#Gaulish language

[theonlyfrenchhistoryblog]

Awesome 🔥

[yvanspijk]

Ancient Greek híppos, Latin equus, Irish each, and Icelandic jór all mean 'horse', and Spanish yegua and Romanian iapă mean 'mare'. They're very different, yet they ultimately stem from the same Proto-Indo-European word. They drifted apart due to the sound changes they underwent.

What would their modern English, German, Dutch, French and Italian cognates look like if they had survived? I tell about it on my Patreon.

[eth-alisanru]

Gaulish Translation 1 :

Source : Arknights https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=137187401178598&set=pcb.137188081178530 Auteur/Author :@Lalvice_沙離dr在銭鎖双狼 https://passport.weibo.com/visitor/visitor?entry=miniblog&a=enter&url=https%3A%2F%2Fweibo.com%2Fu%2F5207773548&domain=.weibo.com&sudaref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&ua=php-sso_sdk_client-0.6.36&_rand=1675412986.2487 It's not an "litteral" translation because some words aren't simply existing in reconstructions or are attested, so I tried to fill the gaps by modifying a little bit the dialogs. ----------------------------- Ce n'est pas une traduction "littérale" car certains mots n'existent simplement pas dans les reconstructions ou attestés, alors j'ai essayé de combler le manque en modifiant un peu les dialogues Translation (French-English) : Silverash : Il y a ici un "complément de cause", alors quel mot je dois mettre Exusiai peut-tu répondre ? There is here an "adverbial phrase of "reason", so which word should I put ? Exusiai, can you answer ? Exusiai : OUI, c'est...c'est/YES, it's...it's Mostima M.Silverash a demandé quelle était ta nourriture préré Sir (Lord) Silverash asked what is your favorite food Exusiai: Oh ! (ma) nourriture préférée/Oh ! Favorite food ! J'aime les tartes au pommes ! OUI ! I like apple pies, YES ! Silverash : Sors de (cette) salle ! Get out of this room

[fivenightsatcorans]

it's so weird to compare french with other romance languages and spoken latin. because like. so i heard a song in reconstructed classical latin recently and i was like "yeah i can see how spanish came from this. i can see how italian is the logical conclusion of this language. but french? ?? what"

[toutagalation]

Our word of the week is Albios! Are there any words you'd like to see us cover next? Let us know in the comments!

A special thanks to the knowledgeable folks in our community Discord for helping us with the pronunciation.

[cynicalclassicist]

For any of the people out there who might like looking at languages.

Okay, so:

Latin has this word, sic. Or, if we want to be more diacritically accurate, sīc. That shows that the i is long, so it’s pronounced like “seek” and not like “sick.”

You might recognize this word from Latin sayings like “sic semper tyrannis” or “sic transit gloria mundi.” You might recognize it as what you put in parentheses when you want to be pass-agg about someone’s mistakes when you’re quoting them: “Then he texted me, ‘I want to touch you’re (sic) butt.’”

It means, “thus,” which sounds pretty hoity-toity in this modren era, so maybe think of it as meaning “in this way,” or “just like that.” As in, “just like that, to all tyrants, forever,” an allegedly cool thing to say after shooting a President and leaping off a balcony and shattering your leg. “Everyone should do it this way.”

Anyway, Classical Latin somewhat lacked an affirmative particle, though you might see the word ita, a synonym of sic, used in that way. By Medieval Times, however, sic was holding down this role. Which is to say, it came to mean yes.

Ego: Num edisti totam pitam?

Tu, pudendus: Sic.

Me: Did you eat all the pizza?

You, shameful: That’s the way it is./Yes.

This was pretty well established by the time Latin evolved into its various bastard children, the Romance languages, and you can see this by the words for yes in these languages.

In Spanish, Italian, Asturian, Catalan, Corsican, Galician, Friulian, and others, you say si for yes. In Portugese, you say sim. In French, you say si to mean yes when you’re contradicting a negative assertion (”You don’t like donkey sausage like all of us, the inhabitants of France, eat all the time?” “Yes, I do!”). In Romanian, you say da, but that’s because they’re on some Slavic shit. P.S. there are possibly more Romance languages than you’re aware of.

But:

There was still influence in some areas by the conquered Gaulish tribes on the language of their conquerors. We don’t really have anything of Gaulish language left, but we can reverse engineer some things from their descendants. You see, the Celts that we think of now as the people of the British Isles were Gaulish, originally (in the sense that anyone’s originally from anywhere, I guess) from central and western Europe. So we can look at, for example, Old Irish, where they said tó to mean yes, or Welsh, where they say do to mean yes or indeed, and we can see that they derive from the Proto-Indo-European (the big mother language at whose teat very many languages both modern and ancient did suckle) word *tod, meaning “this” or “that.” (The asterisk indicates that this is a reconstructed word and we don’t know exactly what it would have been but we have a pretty damn good idea.)

So if you were fucking Ambiorix or whoever and Quintus Titurius Sabinus was like, “Yo, did you eat all the pizza?” you would do that Drake smile and point thing under your big beefy Gaulish mustache and say, “This.” Then you would have him surrounded and killed.

Apparently Latin(ish) speakers in the area thought this was a very dope way of expressing themselves. “Why should I say ‘in that way’ like those idiots in Italy and Spain when I could say ‘this’ like all these cool mustache boys in Gaul?” So they started copying the expression, but in their own language. (That’s called a calque, by the way. When you borrow an expression from another language but translate it into your own. If you care about that kind of shit.)

The Latin word for “this” is “hoc,” so a bunch of people started saying “hoc” to mean yes. In the southern parts of what was once Gaul, “hoc” makes the relatively minor adjustment to òc, while in the more northerly areas they think, “Hmm, just saying ‘this’ isn’t cool enough. What if we said ‘this that’ to mean ‘yes.’” (This is not exactly what happened but it is basically what happened, please just fucking roll with it, this shit is long enough already.)

So they combined hoc with ille, which means “that” (but also comes to just mean “he”: compare Spanish el, Italian il, French le, and so on) to make o-il, which becomes oïl. This difference between the north and south (i.e. saying oc or oil) comes to be so emblematic of the differences between the two languages/dialects that the languages from the north are called langues d’oil and the ones from the south are called langues d’oc. In fact, the latter language is now officially called “Occitan,” which is a made-up word (to a slightly greater degree than that to which all words are made-up words) that basically means “Oc-ish.” They speak Occitan in southern France and Catalonia and Monaco and some other places.

The oil languages include a pretty beefy number of languages and dialects with some pretty amazing names like Walloon, and also one with a much more basic name: French. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, n'est-ce pas?

Yeah, eventually Francophones drop the -l from oil and start saying it as oui. If you’ve ever wondered why French yes is different from other Romance yeses, well, now you know.

I guess what I’m getting at is that when you reblog a post you like and tag it with “this,” or affirm a thing a friend said by nodding and saying “Yeah, that”: you’re not new

[flapmemelord]

some hispania (spain) / gallia (france) content (right to left)

context explained below !!

i've been very interested in seeing them wearing togas (to match with rome grandpa.....) so i did it, and gave the thing some background ... although losing to ancient rome had its consequences, i think Hispania was quick to try and make acquaintainces with fellow territories who had fallen under the same banner as he did (quick to put himself back together, socializing to cope, in a way...) (although probably his people, were farrr from sharing that mindset and understandably so-).

gaulish was already spoken before the invasion so he and Gallia mostly used that language together (probably to spite ancient rome or some of his people), it was time that made them speak latin, also rome grandpa's influence rubbing on them through architecture, art, notably (although they're proud of that heritage now, i think back then, speaking latin felt like betrayal to their people, for a whole while at least). they've got the complicity of friends that are tight close for years and beyond, and despite what tries to tear them away work out the stuff they have to together - you know the kind you're not sure whether theyre not going to hook up eventually with this much chemistry (and you can tell they're not sure either)

(France calling Spain Ispania is a shot to my people who tend to forget h exist and do things for the pronounciation, i do it too )

(also this work is doing wonders for me... i might be building transfem france hcs.... transmasc france has potential too i am tHINKING IT THrough)

[useless-catalanfacts]

Someone has been sticking these printed papers on small local businesses that are closing down as a result of gentrification in Barcelona (Catalonia's capital city, greatly affected by touristic massification and the gentrification it brings). They're written in the Catalan language, so here I translate them to English for you:

2 world wars, 1 civil war, bombs, the 40 years "facing the sun" [=first line of the anthem of Spain during the Francoist dictatorship], 9 popes, 15 times Real Madrid won the Champions League, 2 pandemics. It has survived everything except speculation.

Maybe 10,000 bucks for rent was a little teeny tiny bit too much, wasn't it? Maybe. I'm not saying it was. I'm just saying: maybe.

If they open a Starbucks or something like that, I'm cutting off my dick. Bring back Versalles [convenience store]!

*A picture of Asterix and Obelix hitting two Roman soldiers. Asterix and Obelix are labelled Nou Barrix and Palomarix as a joke of Gaulish-sounding names for the working class neighbourhoods of Nou Barris and Sant Andreu del Palomar. The Roman soldiers are labelled "the fucking gentrification".*

My great-grandma used to come for coffee here, now she's asking me to do this from the Other Side. You'll understand that I'm so scared that I'm shitting myself and I must continue doing it (one can't say no to a great-grandmother)

Gràcia and Poblenou [two neighbourhoods of Barcelona that have gotten very gentrified by tourists] started like this and now not even their mother would recognise them.

Photos from Et felicito fill.

[jesawyer]

hi mr sawyer! i have a couple questions on the eoran languages

do the languages contain grammatical structures?

what are the different languages' real-world basises? for example, i recognize the influence of other celtic languages (i.e. alphabets) on some of the engwithan text here, but the language largely corresponds to irish.

thank you for your time!

Hello. While the Eoran conlangs don't have fully developed grammar, they do borrow elements from real world languages.

Eld Aedyran borrows vocabulary and grammar from Old English and Icelandic.

Glanfathan uses a lot of Cornish vocabulary, but also some Welsh and Irish.

Vailian is a blend of Italian, Occitan, and French but with inflected grammar.

Huana is dominantly Māori but with a few elements of Japanese.

Seki is based on Akkadian.

Engwithan is inspired by Gaulish.

[txttletale]

Also why would Zagreus try to have shades escape the underworld? They don't have a body to go back. Plus, shades already DO have a way, myth-wise, to go back to the world of living. Drink enough times from river Lethe and your memories get wiped and you get reborn. They can choose to do that.

bringing up mythology when talking about hades (2020) is like bringing up ancient gaulish history when talking about asterix and obelix, come on now. anyway i'm not the one who wrote the game in which the underworld is constantly referred to with carceral language and imagery, i'm just responding to that choice

[senditothemoonn]

Scotfra royalty au 🥺

OMG THIS WAS SUCH A CUTE REQUEST!!!

Ahjshjsja and I wanted to answer it with something from this au (x) (x) which I made ages ago and I’ve been kinda wanting to revisit for a while so this request came at the perfect time!

And I have so much more that I want to draw for it which I will probably get round to after finishing these requests

For anyone who is curious: this is a vaguely historical/fantasy inspired au where Aly is a warrior prince and Fran is a Gaulish (or whatever the fantasy equivalent would be) princess and they are made to marry to unite their people despite the fact they’ve never met and can’t speak a word of the other’s language. Cue weeks/months(?)/years(!?) of pining and miscommunication as they grow to love and understand each other.

[eth-alisanru]

Gaulish Translation 2

Source : Needy Girl Overdose WSS playground 公式 sur X : "『NEEDY GIRL OVERDOSE 絶対革命病病事変 ミッドナイト配信LOVE❤️ †あめちゃんとピの絶望の100日間†』 第６話はイワシ一匹大往生先生(@choboraunyopomi)がお届けします！ ＃ちょぼらうにょぽみの１人で勝手にアンソロジー　＃病病事変 https://t.co/QKDC9ox9N4" / X (twitter.com) Auteur/Author : WSS Playground (if i'm not wrong it's the same who made the game) New translation, directly from Japanese (currently learning it), for the ones who can asking, i'm based on Gérard Poitrenaud reconstructon (which is in fact, quite "realistic" for me). Also for claryfing some points i'm often do translations only for entertainment and curiosity of having such things translated in a dead language, it's never related to any of the game lore or anything -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nouvelle traduction, directement depuis le Japonais (en train de l'apprendre), pour ceux qui peuvent demander, je me suis basé sur la reconstruction de Gérard Poitrenaud (qui est pour moi, assez réalistique). Aussi souvent je fait des traductions uniquement pour le fun et la curiosité d'avoir de telles choses traduites dans une langue mort, c'est jamais lié à quoi que ce soit du jeu. Also I will traduce literaly what is written in Gaulish, it's here in some points different from japanese for some reasons, the main one is than...the vocabulary isn't today very large in Gaulish reconstructions, and without any dictionnary for this one I can only do with the words I know ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Aussi je vais traduire littéralement ce qui est écrit en Gaulois, c'est ici sur certains différent du japonais pour divers raisons, la première est que...le vocabulaire est aujourd'hui pas très large dans les reconstructions du Gaulois, et sans dictionnaire pour celui ci je peux seulement faire avec les mots que je connais Tsanslation (French-English) : Ame:En premier...je vais tout retirer/Firstly, i'm going to withdraw all of it P-chan:Ame ! Prends seulement l'argent nécessaire/Ame ! Take only the needed money Ame:Je veux voir l'argent durement acquis avec mon travail/I want to see the money hardly gained with my work ! (Note : It's different from what is said in Japanese version, but for the reasons I exposed earlier I wrote something different and trying to keep the original message P-chan:c'est si sale/ That's so dirty !

[anhttydbookfan]

He taught Hiccup III Latin and modern-era French, which implies both travel and his powerful soothsaying abilities, considering the fact that he soothsaid an entire language.

Why doesn’t Valhallarama have more family history? I mean where does she come from? Theres only like. Old Wrinkly. I want another cool but dark family history because I assume she’s not from Berk… theres so much untapped potential. I want both sides of the family because honestly I’d be suspicious if I almost knew nothing about my mums life even if she’s away much. There’s so much places I could go wild in with my fic and honestly? I‘m beginning to love that for us.

[thevixenwitch]

Cernunnos - A Confusion of Aspects

Introduction

This was supposed to be a simple bit of research that I was going to do as a devotional act to Cernunnos, but over the course of the night I kept encountering the same dead ends that pointed to the same singular source of misinformation. So do not expect this to be entirely objective.

Let's begin with a simple question: Who is Cernunnos?

A Gallic deity, with difficult to trace roots. Depicted sparingly, there is debate on whether or not various depictions can actually be attributed to him. Particularly, one of the most famous supposed depictions – the Gundestrup Cauldron – has been theorized by Celtic scholar John Matthews to depict a Shaman and not the god himself, according to his book The Celtic Shaman. Depiction variation and debate is not uncommon in discussion of older religions and cultures, particularly when Romanization and Christian censorship were at play. Not to mention Wiccan appropriation and repurposing of beliefs without regard for earlier context.

Others have made fantastic deep dives into potential depictions and discussed them at length, and I am no historical scholar, so I have little to add in this case. I highly recommend the essay The gods of Gaul: Cernunnos by @mask131 [1] for a piece regarding depictions through history.

Upon reading the previous essay, I was inspired to dig deeper into Cernunnos, from historical contexts to meditating on my own UPG via my connection with him. My own connection with him was something that happened casually over time, ranging from dreamlike interactions to conversing directly through divination. I am an incarnate Fae, and worship him as the King of the Fae, in addition to other aspects and epithets such as:

Cernunnos

King of the Fae

Master of the Sacrificial Hunt, The Horned God, and other Wiccan Concepts

Master of the Wild Hunt

Pan

The Green Man

Herne the Hunter

This list is influenced by a resource post of druidry.org[2], but I will be researching each of these titles for further insights into their sources and how they do or do not connect to my own practice ahead.

[1] mask131, Tumblr

[2] https://druidry.org/resources/cernnunos - this is not a reliable resource

^ Cernunnos depiction on the Gundestrup Cauldron

Cernunnos

As learned in the previously linked essay, the name “Cernunnos” originates from the “Pillar of the Nautes” or the “Pillar of the Boatmen”, where the name is placed directly above a depiction of an antlered figure on the Block of Four Divinities[3] alongside the deity Smertrios. Many Gaul artifacts can be found in French museums. The Pillar of the Boatmen is attributed as a Roman-era inscription[4], so that gives us only enough information to hypothesize.

My takeaway from this is that the name Cernunnos is a modern approximation because of lacking, provable historical records, but rather serves a purpose as a modern placeholder. I came across information claiming that worship of Cernunnos as a deity was brought into modern belief by neo-pagans and popularized by Wiccans, particularly through Margaret Murray’s writings. During her studies of folklore in the early 20th century she put together a Witch-cult hypothesis that stated how a variety of horned deities were aspects of a “proto-horned god”[5]. In addition, this belief was adopted by Gerald Gardner and formed the basis of the concept of the Horned God within Wicca.[6]

“Sometimes also known as Carnonos, his name has firm Proto-Indo-European origins. It stems from the PIE word *k̑r̥no-, and is thus cognate to Germanic *hurnaz and Latin cornu, all meaning “horn”. In the Celtic Gaulish language, this word was karnon, and the connection with the name of Cernunnos is clear - it reflects the deity’s stag antlers, growing from his head. Thus, Cernunnos literally means “the horned one”.”[7]

Gallic history is sparse and difficult to pin down due to a lack of written records or literature. Multitudes of visual depictions dating from the Roman era have been attributed to Cernunnos by Archaeologists, having been retrieved from northern Gaul. These depictions are hypothesized to be this deity or others of similar archetypes. In addition, sites tend to use the words “Gallic” and “Gaelic” semi-interchangeably, despite the regional difference. Gael meaning a Celtic tribe from modern Ireland-Scotland, and Gaul meaning a tribe located in modern France. There is speculation that Cernunnos was a proto-Celtic deity, and could have had roots in any or all Celtic practices and beyond, but that is speculation because there is a lack of evidence to support the theory in any substantial direction.

[3] Name sourced from Athena Review, Vol. 4, No. 2, which also sources Huchard, V. (ed) Archéologica. 2003. “Le Pilier des Nautes Retrouvé. Histoire d’une Métamorphose.” Dijon, France. Éditions Faton S.A

[4] An observation attributed to Hatt, Jean-Jacques who recorded that the artifact was originally erected in 1st century AD.

[5] Margaret Murray, The God of the Witches

[6] Kathleen Sheppard Forced into the Fringes: Margaret Murray’s Witch-cult Hypothesis 21 April 2017

[7] According to Aleksa Vučković via ancient-origins.net

^Cernunnos's face as depicted of the Pillar of the Boatmen

King of the Fae - UPG

This title is predominantly UPG and relates to my own existence as an incarnate fae.

I find him similar but above other more location-based wild gods, beings like boar lords, and other guardians and rulers of nature. There is a loose hierarchy within fae politics, for lack of a better word, that is predominantly power based. Not as in subjugation over other beings, but rather quantified by expanse of control or domains. Finding the words for this section proves difficult, but he is simply above all of us, with a connection to all Fae. Cernunnos does not view himself as better than any of his subjects, he is not preoccupied with anything like that.

Does this title equate him with the concept of Oberon? No, I don’t believe so. He also exists outside of the seasonal courts, as he goes through a physical shift with the seasons instead of remaining in one form.

Master of the Sacrificial Hunt & The Horned God

Many modern depictions and associations with Cernunnos took their form via Wicca, as previously mentioned. The now heavily discounted Witch-cult hypothesis led to the adopting of the name as a common main aspect of Wicca’s concept of the Divine Masculine or the Horned God that absorbed many horned deities into one being, losing their individual status and becoming “aspects” of a central pillar. This is a theme often seen within Wicca and expands to their depiction of a central Divine Feminine deity as well, the pair often referred to as The Lord and The Lady. This is a simplification that I do not agree with. The epithet “Master of the Sacrificial Hunt” is unable to be sourced beyond the previous essay on Druidry.com and a repost of the same write-up on witchesofthecraft.com, so this title isn’t possible to verify. Although, mentions of Cernunnos identify him as a being that has a seasonal cycle of death and rebirth, which this epithet may be indicating. This belief appears to also have its basis within Wicca and lacks historical evidence. To quote from Wikipedia, “Within the Wiccan tradition, the Horned God reflects the seasons of the year in an annual cycle of life, death and rebirth

and his imagery is a blend of the Gaulish god Cernunnos, the Greek god Pan, The Green Man motif, and various other horned spirit imagery.”[8][9]

While I am large proponent of UPG, I do not abide by stating such concepts as strict facts. I will explore this further in future sections.

[8] Farrar, Stewart & Janet Eight Sabbats for Witches

[9] Doreen Valiente The Rebirth of Witchcraft pg 52-53

^The plaque I'm sure we've all seen in our local metaphysical store

Master of the Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt is a concept that permeates the history of many European cultures, including the Celts.[10] Myths of Wild Hunts would most often include a central figure flanked by hunters all in pursuit of some kind of special quarry. Within Germanic legend, the mythical figure is often Odin, but there were many other figures that have been featured across cultures and belief systems, sometimes historical and other times religious. The hunters were often depicted as fairies, the souls of the dead, or otherwise inhuman participants. Witnessing the spectacle as a mortal was thought to bring calamity[11], death, or abduction to magical realms.  The concept and term were popularized by German author Jacob Grimm, originally as Wilde Jagd.[12]

This mythological concept existed in various aspects of Germanic and European folklore, across multiple cultures. Despite this, the lack of Gallic literature means that we are unable to directly connect Cernunnos to any historical uses. The prevalence of this type of myth, though, presents the obvious opportunity to incorporate our modern understanding of him into the framework to explore our own UPG. This is a topic I may meditate on further if I do further research into the concept of the Wild Hunt.

My own personal experiences with the concept are much more play oriented. If you’ve ever been to a Beltane festival, you probably know the heady feeling of being chased through the woods before being caught and celebrating the season. This interactive ritual-made-game is a fun staple you may find on the schedule of any fertility event these days meant to drive up sexually charged, excited energy. It’s a simple enough concept to incorporate into any individual practitioner’s holiday plan, if it suits your preference. Especially as a Fae, I find the concept of the Wild Hunt to be something fun to engage in with a special partner or community, and find no harm in inserting anyone into the role of Master of the Wild Hunt, as the prevalence of the format leaving the form of individual story to expand into a genre.

[10] Stith Thompson (1977) The Folktale University of California Press pg 257

[11] See, for example, Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 1901, s.v. "Wild Hunt": "[Gabriel's Hounds] ... portend death or calamity to the house over which they hang"; "the cry of the Seven Whistlers ... a death omen".

[12] Deutsche Mythologie (1835)

^Johann Wilhelm Cordes: Die Wilde Jagd (The Wild Hunt)1856/57

Pan

The conflation of Pan with Cernunnos appears to be predominantly based in the view of all male horned deities being simple aspects of a larger presence – the Wiccan Horned God. As previously stated, I do not support that concept and will use this section to study Pan as a separate entity and cover where in my UPG they overlap.

Pan is the Greek god of the wilds, music, and a guardian of shepherds and their flocks. He also was usually in the presence of nymphs.[13] Unlike the Stag depictions and associations of Cernunnos, Pan sported the legs and horns of a goat and appeared similar to a Satyr. His domain expanded to agricultural and wooded areas, as well as the realms of sex and fertility. The sum of those parts was to present him as a god of the season of Spring. He had a Roman equivalent in the god Faunus, and was also conflated with another known as Silvanus at times. Pan became a popular god during the 20th century neopagan revival[14].

Even before that, worship of him was brought back by a festival originating in Painswick, Gloucestershire by Benjamin Hyett, who also constructed various holy places in the god’s name.[15] Other popular occultists of the early 1900’s such as Aleister Crowley also crossed paths with Pan, as he built an altar to the god and wrote a ritual play about him.[16] After that point, his image and general description was absorbed into the Wiccan Horned God concept after Margaret Murray’s The God of the Witches posed the idea that he was simply one part of an overarching whole.

But who was Pan outside of this, particularly who was he before the Witch-god hypothesis altered how future generations would see him?

Pan is considered by some scholars to be a reconstruction of a Proto-Indo-European pastoral deity[17], as well as Pushan, a god originating from Rigvedic that also shared goat traits.[18]

Beyond these source hypotheses, there is evidence that Pan was first worshipped in the mountainous, isolated area of Arcadia. In that area, if a hunt wasn’t satisfactory, disgruntled hunters would scourge, or whip, the statue of Pan.[19] At this time, there were no formal temples to Pan, and worship was instead pursued in woodlands and other natural spaces. While exemptions from this rule did exist, they were few and far between.[20] He predates the Olympians, like many Grecian nature spirits. I won’t go too in depth regarding direct mythology, as its difficult to do that with the Greek pantheon without tangents.

Pan was viewed as a height of sexual prowess, and agricultural success. He had a history of dalliances with Nymphs, to put it lightly, often depicted as being controlled by his lust and anger. Such as in the myth of the Nymph Echo, whom he ordered killed when she denied any man. In some versions, the pair even have two children, or perhaps chose Narcissus over him, no matter the variation he is usually painted as rash and jealous. I’m sure we’ve all seen that statue of Pan and the goat that resides in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

The word “panic” can trace its sources back to him, but I was surprised to find that “pandemonium” does not.[21]

In my personal view, Cernunnos ages with the seasons, being at his most virile in the Spring, then maturing into his form as a guardian of the dead come winter, appearing dead himself. This is relevant in that I find the depictions of the lustful, energetic Pan to be inspiring of how I see that Spring form. Beyond that, the agricultural and animal connections are similar, but seem to take very different forms upon closer inspection.

Within actual historical context, there doesn’t seem to be anything connecting Cernunnos and Pan in any way beyond neo-pagan labelling.

[13] Edwin L. Brown, "The Lycidas of Theocritus Idyll 7", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 1981:59–100.

[14] The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Hutton, Ronald, chapter 3

[15] Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft pp 161–162.

[16] Soar, Katy (2020). "The Great Pan in Albion". Hellebore. 2 (The Wild Gods Issue): 14–27.

[17] Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q. (2006). The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 434

[18] H. Collitz, "Wodan, Hermes und Pushan," Festskrift tillägnad Hugo Pipping pȧ hans sextioȧrsdag den 5 November 1924 1924, pp 574–587.

[19] Theocritus. vii. 107

[20] Horbury, William (1992). Jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 208.

[21] Coined by John Milton in his poem “Paradise Lost” coming from the Greek pan- “all” and daemonium “evil spirit”

^Mask of the god Pan, detail from a bronze stamnoid situla, 340–320 BC, part of the Vassil Bojkov Collection, Sofia, Bulgaria (It is shockingly difficult to find art of Pan where he's not rock hard.)

The Green Man

Viewed as more of a motif or concept than a deity, the Green Man originated in England and was usually depicted as covered in leaves and sometimes armed with a club. One might encounter these visuals in parades, festivals, or painted on the signs of many pubs come the 17th century. This changed with the introduction of Julia Somerset, who claimed in the Folklore journal that the design often seen on church walls actually had pagan origins as some kind of fertility deity.[22] There is no evidence to support this claim, and it has been contested by many folklorists.[23] This assertion by Somerset was then absorbed into the Wiccan Horned God despite being described as distinctly “20th Century Folklore”.[24]

That’s pretty much the extent of this one and was honestly one of the most shocking to read about. The Green Man was at best a regional icon used in local festivities but was never any kind of deity. That title was misrepresented and incorporated without research.

My personal association would be the visuals of Winter, but Cernunnos’ Winter form appears very differently to me. More skeletal stag, less old man with a holly beard.

[22]  Centerwall, Brandon S. (January 1997). "The Name of the Green Man". Folklore. 108 (1–2): 25–33.

[23] Livingstone, Josephine (2016-03-07). "The Remarkable Persistence of the Green Man". The New Yorker.

[24] Olmstead, Molly (2023-04-08). "Is the Green Man British Enough for the Royal Coronation?". Slate.

^A sign for the John Barras Pub Company

Herne the Hunter

After the last section, it is a relief to move on to something that has always been presented to me with its original fictional context intact. Herne the Hunter was a character originally depicted in The Merry Wive of Windsor written by Shakespeare in approximately 1597. Supposedly, Herne the Hunter is an antlered spirit that occupies the Royal Forest in England, occupying himself with tormenting cattle and rattling chains. While the character may have been based on local legends to some degree, it is unknown just how much verifiable connection has ever existed. Attempts to connection him to other deities or legends were made often after he was written.

There is an old tale goes, that Herne the Hunter

(sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest)

Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight

Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;

And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,

And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain

In a most hideous and dreadful manner.

You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know

The superstitious idle-headed eld

Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age

This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth.

— William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 4, scene 4

Despite Herne being a location-based character appearing only in the areas Windsor Forest occupied, certain books published in 1929 and 1933[25] attempted to identify him with Cernunnos and other horned deities. This is again the connection through which Wiccans incorporated Herne into the Horned God.[26]

[25] The History of the Devil – The Horned God of the West by R. Lowe Thompson; The God of the Witches by Margaret Murray

[26]  'Simple Wicca: A simple wisdom book' by Michele Morgan, Conari, 2000

^Illustration of Herne the Hunter by George Cruikshank (1840s)

Romanizations

There are theories mentioned in mask131’s essay regarding attempts at identifying what Roman deity or deities was meant to be the equivalent of Cernunnos, but there is sadly only speculation on that front. Opinions vary from person to person, but parallels are often drawn to Dis Pater and Mercury for shared traits. I did find instances such as the Lyon Cup and an altar from Reims that feature Mercury and Cernunnos depicted side by side, so I believe it is safe to say that they were at least at some point considered fully separate beings.

^1st-century CE altar from Reims with Cernunnos, accompanied by Apollo and Mercury. Mercury has a cornucopia, while Cernunnos spills grain.

Aside – Misinformation is Rampant

This one book, this one fucking “hypothesis”, changed the entire face of what would eventually become modern neopaganism. The damage of the Witch-cult hypothesis is far reaching and permeates every resource I could find while writing this piece aside from the explicitly scholarly. It is extremely discouraging how quickly you can trace something that feels off back to this one woman’s massively disproven theory that was adopted by a man that wanted to make a religion based on occult foundations because he admired ceremonial magic. The frustration I feel as someone trying to do research now after this misinformation and pseudohistory has seeped into every aspect of the path has me constantly on edge and second guessing everything I read until I can find a source.

Stating UPG as undeniable fact that others must agree with isn’t great at the best of times, but the sheer level of ignorance to historical record seems to be running rampant within the modern Pagan community. I’m all for believing something unverifiable, something that’s only true for you, or for the world from your perspective, but there is and must be a difference between that and presenting easily disproven statements as unbreakable law, especially with they come hand in hand with any dressings like, “this is actually true because I was told so by this person, who learned from this other person.” And the process is traceable to the source they borrowed from and how it was completely disproven.

We must think critically within paganism, research beyond the books with flashy covers in Barnes & Noble and question the things we are told by others are just the way things are.

Your relationship with the gods is yours alone and can take any form you want it to. Don’t let yourself be trapped by ignorance. Learn about historical contexts, question sources, seeking mentoring from those who revel in your questions and help you find the answers.

Conclusion

Cernunnos is a deity that is beyond valuable to communicate with directly due to the lack of concrete historical and folkloric information, and the prevalence of blatant misinformation that uses his name. Context is important, and even if you choose to exist outside of it, which is a perfectly valid choice, it should be a conscious one.

In addition, while attempting to research this, I actually stumbled upon sites not just with AI generated cover images, but what fully appeared to be AI generated writing. Be vigilant against information that looks like someone just skimmed the surface and made an assumption, this page had a lot of almost correct or just flat out made up information that contradicts historical fact. Especially in this modern era where people use automatic programs to make summaries of summaries for a game of unverifiable internet telephone, be aware. No matter what your personal stance on AI is, I'm sure we can all stand against information atrophy.

To me, Cernunnos is a supportive, ever-present god that helps me through things in his own way, meaning that its usually something intense and then coming out the other side putting out a fire on the back of my head. He's hands-off, and wants me to admire the turning of the seasons from new angles. He's opened my eyes to a deeper respect for other belief systems, and encouraged me to do this research so that I could better understand him as well as our own connection. He wants me to be observant and always keep learning and questioning and growing in my faith, in my magic, in my role as a faery.

When it comes to the belief systems that you rely on in life, ignorance is not bliss. Seek knowledge deep in the forest and on the frozen boundaries of a lake or standing barefoot in a grassy meadow, but also in historical records. Anyone who wants the best for you will want you to research and learn more.

Genuinely as I was finishing this up last night, adding this section to the post version the next morning, I considered becoming a YouTube essay person. Maybe someday! Perhaps an actual blog. Researching and writing this kind of thing was actually very fun. I never even did something like this while I was in school, so maybe I'm just not traumatized by the concept. Anyways, I hope this was informative and you enjoyed a peek into the journey I took while putting this together.

Now I'm gonna go light up some green in dedication to Cernunnos ✌︎︎♡⃛

^The Lyon Cup, sometimes identified as Cernunnos

[llyfrenfys]

Sooner or later I've gotta make a better post regarding the appropriation of indigenous terminology by proponents of (certain kinds of) Welsh nationalism. But for now here's a very whistle-stop version of that post. I have a degree in Celtic Studies so these topics are very near and dear to my heart.

[Note: I wrote this post originally during a migraine. I'm revisiting the draft while I'm ill but hopefully can fix this up into something somewhat understandable. As always, this is only a very brief description of the history and I strongly reccomend reading about these topics in your own time to develop a deeper understanding of them. These are topics not even well known in Britain, but if you can spend a short time just to read this, you can help to combat misinformation about British (particularly Welsh) history - and that could aid in preventing the misappropriation of history in the long run. Diolch eto for reading!]

Very often, (certain) Welsh nationalists use terminology that positions the Welsh as if they are an 'indigenous' population who have been 'colonised'. They use language (which in this climate) heavily draws upon the language typically used for peoples who are the victims of British colonialism (of which Wales was an active participant). There's multiple issues with this and many of them lie in whether its appropriate to use this language (regardless of its accuracy or not) as a country which was actively involved in the colonisation of much of the world. What I mean in short is that additional language is needed which doesn't step on the toes of endangered cultures and groups directly affected by British colonialism.

Wales not only participated in British colonialism as a whole (alongside Scotland, Ireland* and England) but itself colonised parts of patagonia in Argentina.

I can't think of any similar terminology to 'indigenous' or 'colonised' which would also get the idea which is meant across. 'Native' in certain contexts is permissible, e.g. 'native speaker' in the context of a Welsh speaker. But in other contexts other than langauge, things get tricky when you argue 'nativeness' (this is a topic I will come back to - especially re. Celtic as a language descriptor vs Celtic as a so-called ethnicity). When (certain) Welsh nationalists talk about being 'indigenous' , being 'native' or 'colonised' what is meant by that?

(Map of the expansion of the Bronze Age Bell Beaker culture circa 2400 BC in Britain and Ireland) - from this map

What makes a Welsh person 'indigenous' to this island that doesn't immediately disqualify other peoples who also have a deep history here? Historically, the island of Britain has been lived on by many, many peoples.

In the Bronze Age you had the arrival of the Bell Beaker people. Then in the Iron-Age, you had tribes speaking (mostly) Brittonic. I say mostly, because we have direct evidence that in the Iron Age Gaulish speaking tribes also moved to parts of Britain but later became integrated with the rest of the population (which, I will add, were not a united peoples but a scattering of different groups who often went to war against each other). Then the Romans invaded Britain (and much of Western Europe) and over time integrated into the local population. So now Britain is Romano-British. Eventually the Western Roman Empire collapses and Britain enters into the sub-Roman Britain phase of its existence. Kingdoms begin to form, with the population speaking Brittonic and British-Latin. So you have different kingdoms in (what would become Wales) and in (what would become Northern England and Southern Scotland) you have more Brittonic-speaking kingdoms.

These kingdoms were also not a united peoples. They shared a language - but it's like claiming that Ancient Greeks were a united people simply because they all spoke Greek. Sparta, Athens, Cornith etc. were independent of each other and the same is true of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd (the Old North) and the kingdoms of Wales. They all had a common language but also went to war with each other sometimes. Eventually, the Brittonic language began to diverge into different languages. Namely, Old Welsh and Cumbric (the language spoken in what is today Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Southern Scotland). The two languages were still very closely related but had diverged by a certain point.

At the same time this is happening, Anglo-Saxons begin to arrive in what is now Kent. They form kingdoms and the Britons living there are either displaced or become absorbed into the Anglo-Saxon populace. Then the Norse rock up and conduct viking raids around the coast before finally settling in parts of the country and forming their own territories.

So now Britain has several groups living on the island (keeping in mind even before settlement from the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse that the British kingdoms were already composed of different groups themselves). Northern Scotland was also having a time re: Picts, Gaels and Britons - but we'll gloss over that for brevity. Also, Ireland was also raiding the Welsh coast at this time too.

Then the Normans rock up and in 1066 William the Conqueror, well, conquers. More history happens after this point but I will try and keep this as brief and as non-messy as I can.

So, to recap:

One of the earliest cultures in Britain was the Bell Beaker people in the Bronze Age. They had their lands settled by the Iron Age Britons ('Celts'). Then the Romans came and the 'Celts' became Romano-Britons. After the Western Roman Empire collapses the remaining population forms kingdoms with distinct political identities. These kingdoms eventually find themselves fighting the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse. Then the Normans turn up and so on and so forth.

So- which group is the original native group to Britain? (Trick question - this question cannot be satisfactorily answered in favour of one group without leaning into claims of historicity which the other groups can also claim).

Which brings me to modern Welsh identity and those who came before.

Something I see in Welsh nationalist groups is a claim to the legacy (or even claims of direct descendance from) the Iron Age Britons (commonly called Celts for shorthand, but as I said before I'm gonna get back to that point). And this narrative is what the "Welsh people are native to Britain" argument is based off of.

It may seem like #praxis to argue the Welsh people are the true inhabitants of Britain and the English are evil invaders. But you have to make *several* logical leaps to get to that point if you're genuinely arguing that point.

For starters, many more people than just the Britons (read: Romano Britons/early Brittonic kingdoms) have called Britain home since the Early Middle Ages. For example, there's the settlement of Scotland by the Gaels, the Irish settlement of certain parts of costal Wales. You have (much later) Roma and traveller groups, Jewish diaspora and many more diverse cultures and peoples existing in Britain at this time. The Romano-British population, which developed into the Early Middle Ages kingdoms of Wales and the Hen Ogledd, was also multicultural. Many black Romans started families with white Britons. By the sub-Roman period, Britain was ethnically and culturally diverse.

But those who argue in favour of a such thing as 'Celtic ethnicity' in order to support the idea Britons (and only Britons) were native to these islands typically imagine that history as white. White Brits, white Romans, white Gaels. When we know this isn't true. Did you know that the Northernmost Ancient Egyptian temple in the world is in Yorkshire because Roman Egyptians in the military brought their religion with them? Mary Beard did a fantastic documentary about a Roman Soldier from modern day Syria who was stationed at Hadrian's Wall who started a family with a British woman. Point is, that some people like to imagine a purely white Britain that they can pine for. And I'm afraid it simply isn't true. The version of history many white supremacists look to simply didn't exist.

I'll quickly bring up one last point before I draw this to a close. And it's about Celtic as a linguistic term vs Celtic as a so-called ethnicity. You see, any first year Celtic Student would tell you that there is no such thing as 'Celts'. Crazy, I know from people studying *Celtic* studies. But hear me out - there is good reasoning why (beyond language groups) Celtic is not a good term for describing an ethnic group. Much of it relates to what I've already mentioned, but we categorise Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Mann, Cornwall and Brittany as Celtic not because of the ethnicity of the people living there (which I've mentioned is pretty diverse) but because they are all places where Celtic languages are spoken. It wasn't until Edward Llwyd (d. 1709) that the term Celtic was coined to describe these languages. Up until that point, nobody was thinking of Irish and Welsh as related because the languages do not sound like they have a common origin. By extension, people didn't think of the Welsh and Irish as being the same peoples (or Celtic) either. Its only in the modern day there is a sense of Celtic identity. The Iron Age Britons were not going around calling themselves Celts. There was no common Celtic identity. But very often people argue Celticness based on a pseudohistory which insists on a false and misleading interpretation of history. Whether or not Celticness exists now is a different matter entirely. But it sure does not rest upon race or ethnicity as a qualifier. This is quite foundational stuff to first year and above Celtic Scholars, but is not generally well known outside of academia because the misinformation is quite strong. So if you read is far, diolch mawr and please share this with anyone you think might be interested in it. Any amount of knowledge of these things would greatly improve understanding of what it means to be Welsh and what it means to speak a Celtic language.

Lastly,

all of that begs us to ask the question:

What does it mean to claim nativeness in a Western European context?

More under the cut

What does it mean to claim nativeness in a Western European context? Especially in a Western Europe post-colonialism.

It means, to me, to claim what isn't our right to claim. To argue and make our points with language that isn't ours and isn't designed to be ours. That this language of indigeneity may sound appealing, but is it improper to use this terminology when our country was directly responsible for the atrocities in which this very language became relevant?

What do we do in response to the misinterpretation of our culture instead of relying on language of indigeneity? These are the questions I want to leave you with and invite you to share your thoughts on. How do we build a Wales which advocates for itself without relying upon inaccurate language which betrays a reliance upon the ahistorical to make its point?

What kind of Wales do we want to live in?

[transgenderer]

winter (n.)

Old English winter (plural wintru), "the fourth and coldest season of the year, winter," from Proto-Germanic *wintruz "winter" (source also of Old Frisian, Dutch winter, Old Saxon, Old High German wintar, German winter, Danish and Swedish vinter, Gothic wintrus, Old Norse vetr "winter"), probably literally "the wet season," from PIE *wend-, nasalized form of root *wed- (1) "water; wet"). On another old guess, cognate with Gaulish vindo-, Old Irish find "white." The usual PIE word is *gheim-.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "winter." 

It forms all or part of: chimera; chiono-; hiemal; hibernacle; hibernal; hibernate; hibernation; Himalaya.

fabulous monster of Greek mythology, slain by Bellerophon, late 14c., from Old French chimere or directly from Medieval Latin chimera, from Latin Chimaera, from Greek khimaira, name of a mythical fire-breathing creature (slain by Bellerophon) with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a dragon's tail, a word that also meant "year-old she-goat" (masc. khimaros), from kheima "winter season," from PIE root *gheim- "winter."

As an adjective in Old English. The Anglo-Saxons counted years in "winters," as in Old English ænetre "one-year-old;" and wintercearig, which might mean either "winter-sad" or "sad with years." Old Norse Vetrardag, first day of winter, was the Saturday that fell between Oct. 10 and 16.

spring (n.)

"season following winter, first of the four seasons of the year; the season in which plants begin to rise," by 1540s, a shortening of spring of the year (1520s), which is from a special sense of an otherwise now-archaic spring (n.) "act or time of springing or appearing; the first appearance; the beginning, birth, rise, or origin" of anything (see spring v., and compare spring (n.2), spring (n.3)).

The earliest form seems to have been springing time (early 14c.). The notion is of the "spring of the year," when plants begin to rise and trees to bud (as in spring of the leaf, 1520s).

The Middle English noun also was used of sunrise, the waxing of the moon, rising tides, sprouting of the beard or pubic hair, etc.; compare 14c. spring of dai "sunrise," spring of mone "moonrise." Late Old English spring meant "carbuncle, pustule."

As the word for the vernal season it replaced Old English lencten (see Lent). Other Germanic languages take words for "fore" or "early" as their roots for the season name (Danish voraar, Dutch voorjaar, literally "fore-year;" German Frühling, from Middle High German vrueje "early").

In 15c. English, the season also was prime-temps, after Old French prin tans, tamps prim (Modern French printemps, which replaced primevère 16c. as the common word for spring), from Latin tempus primum, literally "first time, first season."

summer (n.)

"hot season of the year," Old English sumor "summer," from Proto-Germanic *sumra- (source also of Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old High German sumar, Old Frisian sumur, Middle Dutch somer, Dutch zomer, German Sommer), from PIE root *sm- "summer" (source also of Sanskrit sama "season, half-year," Avestan hama "in summer," Armenian amarn "summer," Old Irish sam, Old Welsh ham, Welsh haf "summer").

autumn (n.)

season after summer and before winter, late 14c., autumpne (modern form from 16c.), from Old French autumpne, automne (13c.), from Latin autumnus (also auctumnus, perhaps influenced by auctus "increase"), which is of unknown origin.

Perhaps it is from Etruscan, but Tucker suggests a meaning "drying-up season" and a root in *auq- (which would suggest the form in -c- was the original) and compares archaic English sere-month "August." De Vaan writes, "Although 'summer', 'winter' and 'spring' are inherited IE words in Latin, a foreign origin of autumnus is conceivable, since we cannot reconstruct a PIE word for 'autumn'".

Harvest (n.) was the English name for the season until autumn began to displace it 16c. Astronomically, from the descending equinox to the winter solstice; in Britain, the season is popularly August through October; in U.S., September through November. Compare Italian autunno, Spanish otoño, Portuguese outono, all from the Latin word.

As de Vaan notes, autumn's names across the Indo-European languages leave no evidence that there ever was a common word for it. Many "autumn" words mean "end, end of summer," or "harvest." Compare Greek phthinoporon "waning of summer;" Lithuanian ruduo "autumn," from rudas "reddish," in reference to leaves; Old Irish fogamar, literally "under-winter."

summer and winter both with PIE roots, but autumn and spring both without!