INTELLECTUAL SERFS AND IDEOLOGICAL MASTERS
Uses and Abuses of Celtic and Indo-European Studies
by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS
Quia filii hujus saeculi prudentiores filiis lucis sunt - Luke, 16:8
Since the middle of the last century, Celtic Studies has been a relatively esoteric discipline. It is of interest only to the Celts and some academics of other fields, such as mediaevalists and philologists. Those who directly involve themselves in the study of Celitica are few. Much scope is give to scholars of dubious credentials to make mischief as a result.
The systematic investigation of Celtic languages and literature began about 150 years ago. The English poet Matthew Arnold and the French critic Ernest Renan were among its earliest enthusiasts. Renan was a student of Blessed Frédèric Ozanam, but was more impressed by the latter's romanticism than by his Catholicism. One of his best-known works is the Vie de Jésus (reading this was one of the reasons Stalin lost his faith and was expelled from seminary).
Neither Arnold nor Renan was orthodox in his religious beliefs. Their view of Celtica was based on an idealisation of the Celt. They saw the Celt as intuitive, artistic and unfettered by reason, while they regarded the Germanic mind, though logical and industrious, as lacking creativity of any sort. So the 19th-century precursors of the hippies looked to the Celt, on industrialised Europe's western fringe, for their new paradigm. It is significant that neither Arnold nor Renan was burdened by the knowledge of even one Celtic language. It made stereotyping so much easier.
Neither Arnold nor Renan was orthodox in his religious beliefs. Their view of Celtica was based on an idealisation of the Celt. They saw the Celt as intuitive, artistic and unfettered by reason, while they regarded the Germanic mind, though logical and industrious, as lacking creativity of any sort. So the 19th-century precursors of the hippies looked to the Celt, on industrialised Europe's western fringe, for their new paradigm. It is significant that neither Arnold nor Renan was burdened by the knowledge of even one Celtic language. It made stereotyping so much easier.
The Würzburg glosses
At the same time, Johann Caspar Zeuss (1806-56) was deciphering the Würzburg glosses. The glosses, found in manuscripts of a commentary on the Pauline epistles in Würzburg, on the Psalter in Milan and on Priscian's Latin grammar at St Gallen are as important to Celtic Studies as the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptology. The texts are in Latin, but the margins are cluttered heavily by explanatory notation in Old Irish for the benefit of students.
Zeuss, a classical philologist, did the opposite and used the Latin to learn Old Irish. His Grammatica Celtica is a seminal world and should establish Zeuss as the father of Celtic Studies.
St Kilian brought Christianity and classical learning to Würzburg, Milan was close to St Columbanus' Bobbio and St Gallen is named after St Gall. And it is from these places that we derive our first knowledge of early mediaeval Ireland. But the foundational work was grammatical and tedious - and the lay enthusiasts preferred ready-made translations and commentaries.
Zeuss, a classical philologist, did the opposite and used the Latin to learn Old Irish. His Grammatica Celtica is a seminal world and should establish Zeuss as the father of Celtic Studies.
St Kilian brought Christianity and classical learning to Würzburg, Milan was close to St Columbanus' Bobbio and St Gallen is named after St Gall. And it is from these places that we derive our first knowledge of early mediaeval Ireland. But the foundational work was grammatical and tedious - and the lay enthusiasts preferred ready-made translations and commentaries.
Nationalist fervour
The lay enthusiasts were impatient. They had from O'Donovan's and O'Curry's ideas that the tales were historical. The spirit of the Gaelic Renaissance and the Anglo-Irish literary revival was the spirit of Arnold and Renan. Even the scientific scholars, such as Professor Eoin MacNéill, sought to explain away the old sagas as myths concerning the rising and setting of the suns. Patrick Pearse had an uncommon insight into the discipline for his day, due to his competancy in French and German, but was not above manipulating this knowledge for political purposes in the latter years of his life. It could be said that the popular presentation of Celtica contributed to the nationalist fervour which brought about the Easter Rising and subsequent events. Militant nationalists continue to draw from this source, up to the present day.
One side-effect of the Celtic Renaissance was the publication of the lives of many early Irish saints. These books and pamphlets, with their emphasis on monastic life and asceticism, held up a Celtic spirituality for the admiration and not for the imitation of the readers. For who would sleep on a plank and keep those impossible fasts anyway?
The Venerable Matt Talbot did! But when one hears of Celtic spirituality nowadays, Matt Talbot is not a name that comes to mind.
One side-effect of the Celtic Renaissance was the publication of the lives of many early Irish saints. These books and pamphlets, with their emphasis on monastic life and asceticism, held up a Celtic spirituality for the admiration and not for the imitation of the readers. For who would sleep on a plank and keep those impossible fasts anyway?
The Venerable Matt Talbot did! But when one hears of Celtic spirituality nowadays, Matt Talbot is not a name that comes to mind.
Indo-European Studies
After the First World War, Germany was still the centre of Celtic Sudies. Scholars were now looking east, to India. The Germans wholeheartedly embraced the study of Sanskrit. Thus emerged the new discipline of Indo-Germanistik, rendered Indo-European Studies in most other languages.
The juxtaposition of Arnold's and Renan's "Far West" (the Celtic fringe) with the orient did not go unnoticed. Irish scholars, having devoured the new Sanskrit grammars, presented Ireland and India as the ultimate peripheries of the Indo-European domain; and therefore, if one could isolate the ancient customs both had in common, one could reconstruct the mores which prevailed in Europe and much of Asia at the dawn of history. Gandhi borrowed the hunger strike from Terence McSwiney and each believe they were following a tradition known in Ireland and India in primeval times, and therefore practised everywhere between the two.
Aryan brothers
The Germans were more interested by parallels between their own peoples and the Indians. This too found popular expression. The National Socialists thought the idea fascinating. It is no mere coincidence that the Hakenkreuz is an Indian symbol and that the Aryans were a prehistoric race who occupied the region between India and Persia. Iran and Aryan are derived from the same word. The Nazis' enthusiasm for Indo-Germanistik is not so extraordinary when one sees it provided them with an origin myth conveniently devoid of the perfidious Jew, and perfectly consistent with Mr Darwin's theory.
It was highly embarrassing to the Indian Congress Party leadership - particularly Nehru - that some of their members swallowed the Indo-European myth. Thus for many Indian nationalists, Hitler was a hero, and the Nazis their Aryan brothers. Gandhi (not unlike de Valera) had good reasons for keeping the Congress aloof from India's war effort.
He had two willing disciples in the Rees brothers, whose book Celtic Heritage* is something of a classic. Personally, I would warmly recommend Celtic Heritage to any novice, provided they concentrate on the narrative to the old Irish and Welsh tales and ignore the analysis of them. The Dumézillians seem to have forgotten that India was a highly developed, urban and literate society for some millennia before Christ, while the Celtic and Germanic peoples remained rural and illiterate until they were evangelised. It makes a difference.
At present, there is a tendency among some professional Celtic scholars to regard the Irish and Welsh sagas as mediaeval Christian literature. As such, they owe as much to Christian sources as they do to allegedly extensive pagan lore in the Celtic regions prior to their christianisation. Of course, it is easier to see the Christian influence when the extant material is compared with classica, patristic and apocryphal sources, not to mention Scripture itself. The existence of this school of thought is a well-kept secret.
It was highly embarrassing to the Indian Congress Party leadership - particularly Nehru - that some of their members swallowed the Indo-European myth. Thus for many Indian nationalists, Hitler was a hero, and the Nazis their Aryan brothers. Gandhi (not unlike de Valera) had good reasons for keeping the Congress aloof from India's war effort.
Faulty analysis
The look to the East received a more sophisticated veneer after the war. Suddenly structuralism, functionalism and formalism - or any combination of these - were the buzz-words. Georges Dumézil provided a new set of theories, substantially based on the functions of a member of any given Hindu caste.He had two willing disciples in the Rees brothers, whose book Celtic Heritage* is something of a classic. Personally, I would warmly recommend Celtic Heritage to any novice, provided they concentrate on the narrative to the old Irish and Welsh tales and ignore the analysis of them. The Dumézillians seem to have forgotten that India was a highly developed, urban and literate society for some millennia before Christ, while the Celtic and Germanic peoples remained rural and illiterate until they were evangelised. It makes a difference.
At present, there is a tendency among some professional Celtic scholars to regard the Irish and Welsh sagas as mediaeval Christian literature. As such, they owe as much to Christian sources as they do to allegedly extensive pagan lore in the Celtic regions prior to their christianisation. Of course, it is easier to see the Christian influence when the extant material is compared with classica, patristic and apocryphal sources, not to mention Scripture itself. The existence of this school of thought is a well-kept secret.
Ideology or ideolatry?
Just as scholars are coming to a new appreciation of the Christianity of Celtica, the pseudo-scholars are using it to construct a neo-paganism. In appealing to the archaic, they seek to give legitimacy to new philosophies such as feminism and New Ageism. These speak of a matriarchal society in which the earth was worshiped and humankind was at one with nature. Women, naturally, held sway.
This is not the first time that scholarship is being twisted to serve ideology. And where an obscure discipline such as Celtic Studies is thus abused, what would one expect of something like history or theology?
I wonder if ideology is the right word to describe feminism or Marxist-Leninism or any of the other philosophies that accommodate themselves so well to the Zeitgeist. Ideology suggests discussion of an idea; and these fundamentalisms admit no dissension in any form, but rather involve worship of the idea - equivalent of the worship we would give to God, and probably contrary to the First Commandment.
Would the word ideolatry not be more appropriate? And are the adherents of an ideolatry not ideolaters?
* A. and B. Rees, Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition of Ireland and Wales, 1961
The Brandsma Review, Issue 36, April-May 1998
This is not the first time that scholarship is being twisted to serve ideology. And where an obscure discipline such as Celtic Studies is thus abused, what would one expect of something like history or theology?
I wonder if ideology is the right word to describe feminism or Marxist-Leninism or any of the other philosophies that accommodate themselves so well to the Zeitgeist. Ideology suggests discussion of an idea; and these fundamentalisms admit no dissension in any form, but rather involve worship of the idea - equivalent of the worship we would give to God, and probably contrary to the First Commandment.
Would the word ideolatry not be more appropriate? And are the adherents of an ideolatry not ideolaters?
* A. and B. Rees, Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition of Ireland and Wales, 1961
The Brandsma Review, Issue 36, April-May 1998
It might be worth noting that though Renan and Arnold knew no Celtic languages they could claim Celtic descent (Renan was a Breton; Arnold's mother or grandmother was Welsh) and therefore saw themselves as exemplary hybrids who received an instinctive understanding of the subject through their blood - an idea with unfortunate later implications.
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