| Celtic Revival | |
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 _Tristan_%2526_Isolde.jpg)  Top to bottom: CelticHigh cross inQuebec (compare withan original);Tristan and Isolde byJohn Duncan (1912);Bollelin seriespewter plate byArchibald Knox (1899) |
TheCeltic Revival (also referred to as theCeltic Twilight[1]) is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects ofCeltic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions ofGaelic literature,Welsh-language literature, andCeltic art—what historians callinsular art (theEarly Medieval style ofIreland andBritain). Although the revival was complex and multifaceted, occurring across many fields and in various countries inNorthwest Europe, its best known incarnation is probably theIrish Literary Revival. Irish writers includingWilliam Butler Yeats,John Millington Synge,Lady Gregory,"Æ" Russell,Edward Martyn,Alice Milligan[2] andEdward Plunkett (Lord Dunsany) stimulated a new appreciation of traditionalIrish literature andIrish poetry in the late 19th and early 20th century.[3]
In aspects the revival came to represent a reaction tomodernisation. This is particularly true in Ireland, where the relationship between the archaic and the modern was antagonistic, where history was fractured, and where, according toTerry Eagleton, "as a whole [the nation] had not leapt at a bound fromtradition tomodernity".[4] At times thisromantic view of the past resulted in historically inaccurate portrayals, such as the promotion ofnoble savage stereotypes of theIrish people andScottish Highlanders, as well as aracialized view that referred to the Irish, whether positively ornegatively, as a separaterace.[5]
A widespread and still visible result of the revival was the reintroduction of theHigh cross as theCeltic cross, which now forms a familiar part of monumental andfunerary art over much of theWestern world.[6]
Research into the Gaelic and Brittonic cultures and histories of Britain and Ireland gathered pace from the late 18th century, by antiquaries and historians likeOwen Jones inWales andCharles 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 authorIolo Morganwg fed the growing fascination in all things Brittonic by founding theGorsedd, which would in turn spark theNeo-druidism movement.
Interest inScottish Gaelic culture greatly increased during the onset of the Romantic period in the late 18th century, withJames Macpherson'sOssian achieving international fame, along with the novels of SirWalter Scott and the poetry and lyrics ofThomas Moore.
Throughout Europe, the Romantic movement inspired a great revival of interest infolklore, folk tales, andfolk music; evenBeethoven[7] 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.
In the mid-19th century the revival continued, with SirSamuel Ferguson, theYoung 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 theGrammar of Ornament bythe architect Owen Jones. Imitations of the ornateInsularpenannular brooches of the 7–9th centuries were worn by figures such as Queen Victoria,[8] many produced in Dublin byWest & Son and other makers.[9]
In Scotland wereJohn Francis Campbell's (1821–1885) works the bilingualPopular Tales of the West Highlands (4 vols., 1860–62) andThe Celtic Dragon Myth, published posthumously in 1911. The formation of theEdinburgh Social Union in 1885, which included a number of significant figures in theArts and Craft andAesthetic 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.[10] Key figures were the philosopher, sociologist, town planner and writerPatrick Geddes (1854–1932), the architect and designerRobert Lorimer (1864–1929) and stained-glass artistDouglas Strachan (1875–1950). Geddes established an informal college of tenement flats for artists atRamsay Garden on Castle Hill in Edinburgh in the 1890s. Among the figures involved with the movement wereAnna Traquair (1852–1936), who was commissioned by the Union to paint murals in the Mortuary Chapel of theHospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, (1885–86 and 1896–98) and also worked in metal, illumination, illustration, embroidery, and book binding.[11] The most significant exponent of the artistic revival in Scotland was Dundee-bornJohn Duncan (1866–1945). Among his most influential works are his paintings of Celtic subjectsTristan and Iseult (1912) andSt Bride (1913).[12] Duncan also helped to make Dundee a major centre for the Celtic Revival movement along with artists such asStewart Carmichael and the publisher Malcolm C. MacLeod.[13]
TheIrish Literary Revival encouraged the creation of works written in the spirit ofIrish culture, as distinct fromEnglish 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 asLady Gregory,W. B. Yeats,George Russell,J .M. Synge andSeán O'Casey wrote plays and articles about the political state of Ireland.Gaelic revival and Irish nationalism frequently overlapped in places such asAn Stad, a tobacconist on Dublin's North Frederick Street owned by the writer Cathal McGarvey and frequented by literary figures likeJames Joyce and Yeats, along with leaders of theNationalist movement such asDouglas Hyde,Arthur Griffith andMichael Collins. These were connected with another great symbol of the literary revival, theAbbey Theatre, which served as the stage for many new Irish writers and playwrights of the time.
In 1892, SirCharles 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.[7]
The Celtic Revival was an international movement. The Irish-American designerThomas 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 forOld 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, theWatts Mortuary Chapel (1896–98) inSurrey was a thoroughgoing attempt to decorate aRomanesque Revival chapel framework with lavish Celtic reliefs designed byMary Fraser Tytler.
The "plastic style" of early Celtic art was one of the elements feeding intoArt Nouveau decorative style, very consciously so in the work of designers like theManxmanArchibald Knox, who did much work forLiberty & Co., especially for hisTudric 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 modernCzech Lands and influenced the Czech Art Nouveau designer and artistAlphonse Mucha (Mucha, in turn, influenced the Irish-American O'Shaughnessy, who had attended a series of Mucha's lectures in Chicago).Theinterlace 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 theBiba 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 theBook of Kells which makes much use of Insular design.
In France,sublime descriptions of Celtic landscape were found in the works ofJacques Cambry. The Celtic Revival was strengthened byNapoleon's idea that the "French were a race of empire-building Celts," and became institutionalized by the foundation of theAcadémie Celtique in 1805, by Cambry and others.[14]
John Duncan was one of the leading artists of the Celtic Revival andSymbolism. 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]
In 1925, ProfessorRoparz Hemon founded the Breton-language reviewGwalarn. 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 replacedGwalarn. 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 byimmersion. They taught a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school. See theeducation section for more information.
TheAsterix comic series has been translated into Breton. According to the comic, theGaulish village where Asterix lives is in theArmorica peninsula, which is now Brittany. Some other popular comics have also been translated into Breton, includingThe Adventures of Tintin,Spirou,Titeuf,Hägar the Horrible,Peanuts andYakari.
Some original media are created in Breton. The sitcom,Ken Tuch, is in Breton.Radio Kerne, broadcasting fromFinistère, 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, includingYann-Ber Kalloc'h,Roparz Hemon, Anjela Duval,Xavier de Langlais,Pêr-Jakez Helias,Youenn Gwernig,Glenmor andAlan Stivell are now known internationally.
Today, Breton is the only livingCeltic language that is not recognized by national government as an official or regional language.
The first Breton dictionary, theCatholicon, 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, theOfis 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 theSpilhennig to let speakers identify each other. The office also started anInternationalization and localization policy askingGoogle,Firefox andSPIP to develop their interfaces in Breton. In 2004, theBreton Wikipedia started, which now counts more than 87,000 articles. In March 2007, theOfis ar Brezhoneg signed a tripartite agreement withRegional Council of Brittany andMicrosoft 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 theOfis and Facebook. On 27 June 2024, thanks to the use ofArtificial Intelligence, Google Translate added Breton to its roster of available languages.[15]
TheCornish cultural Celtic revival of the early twentieth century was characterised by an increased interest in theCornish language started byHenry Jenner andRobert Morton Nance in 1904. TheFederation of Old Cornwall Societies was formed in 1924 to "maintain the Celtic spirit of Cornwall", followed by theGorseth Kernow in 1928 and the formation of the Cornish political partyMebyon Kernow in 1951.
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 theRepublic of Ireland andNorthern 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.[16]
TheWelsh language has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout recorded history, and in recent centuries had been the most widely spokenCeltic language by far. By 1911 it had become a minority language, spoken by merely 43.5% of the Welsh population.[17] 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,[18] compared with 20.8% in the2001 census, and 18.5% in 1991. The2011 census, however, showed a slight decline to 562,000, or 19% of the population.[19]The census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in the Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50% inCeredigion andCarmarthenshire for the first time.[20] According to the Welsh Language Use Survey 2013-15, 24% of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh.[21]
Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh.[22] 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.[23] In Wales, 16% of state school pupils now receive aWelsh medium education, and Welsh is a compulsory subject in English medium schools, up to the age of 15-16.
Welsh is spoken by over 5,000 people inChubut province ofArgentina.[24] Some districts have recently incorporated it as an educational language.[25]
Nova Scotia holds the largest population ofScots Gaelic speakers outside of Scotland.
Celtic cultural revivals 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 theNorthumbrian smallpipes. There are also attempts to reconstruct theCumbric language, the ancientBrythonic language of Northern (particularly Northwestern) England, a remnant of the Brittonic kingdoms ofHen Ogledd.[citation needed]
TheGaulish 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 afolk metal band that writes songs in revived form of Gaulish.[26]
InAuvergne, chants are sung around bonfires remembering a Celtic god. There are also modern attempts to revive the polytheistic religion of theGauls. 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.
There are small areas of Celtic revival inGalicia (Spain).[27]
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