50 Fun Facts About The Celts

Which queen of the Iceni led a revolt that burned Roman London to the ground around AD 60?

Boudica is thought to have left 70,000 to 80,000 dead as her army burned three towns. Tacitus says the revolt began after Romans flogged her and raped her daughters.

According to legend, which birds woke Rome's defenders as Gauls scaled the Capitoline Hill by night?

Geese sacred to the goddess Juno raised the alarm after the guards and the dogs heard nothing. The night attack failed, and the Gauls later accepted a ransom in gold.

Which modern holiday is widely thought to draw on Samhain, the Gaelic festival that opens winter?

Halloween falls on the eve of Samhain, when Gaels lit bonfires and went door to door in costume. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried the customs to America.

Which European capital, known to the Romans as Lutetia, takes its name from a Gallic tribe?

Paris is named after the Parisii, whose stronghold Lutetia stood on the Seine. Julius Caesar summoned an assembly of the Gallic tribes there in 53 BC.

The Galatians, Celts who left the Balkans in 278 BC, made their home in which modern country?

Turkey holds the old Celtic land of Galatia, in the highlands around Ankara. Its Christians were the Galatians who received a letter from Paul the Apostle in the New Testament.

Julius Caesar wrote that Britons painted themselves which colour to look more frightful in battle?

Blue is the colour Caesar reported, from a substance he called vitrum. It is usually translated as woad, a plant dye, though the Latin word more often means glass.

Which priestly class of ancient Gaul and Britain trained its pupils for up to twenty years?

Druids were exempt from taxation and military service. Their pupils spent the long training memorising a huge body of verse.

Which Arverni chieftain united the Gauls against Julius Caesar before surrendering at Alesia?

Vercingetorix offered himself up to spare his people. He was held in Rome for six years, displayed in Caesar's triumph and then executed.

Which comic series follows a Gaulish village that resists Roman occupation thanks to a magic potion?

Asterix was written by René Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo. It has been translated into more than 100 languages, the most of any comic book series.

Which English monument was once credited to Celtic priests, though building began around 3100 BC?

Stonehenge was first tied to the Celtic priesthood by John Aubrey in the 17th century. Its last phase dates to about 1600 BC, long before the Iron Age.

Pliny the Elder wrote that Gaulish priests cut which plant from oak trees with a golden sickle?

Mistletoe was caught in a white cloak as it fell, and was gathered on the sixth day of the moon. Pliny's passage is the only surviving account of the rite.

Hallstatt, the Austrian village that names the early Celtic Iron Age, grew rich by mining what?

Salt from the Hallstatt mines made the village wealthy and also preserved the miners' shoes, cloth and backpacks, which survive in good condition today.

The torc, a twisted metal ornament of high-ranking Celts, was worn around which body part?

Neck torcs were prized enough that the Roman Titus Manlius took one from a Gaul he killed in single combat. He wore it so often that he was nicknamed Torquatus.

Which illuminated manuscript, made by Celtic monks around AD 800, is kept at Trinity College Dublin?

The Book of Kells takes its name from the Abbey of Kells in County Meath, its home for centuries. It has stayed at Trinity College since a bishop presented it in 1661.

Which Celtic language was carried from Britain to northwestern France by early medieval migrants?

Breton is the only Celtic language still in use on the European mainland. Its closest relative is Cornish, since both descend from the speech of southwestern Britain.

Which garment, called braccae by the Romans, set Gaulish men apart from tunic-wearing Romans?

Trousers reached Rome from the Gauls, by the Romans' own account, and the Latin word braccae was itself borrowed from Gaulish.

Which flexible armour, later standard for Roman legionaries, is commonly credited to Celtic smiths?

Chain mail is thought to have first met the Romans on Gauls they fought in northern Italy. The legions then copied it as the lorica hamata.

According to Julius Caesar, the Gauls burned living men inside huge figures made of what material?

Wicker images filled with victims appear in Caesar's account, while Strabo describes a colossus of straw and wood. No archaeological find has confirmed either story.

The Helvetii, Gauls beaten by Julius Caesar near Bibracte, give which country its Latin name?

Switzerland is officially Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin, which is why its country code is CH. The Helvetii lived on its central plateau before the Roman conquest.

Which Gallic tribes, called the bravest of all by Julius Caesar, gave a modern kingdom its name?

The Belgae live on in the name of Belgium. Caesar put their courage down to living furthest from Roman luxuries and nearest to the Germans across the Rhine.

Which Italian city began as Mediolanum, a town of the Celtic Insubres taken by Rome in 222 BC?

Milan was settled around 590 BC under the Celtic name Medhelanon, which the Romans Latinised. Centuries later it served as a capital of the Western Roman Empire.

The Celtiberians, whose town Numantia defied Rome for twenty years, lived in which modern country?

Spain preserves the ruins of Numantia on a hill near Soria. The Senate finally sent Scipio Aemilianus to destroy the town in 133 BC.

Which Greek sanctuary of Apollo did a Gaulish army under Brennus try to loot in 279 BC?

Delphi was where the huge Gaulish invasion of Greece collapsed. The attackers were driven off, and their badly injured leader took his own life.

Which conqueror asked Celtic envoys what they feared most, only to hear that it was the sky falling?

Alexander the Great had expected the Celts to name him. Strabo, citing Alexander's general Ptolemy, adds that they politely ranked his friendship above everything else.

According to Livy, what did the Gaul Brennus throw onto the scales as Rome's ransom was weighed?

His sword made the Gauls' already heavy weights heavier still, and he added a taunt in Latin meaning woe to the conquered.

Which emperor began the lasting conquest of Britain in AD 43, long after Julius Caesar's raids?

Claudius put the senator Aulus Plautius in charge of the invasion force. Cassius Dio says the emperor also brought war elephants, a claim modern historians doubt.

Which captured British chieftain won a pardon from the Roman emperor with a speech?

Caratacus had already been sentenced to death when his words changed the emperor's mind. He reached Rome as a captive after Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, handed him over.

Which island, called Mona by the Romans, was invaded in AD 60 to break the power of Celtic priests?

Anglesey was taken by the general Suetonius Paulinus, who destroyed its shrine and sacred groves. He then had to hurry east because a revolt had broken out behind him.

Lindow Man, an Iron Age body found in Cheshire in 1984, had been preserved for centuries in what?

A peat bog kept him so intact that he is now on display at the British Museum. A sinew cord at his throat may have been a garrotte, though it could simply have been jewellery.

The Gundestrup cauldron, a silver vessel crowded with Celtic gods, was found in which country?

Denmark was probably not where the cauldron was made. Its metalwork follows the Thracian tradition, so it seems to have travelled far north before it was buried in pieces.

Which Gaelic May Day festival saw cattle driven between two bonfires to protect them from disease?

Beltane marked the beginning of summer, when herds were driven out to their summer pastures. People walked between the fires too, and sometimes leapt over the embers.

Which Irish goddess of poetry shares her name and February feast day with a saint of Kildare?

Brigid the saint is honoured on 1 February, a day that was originally the festival of Imbolc. Historians suggest that she took on the lore of the older goddess.

Which Irish god, said to be skilled in many arts, gave his name to the August harvest festival?

Lugh is said to have founded an assembly like the Olympic Games, ending on 1 August, in memory of his foster mother Tailtiu.

Which Irish hero, born Sétanta, earned his name by killing a guard dog and offering to replace it?

Cú Chulainn means the hound of Culann, the smith who owned the dog. At seventeen he is said to have defended Ulster single-handedly against the armies of Queen Medb.

In the Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, Queen Medb of Connacht invades Ulster to steal which animal?

A bull called Donn Cuailnge was the prize. In one version Medb wants him only because her husband's herd holds a rival animal that she cannot match.

In Irish legend, Fionn mac Cumhaill gained wisdom after burning his thumb cooking which creature?

A salmon holding all the world's knowledge had taken his master, the poet Finn Eces, seven years to catch. Fionn sucked his scalded thumb and got the wisdom first.

Which Gaulish goddess of horses was worshipped across the Roman Empire as patroness of the cavalry?

Epona was often carved riding sidesaddle or seated among foals. Her name lives on in the horse ridden by Link in the Legend of Zelda games.

Cernunnos, a Celtic god whose name is clearly attested only once, is known in art by which feature?

Antlers hung with torcs crown the aged figure on the Pillar of the Boatmen, the one monument where his name is clearly written.

Which poets and singers ranked beside priests and seers among the learned orders of ancient Gaul?

Bards sang the praises of chieftains and mocked their rivals to an instrument like a lyre. The calling lasted into medieval Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

Strabo wrote that Celts embalmed which body part of their most esteemed enemies in cedar oil?

The head was the seat of the soul to the Celts, the scholar Paul Jacobsthal wrote. Resin traces on Iron Age skulls from Le Cailar in southern France back up the embalming story.

Which Celtic culture, named after a lake site exposed when waters fell in 1857, followed Hallstatt?

La Tène came to light when Lake Neuchâtel dropped by about two metres, revealing thousands of objects that had been deposited in the water.

The Vix krater, a giant Greek bronze vessel from a Celtic lady's grave, was made for mixing what?

Wine for a feast would have been mixed in it. Excavated in Burgundy in 1953, the krater is the largest known metal vessel from Western classical antiquity.

The Dying Gaul, a marble statue of a wounded warrior, may copy a bronze made for which kingdom?

Pergamon may have ordered the lost original under King Attalus I, to celebrate a victory over the Galatians. The marble copy is in the Capitoline Museums.

Which animal-shaped bronze war trumpet did Iron Age Celts sound to intimidate opponents in battle?

Carnyx players held the long tube vertical, with a bell shaped like an open-mouthed boar at the end. Well-preserved examples were found at Tintignac in 2004.

Which early medieval Irish alphabet survives in roughly 400 inscriptions on stone monuments?

Ogham letters are built from groups of one to five strokes. Most of the old inscriptions stand in the southern Irish province of Munster.

Which hill in County Meath is the traditional seat of the High Kings of Ireland?

Tara holds monuments from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Its standing stone, the Lia Fáil or Stone of Destiny, is believed to be where the High Kings were crowned.

Which self-governing island is counted among the six Celtic nations, alongside Ireland, Scotland and Wales?

The Isle of Man lost Ned Maddrell, the last of its old native speakers, in 1974. A revival had already begun by then, and Manx was being taught in schools.

What feature surrounds the intersection of a Celtic cross, setting it apart from a Latin cross?

A ring, also called a nimbus, marks the form that emerged in Ireland and Britain in the Early Middle Ages. Scholars still debate where the design came from.

The Battersea Shield, a bronze masterpiece of Celtic art, was dredged in 1857 from which river?

The Thames gave up the shield during digging for the predecessor of Chelsea Bridge. It is now on display in the British Museum.

The Coligny tablet, a bronze plaque inscribed in Gaulish in the 2nd century AD, sets out what?

A calendar on a five-year cycle of lunar months, it was found in France in 1897. The Gaulish text is written with Roman capitals and Roman numerals.