Fact or Fiction?

Mood: full
Listening to: Once upon a December -- Deanna Carter

was the ancient alphabets of the Celts. Letters were composed of straight or slanting lines, incised onto the edges of wooden or stone blocks. Evidence suggests that it was in common use from c. AD 300 until the seventh century, although some authorities believe that it may have been used even earlier on perishable materials. The Irish sagas tell of great libraries of ogham texts, recorded on pieces of bark, but no traces of these have been found. In the Táin, Cú Chulainn issued challenges to the Connacht men in ogham, carved on standing stones. The ogham was also believed to have magical properties, and druids used them in divination. The system was named after Ogma, the god of eloquence, prized by the Celts who rated word-power higher than physical prowess.

 

from: http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Marina/4870/celtic.html

 

Quote by Charles Squire-Celtic Myths and Legends:

Only with the closing of the lips of the last mortal who preserved his tradition can the life of a god be said to end.

Mood: cheerful
Listening to: like a rose by a1

found this from: http://www.watson.org/~leigh/celts.html

 

Celtic Gods and Heros

• Andrasta: victory goddess of the Inceni tribe
• Belenus: sun god and healer; name means 'brilliant'
• Artio: forest goddess; name means 'bear'
• Camulos: god of war
• Cernnunnos: lord of animals; name means 'the horned one'
• Epona: Gallic horse goddess; goddess of fertility
• Esus: high god; name means 'lord'
• Lenus: Treveni god of healing
• Sequana: goddess of Seine River
• Sucellus: hammer god; similar to Irish god Dagda; name means good striker
• Taranis: mysterious sky god; name means 'the thunderer'
• Teutates: name means 'god of the tribe'
• Vasio: Vocontii god, Gallic in origin

Celtic Numbers

3: sacred number in mythology and religion. Egs: riddles, triadic phraseology, triskel (3 spiral figure) signify three-layered human soul, marriage of earth, sea and sky in oaths, witnesses to deeds, and represents sacred elements

5: family unit and order in Irish tradition, five provinces of Ireland, five laws imposed on provincial Irish kings

17: associated with cycle of moon. Eg: On the day of the new moon, many influential and monumental events were thought to have taken place.

27: sacred number multiplied three times, tripled potency. number of warriors in a war-band, number of members in a Celtic cheiftain's royal court.

33: great honor, royal or judicary number, number of people in courts of great gods and heros, including the king. Also the number of islands that Maelduin had to visit before he could find his homeland.

 

Welsh Days of the Week

Monday:  marriages and loans were to be avoided because "work begun on Monday will never be a week old"; also a bad day to begin new endeavors.

Tuesday: fortunate day, good for travelling and getting married.

Wednesday: witching day, in which new projects should be avoided, for fear the witches might make plans go awry.

Thursday: oportune day for a christening, but a bad day to move house.

Friday: day that Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden;  most unlucky day of all; no pruning of fruit trees, or else they would not blossom or bear for three more years. Waters were believed to be controlled by the fairies on Friday, and was also avoided.

Saturday: lucky day; ideal for marketing / conveying a newly-wed couple's belongings to their home; bad day for marriage

Sunday: good day for weddings; knife-wound today would be very slow to knit, a remnant of the tale of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who was slain with a blade forged during the Sunday mass.

 

Quite a lot... this will serve as my private research material collections. :P Anyone who's interested is allowed to copy any and everything. =D