19th- and 20th-century movements
Celtic
High cross
in Quebec (Compare with
an original
)
The
Celtic Revival
(also referred to as the
Celtic Twilight
) is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions of
Gaelic literature
,
Welsh-language literature
, and
Celtic art
?what historians call
insular art
(the
Early Medieval
style of
Ireland
and
Britain
). Although the revival was complex and multifaceted, occurring across many fields and in various countries in
Northwest Europe
, its best known incarnation is probably the
Irish Literary Revival
. Irish writers including
William Butler Yeats
,
Lady Gregory
,
"Æ" Russell
,
Edward Martyn
,
Alice Milligan
and
Edward Plunkett
(Lord Dunsany) stimulated a new appreciation of traditional
Irish literature
and
Irish poetry
in the late 19th and early 20th century.
"Bollelin" series
pewter
plate designed by
Archibald Knox
, 1899
In aspects the revival came to represent a reaction to
modernisation
. This is particularly true in Ireland, where the relationship between the archaic and the modern was antagonistic, where history was fractured, and where, according to
Terry Eagleton
, "as a whole [the nation] had not leapt at a bound from
tradition
to
modernity
".
At times this
romantic
view of the past resulted in historically inaccurate portrayals, such as the promotion of
noble savage
stereotypes of the
Irish people
and
Scottish Highlanders
, as well as a
racialized
view that referred to the Irish, whether positively or
negatively
, as a separate
race
.
[5]
A widespread and still visible result of the revival was the reintroduction of the
High cross
as the
Celtic cross
, which now forms a familiar part of monumental and
funerary art
over much of the
Western world
.
History
[
edit
]
Research into the Gaelic and Brittonic cultures and histories of Britain and Ireland gathered pace from the late 18th century, by antiquaries and historians like
Owen Jones
in
Wales
and
Charles O'Conor
in Ireland. The key surviving manuscript sources were gradually located, edited and translated, monuments identified and published, and other essential groundwork in recording stories, music and language done.
The Welsh antiquarian and author
Iolo Morganwg
fed the growing fascination in all things Brittonic by founding the
Gorsedd
, which would in turn spark the
Neo-druidism
movement.
Interest in
Scottish Gaelic
culture greatly increased during the onset of the Romantic period in the late 18th century, with
James Macpherson
's
Ossian
achieving international fame, along with the novels of Sir
Walter Scott
and the poetry and lyrics of
Thomas Moore
.
Throughout Europe, the Romantic movement inspired a great revival of interest in
folklore
, folk tales, and
folk music
; even
Beethoven
was commissioned to produce a set of arrangements of Scottish folk-songs. A growing sense of Celtic identity encouraged and fed off a rise in nationalism throughout the United Kingdom, which was especially intense in Ireland.
Druids Bringing in the Mistletoe
(1890) by
E. A. Hornel
In the mid-19th century the revival continued, with Sir
Samuel Ferguson
, the
Young Ireland
movement, and others popularising folk tales and histories in countries and territories with Celtic roots. At the same time, archaeological and historical work was beginning to make progress in constructing a better understanding of regional history. Interest in ornamental 'Celtic' art developed, and 'Celtic' motifs began to be used in all sorts of contexts, including architecture, drawing on works like the
Grammar of Ornament
by
the architect Owen Jones
. Imitations of the ornate
Insular
penannular brooches
of the 7?9th centuries were worn by figures such as Queen Victoria,
[8]
many produced in Dublin by
West & Son
and other makers.
[
citation needed
]
In Scotland were
John Francis Campbell
's (1821?1885) works the bilingual
Popular Tales of the West Highlands
(4 vols., 1860?62) and
The Celtic Dragon Myth
, published posthumously in 1911. The formation of the
Edinburgh Social Union
in 1885, which included a number of significant figures in the
Arts and Craft
and
Aesthetic movements
, became part of an attempt to facilitate a revival in Scotland, similar to that taking place in contemporaneous Ireland, drawing on ancient myths and history to produce art in a modern idiom.
Key figures were the philosopher, sociologist, town planner and writer
Patrick Geddes
(1854?1932), the architect and designer
Robert Lorimer
(1864?1929) and stained-glass artist
Douglas Strachan
(1875?1950). Geddes established an informal college of tenement flats for artists at
Ramsay Garden
on Castle Hill in Edinburgh in the 1890s. Among the figures involved with the movement were
Anna Traquair
(1852?1936), who was commissioned by the Union to paint murals in the Mortuary Chapel of the
Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh
, (1885?86 and 1896?98) and also worked in metal, illumination, illustration, embroidery, and book binding.
The most significant exponent of the artistic revival in Scotland was Dundee-born
John Duncan
(1866?1945). Among his most influential works are his paintings of Celtic subjects
Tristan and Iseult
(1912) and
St Bride
(1913).
Duncan also helped to make Dundee a major centre for the Celtic Revival movement along with artists such as
Stewart Carmichael
and the publisher Malcolm C. MacLeod.
Vases with Celtic motifs, c. 1900,
Caneware
with raised gilding, by
Wedgwood
The
Irish Literary Revival
encouraged the creation of works written in the spirit of
Irish culture
, as distinct from
English culture
. This style fed a growing Irish identity, which also found inspiration in Irish history,
myths
and folklore. There was an attempt to revitalize the native rhythm and music of Irish Gaelic. Figures such as
Lady Gregory
,
W. B. Yeats
,
George Russell
,
J .M. Synge
and
Sean O'Casey
wrote plays and articles about the political state of Ireland.
Gaelic revival
and Irish nationalism frequently overlapped in places such as
An Stad
, a tobacconist on Dublin's North Frederick Street owned by the writer Cathal McGarvey and frequented by literary figures like
James Joyce
and Yeats, along with leaders of the
Nationalist movement
such as
Douglas Hyde
,
Arthur Griffith
and
Michael Collins
. These were connected with another great symbol of the literary revival, the
Abbey Theatre
, which served as the stage for many new Irish writers and playwrights of the time.
In 1892, Sir
Charles Gavan Duffy
said,
A group of young men, among the most generous and disinterested in our annals, were busy digging up the buried relics of our history, to enlighten the present by a knowledge of the past, setting up on their pedestals anew the overthrown statues of Irish worthies, assailing wrongs which under long impunity had become unquestioned and even venerable, and warming as with strong wine the heart of the people, by songs of valour and hope; and happily not standing isolated in their pious work, but encouraged and sustained by just such an army of students and sympathizers as I see here to-day.
The Celtic Revival was an international movement. The Irish-American designer
Thomas Augustus "Gus" O'Shaughnessy
made a conscious choice to use Irish design roots in his artwork. Trained in stained glass and working in an Art Nouveau style, O'Shaughnessy designed a series of windows and interior stencils for
Old Saint Patrick's Church
in Chicago, a 10-year project begun in 1912.
Louis Sullivan
, the Chicago architect, incorporated dense Art Nouveau and Celtic-inspired interlace in the ornament of his buildings. Sullivan's father was a traditional Irish musician and they both were step-dancers. In England, the
Watts Mortuary Chapel
(1896?98) in
Surrey
was a thoroughgoing attempt to decorate a
Romanesque Revival
chapel framework with lavish Celtic reliefs designed by
Mary Fraser Tytler
.
Celtic-style tattoo
The "plastic style" of early Celtic art was one of the elements feeding into
Art Nouveau
decorative style, very consciously so in the work of designers like the
Manxman
Archibald Knox
, who did much work for
Liberty & Co.
, especially for his
Tudric
and Cymric ranges of metalwork, respectively in pewter and silver or gold. Many of the most extravagant examples of the plastic style come from the modern
Czech Lands
and influenced the Czech Art Nouveau designer and artist
Alphonse Mucha
(Mucha, in turn, influenced the Irish-American O'Shaughnessy, who had attended a series of Mucha's lectures in Chicago).
The
interlace
design motif remains popular in Celtic countries, above all Ireland where it is a national style signature. In recent decades, it had a re-revival in 1960s designs (for example, in the
Biba
logo) and has been used worldwide in tattoos and in various contexts and media in fantasy works with a quasi-
Dark Ages
setting.
The Secret of Kells
is an animated feature film of 2009 set during the creation of the
Book of Kells
which makes much use of Insular design.
In France,
sublime
descriptions of Celtic landscape were found in the works of
Jacques Cambry
. The Celtic Revival was strengthened by
Napoleon
's idea that the "French were a race of empire-building Celts," and became institutionalized by the foundation of the
Academie Celtique
in 1805, by Cambry and others.
John Duncan
was one of the leading artists of the Celtic Revival and
Symbolism
. He was inspired by the early Italian Renaissance and made works in the medieval medium of tempera. He was a prolific artist working in a range of mediums including stained glass, illustrating and painting.
[
citation needed
]
Linguistic and cultural revivals, after 1920
[
edit
]
Modern copper jar with a Celtic motif.
In the Celtic nations
[
edit
]
Brittany
[
edit
]
In 1925, Professor
Roparz Hemon
founded the Breton-language review
Gwalarn
.
During its 19-year run,
Gwalarn
tried to raise the language to the level of a great international language. Its publication encouraged the creation of original literature in all genres, and proposed Breton translations of internationally recognized foreign works. In 1946,
Al Liamm
replaced
Gwalarn
. Other Breton-language periodicals have been published, which established a fairly large body of literature for a minority language.
In 1977,
Diwan schools
were founded to teach Breton by
immersion
. They taught a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school. See the
education section
for more information.
The
Asterix
comic series has been translated into Breton. According to the comic, the
Gaulish
village where Asterix lives is in the
Armorica peninsula
, which is now Brittany. Some other popular comics have also been translated into Breton, including
The Adventures of Tintin
,
Spirou
,
Titeuf
,
Hagar the Horrible
,
Peanuts
and
Yakari
.
Some original media are created in Breton. The sitcom,
Ken Tuch
, is in Breton.
Radio Kerne
, broadcasting from
Finistere
, has exclusively Breton programming. Some movies (
Lancelot du Lac
,
Shakespeare in Love
,
Marion du Faouet
,
Sezneg
) and TV series (
Columbo
,
Perry Mason
) have also been translated and broadcast in Breton. Poets, singers, linguists, and writers who have written in Breton, including
Yann-Ber Kalloc'h
,
Roparz Hemon
, Anjela Duval,
Xavier de Langlais
,
Per-Jakez Helias
,
Youenn Gwernig
,
Glenmor
and
Alan Stivell
are now known internationally.
Today, Breton is the only living
Celtic language
that is not recognized by national government as an official or regional language.
The first Breton dictionary, the
Catholicon
, was also the first French dictionary. Edited by Jehan Lagadec in 1464, it was a trilingual work containing Breton, French and Latin. Today bilingual dictionaries have been published for Breton and languages including English, Dutch, German, Spanish and Welsh. A new generation
[
clarification needed
]
is determined to gain international recognition for Breton. The monolingual dictionary,
Geriadur Brezhoneg an Here
(1995), defines Breton words in Breton. The first edition contained about 10,000 words, and the second edition of 2001 contains 20,000 words.
In the early 21st century, the
Ofis ar Brezhoneg
("Office of the Breton language") began a campaign to encourage daily use of Breton in the region by both businesses and local communes. Efforts include installing bilingual signs and posters for regional events, as well as encouraging the use of the
Spilhennig
to let speakers identify each other. The office also started an
Internationalization and localization
policy asking
Google
,
Firefox
and
SPIP
to develop their interfaces in Breton. In 2004, the
Breton Wikipedia
started, which now counts more than 50,000 articles. In March 2007, the
Ofis ar Brezhoneg
signed a tripartite agreement with
Regional Council of Brittany
and
Microsoft
for the consideration of the Breton language in Microsoft products. In October 2014,
Facebook
added Breton as one of its 121 languages, after three years of talks between the
Ofis
and Facebook.
Cornwall
[
edit
]
The
Cornish
cultural Celtic revival of the early twentieth century was characterised by an increased interest in the
Cornish language
started by
Henry Jenner
and
Robert Morton Nance
in 1904. The
Federation of Old Cornwall Societies
was formed in 1924 to "maintain the Celtic spirit of Cornwall", followed by the
Gorseth Kernow
in 1928 and the formation of the Cornish political party
Mebyon Kernow
in 1951.
Ireland
[
edit
]
Due to the revival of Irish in educational settings and bilingual upbringing, there has been an increase in young Irish people speaking the language in the
Republic of Ireland
and
Northern Ireland
. It is said it is more common to hear it spoken in Irish cities. Additionally, there is a modest revived interest in North America in learning Irish.
Isle of Man
[
edit
]
Scotland
[
edit
]
Wales
[
edit
]
The
Welsh language
has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout recorded history, and in recent centuries had been the most widely spoken
Celtic language
by far. By 1911 it had become a minority language, spoken by merely 43.5% of the Welsh population.
[15]
While this decline continued over the following decades, the language did not die out. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more.
The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7% of the population of Wales spoke Welsh,
[16]
compared with 20.8% in the
2001 census
, and 18.5% in 1991. The
2011 census
, however, showed a slight decline to 562,000, or 19% of the population.
[17]
The census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in the Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50% in
Ceredigion
and
Carmarthenshire
for the first time.
[18]
According to the Welsh Language Use Survey 2013-15, 24% of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh.
[19]
Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh.
Over the course of the 20th century this monolingual population "all but disappeared", but a small percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census.
In Wales, 16% of state school pupils now receive a
Welsh medium education
, and Welsh is a compulsory subject in English medium schools, up to the age of 15-16.
Americas
[
edit
]
Welsh in Argentina
[
edit
]
Welsh
is spoken by over 5,000 people in
Chubut province
of
Argentina
.
[22]
Some districts have recently incorporated it as an educational language.
Nova Scotia
[
edit
]
Nova Scotia
holds the largest population of
Scots Gaelic
speakers outside of Scotland.
France
[
edit
]
The
Gaulish language
used to be widely spoken in France and beyond around the period of the Roman Empire. There have been attempts at revivals and reconstructions, despite very limited evidence for the exact original form of the language.
Eluveitie
is a
folk metal
band that writes songs in revived form of Gaulish.
[24]
Auvergne
[
edit
]
In
Auvergne
, chants are sung around bonfires remembering a Celtic god. There are also modern attempts to revive the polytheistic religion of the
Gauls
.
Auvergne is also a hotpot for the Gaulish revival movement, being the location of numerous important Gaulish sites and the home of the legendary Gaulish warrior,
Vercingetorix
.
Elsewhere in Europe
[
edit
]
The Celtic cultural revivals in
Cornwall
have spread towards Northern England, with the attempted reconstructions of numerous types of bagpipe (such as the Lancashire Great-pipe) and an increased interest in the
Northumbrian smallpipes
. There are also attempts to reconstruct the
Cumbric language
, the ancient
Brythonic
language of Northern (particularly Northwestern) England, a remnant of the Brittonic kingdoms of
Hen Ogledd
.
[
citation needed
]
There are small areas of Celtic revival in
Galicia (Spain)
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
Works cited
[
edit
]
- Alberro, Manuel (2005).
"Celtic Legacy in Galicia"
.
E-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies
.
6
: 1005?1035. Archived from
the original
on 1 June 2013.
- Castle, Gregory (2001).
Modernism and the Celtic Revival
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Davies, Janet (1993).
The Welsh Language
.
Bath, Somerset
:
University of Wales Press
.
- De Vise, Daniel (5 March 2012).
"A modest revival for the Irish language"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
23 January
2016
.
- Foster, R. F. (1997).
W. B. Yeats: A Life
. Vol. I: The Apprentice Mage.
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
0-19-288085-3
.
- Foster, R. F. (2003).
W. B. Yeats: A Life
. Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915?1939. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
0-19-818465-4
.
- Gardiner, M. (2005).
Modern Scottish Culture
. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
ISBN
0-7486-2027-3
.
- Jarron, Matthew (2015).
"Independent & Individualist": Art in Dundee 1867-1924
. Dundee: Abertay Historical Society.
ISBN
978-0-900019-56-2
.
- MacDonald, M. (2000).
Scottish Art
. London: Thames and Hudson.
ISBN
0500203334
.
- MacManus, Seamus (1921).
The Story of the Irish Race: A Popular History of Ireland
. Ireland: The Irish Publishing Co.
ISBN
0-517-06408-1
.
- Perkins, David (1979).
A History of Modern Poetry: Modernism and After
. Harvard University Press.
ISBN
978-8190340359
.
- Quinlan, Alice (22 January 2011).
"Alice Milligan: Renaissance woman"
.
Independent.ie
. Retrieved
24 January
2021
.
- Walker, Stephen (n.d.).
"Celtic Revival Crosses"
.
Celtarts.com
. Archived from
the original
on 1 October 2016
. Retrieved
22 November
2008
.
- Watts, Andrew (2007).
Preserving the Provinces: Small Town and Countryside in the Work of Honore de Balzac
. Peter Lang.
ISBN
978-3-03910-583-0
.
- Williams, Colin H. (1990). "The Anglicisation of Wales". In Coupland, Nikolas (ed.).
English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change
. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.
ISBN
978-1853590313
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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