chieftains or priests/priestesses, were buried in chariots, too flimsy for everyday use, suggesting the chariot was a religious symbol.

*They tended to be war-like, but apparently never attempted to build a large empire.

*They were an egalitarian society, without extremes of class or wealth.

Their later descendants, the ones known to the great Mediterranean civilizations of classical Europe, had the following characteristics:

*Less egalitarian than their ancestors, later Celtic peoples had a distinct class of nobles.

*Men wore gold, silver or bronze torque-style necklaces. Although these ornaments have not been found in the graves of women, Celtic goddesses are depicted wearing them.

*They kept bees, sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. Wild boar seems to have been a favorite food.

*The common people drank milk, beer and mead. Nobles might import wine.

*Although at one time they were noted for going into battle naked, the Celts invented chain-mail armor.

*They wore blue body paint for ceremonial occasions and sometimes in battle. The roots of this custom may lie in the belief among many Indo-European peoples that the gods’ veins were filled with a blue ethereal substance, called ichor by the Greeks. Painting one’s self with blue was a way of asking to be taken in by the gods in the event of death.

 Image courtesy of the Newgrange Vistor Centre
at the monoliths in Boyne Valley, eastern Ireland

The Romans typically left alone the religious practices of conquered tribes, yet they were uncharacteristically hard on the Celtic cultural practices of the British Isles. In their historical writings, the Romans claimed they were repulsed by the practices of human sacrifice and beheading of enemies killed in battle. (The Celts believed a kind of magic resided in the head, even after death.) In fact, this suppression may have stemmed from Roman fear of the temporal power held by the Druids, whose secular power within Celtic society had steadily increased by the time of Caesar.

Today, the remaining outposts of Celtic language and culture lie primarily in western Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, Wales, the Brittany region of France and the Cornwall region of England. These far corners of the Roman Empire were less tightly controlled than the empire’s more easily accessible lands.

Common characteristics of Celtic visual arts include:

*An emphasis on geometry, particularly the circle and the number three. Many Celtic myths and folk beliefs make reference to the number three.

*Natural forms, such as those of animals and leaves.

*The theme of metamorphosis, evidenced by images that can be interpreted in different ways when viewed from alternative angles.

Erin Schmidt is a Freelance writer and editor who normally writes about books, but also loves history.

References:

“Celtic Britain (The Iron Age) c. 500 BC -60 AD” http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Celtic_Britain.htm

“Celtic Design.” http://www.unc.edu/celtic/designindex.html

“Celtic Europe.” http://www.watson.org/~leigh/celts.html

Discovery of Lost Worlds, edited by Joseph J. Thorndike, Jr. Simon and Schuster: New York.

Quest for the Past, edited by Ann Kramer and Lindy Newton. Reader’s Digest.

The Timetables of History: The New Third Revised Edition, by Bernard Grun. Simon and Schuster: New York.

The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, by Barbara G. Walker. Harper & Row, San Francisco.