Celtic Mythology

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Celtic Mythology (ケルト神話, Keruto Shinwa^?) is the mythology of the Celts, an ancient Indo-European group of tribal societies present across the length of Europe from Britain to Asia Minor during the Iron Age.

In Toaru Majutsu no Index, Celtic Mythology is used as a base for certain forms of Magic.

Principles

The Celtic symbol of three conjoined spirals, or triskele/triskelion, popularly considered a Celtic symbol even though predates it by millennia and was only later incorporated into Celtic culture.

The Celts worshipped a variety of gods, who appeared in their tales. Most were all-powerful local deities linked to places rather than to specialized roles, with each tribe having its own god who protected and provided for the welfare of that tribe. Some of them had similar characteristics: for example, the Dagda, the god of life and death in Ireland—known as "the good god"—resembled Esus, the "master" god of Gaul. Some deities also had more clearly defined roles, like Lug, a sun god associated with the arts, war, and healing, and the horned god Cernunnos, who was a god of animals and fertility.

According to the Celts, before people came to the archipelago now called the British Isles, a race of intelligent magical non-humans calling themselves the Tuatha Dé Danann ("the children of the goddess Danu" in Gaelic) lived there. With the arrival of people and their permanent settlements, the Tuatha Dé Danann continued to muck about in the lives of people, but retreated to the Otherworld, their home world, a world still reachable through places such as fairy forts or fairy burrows called sidhe. This Otherworld is probably the "Fairy Island" Othinus mentions when explaining the Phases.

In the Irish myths, as in those of Wales, the heroes often are half-human and half-divine and may have magical powers, like Cú Chulainn, the warrior and champion of Ireland, and the heroic Finn Mac Cumhail, leader of a band of bold warriors known as the Fianna.

Many of the stories in the Mabinogion, a collection of eleven tales of Welsh mythology, deal with Arthurian legends. In fact, the popular Arthurian tales of medieval European literature are a complex blend of ancient Celtic myths, later stories, and historical events. The legends are rooted in Celtic mythology, and references to Arthur appear in a number of ancient Welsh poems.

Background

There were in the past six Celtic nations: Éire, Cymru, Alba, Kernow, Breizh, and Ellan Vannin. (Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man respectively.) All Celtic nations had varied mythology and culture, but mainland Europe's Celtic traditions were mostly lost due to invasion and assimilation of Celtic populations in their conquerors' own societies, as well as a cultural taboo against consigning knowledge to writing. Some of our knowledge also come from Roman sources, but, as the Romans sometimes referred to Celtic gods by Roman names and because the Romans and Celts were battlefield enemies, Roman descriptions of Celtic beliefs are often unfavorable and not always reliable. Much of what is now known about Celtic mythology is based on medieval manuscripts, the efforts of later Irish and Welsh monks who wrote down the stories in the 700s and the 1300s respectively.

There are thus two main (surviving) strands of Celtic mythology: Goidelic (Irish/Scots/Manx) and Brythonic (Welsh/Cornish/Breton). They are further split into 'Cycles' (Ireland) and 'Branches' (Wales). While they share many traits and have certain figures in common, they do not really overlap; each has its own unique stories.

Chronology

Toaru Majutsu no Index

British Royal Family Arc

Main article: British Royal Family Arc

During the British Halloween, a spiritual item based on Brionac is used by the Knights of England. The Knight Leader also made use of Hrunting, which incorporated analysis of certain Celtic weapons such as Brionac and Fragarach into its development.

Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index

Salome Arc

Main article: Salome Arc

Uses of Celtic Mythology in the story

Name	Description	Usage in Toaru Majutsu no Index
Brionac	A name supposedly ascribed to the spear of the god Lugh.	Brionac is a spiritual item used by the Knights of England. Brionac was one of the weapons analyzed by the Knight Leader in his development of Hrunting.
Cernunnos	A horned deity of Gaulish Celts.	Coronzon refers to Cernunnos while discussing the origins of demon horns, from ancient male gods as symbols of reproductive power, with Hamazura Shiage.
Cú Chulainn	A legendary hero of Irish mythology, and son of the god Lugh.	The legendary hero is mentioned in the narration when Othinus throws her Gungnir at Kamijou Touma, as apparently having been killed by his own spear as did not return to him unlike the other legendary weapons in mythology.
Fragarach	The sword of Manannan mac Lir and Lugh Lamfada. When held at one's throat, the sword was said to prevent them from telling a lie, hence its name, meaning 'Answerer'.	Fragarach was one of the weapons analyzed by the Knight Leader in his development of Hrunting.
Leannán Sí	An Irish beautiful woman of the Aos Sí who takes a human lover.	The name of the known individual Stativarius.
Manannán mac Lir	The Irish god of the Sea, and the psychopomp to five planes of the afterlife.	Salome's magic consists of offering weapons as sacrifices to Manannán mac Lir in order to gain their destructive power.
Nuada	The first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who lost the throne after losing his arm but regained it after gaining a new silver arm, hence his epithet Airgetlám (silver hand/arm).	A member of the true Gremlin is called Nuada.
Selkie	A legendary being, a seal that can take the form of a woman.	A selkie is depicted in William Orwell's escutcheon as one of its charges. A series of submarine mobile fortresses take their name from the selkie.
Sheela na Gig	Stone carvings of naked women. It is likely that either the origins of this is from Celtic Mythology or part of an ancient folklorish tradition of the British Isles.	Kamijou Touya brought a figure of Shella na Gig to the beach and showed it to Touma, referring to it as a fertility goddess.
Tathlum	A ball used by the Celts as a projectile for slingshots, made from the brain and bones of dead enemies hardened with lime.	Leivinia Birdway refers to these 'magic balls' during her discussion with Kanzaki Kaori about immortality and the methods that people have used to attempt to reach it.

External Links

• Celtic mythology (Wikipedia article)