Site End Notes

You may find that some actual quotations from referenced books are listed in these notes, rather than just the citation itself. Some of these books are not readily available, and so the full quotation may be helpful to those who do not have access to these titles. Please refer to the Site Bibliography for full records of titles.

1. Rees & Rees, 1961, p. 83-4.
2. Rees & Rees, 1961, p. 92.
3. Ross, 1976, p. 152.
4. Cross & Slover, p. 176: "Every year the men of Ulster were accustomed to hold festival together; and the time when they held it was for three days before Samain, and for three days after that day, and upon Samain itself."
5. A croft is a small enclosed field; a small farm, especially one worked by a renter [Middle English/Anglo-Saxon akin to Middle Low German kroft, krocht -- "little hill, field among dunes"; Germanic *krufta lit. "that which bends"; Indo-European base *ger "to turn, bend, twist"] (Webster's New World Dictionary)
6. Ross, 1976, p. 107. A cairn is a heap of stones set up as a grave. The Celts believed burial mounds to be entrances to the Otherworld and were honored with rites and offerings. The practice of placing flowers on graves may be an instinctive continuation of this rite of placating the dead with offerings
7. Ross, 1976, p. 152.
8. Ross, 1976, p. 98: tein-eigin: Scottish Gaelic (pronounced /chayna-aygeen/), "need fire" used against plague.
9. Kondratiev, 1998, p. 122:
   One of the festivals identified by name in the Coligny Calendar is Deuoriuos Riuri. If M. Kerjean-Lemaitre has been correct in translating 'Riuros' as the 'frost month' (by analogy with Gaelic 'reo,' Welsh 'rhew,' Breton 'riv') and in identifying it with, roughly, a period covering most of December (although it could, with equal appropriateness be related to early Irish 'redo,' 'deep darkness'), then Deuoriuos ('Deuo-ro-iuos,' 'great divine feast') would seem to coincide with the Winter Solstice, and to have been the Old Celtic name of that festival.
10. Yule: Old English yol, [yogh]ol, Anglo-Saxon ge['o]l; akin to ge['o]la "December or January," Icelandic j[=o]l Yule, Ylir, the name of a winter month, Swedish jul meaning "Christmas," Danish juul, Gothic jiuleis "November or December."
11. MacKillop, 1998, p. 54.
12. Kondratiev, 1998, p. 135-6:
    "In the Coligny Calendar the month in which Imbolc would fall is called Ogronios, which (by analogy with Saminios, 'end of summer') seems to mean 'end of the cold.' It is quite possible that the Druids of southern Gaul called their equivalent of Imbolc, Ogronia."
13. MacKillop, 1998, p. 62.
14. Nicholson, 1999.
15. Carr-Gomm, 1993, p. 100.
16. Kondratiev, 1998, p. 155:
    "In the Coligny Calendar, the month which is the polar opposite of Samonios ('end of Summer') is Giamonios ('end of Winter'), suggesting the name Giamonia for the feast among the Druids of southern Gaul."
17. Green, 1992, p. 42.
18. Green, 1991, p. 110:
    "In Gaul, the Celtic Apollo, like his Classical counterpart, was concerned both with the sun and with healing. The god presided over theraputic spring-sanctuaries, and the vaious surnames of this Celtic healer give him a directly solar association. 'Apollo Belenus' or 'Brilliant Apollo' was widely invoked in Celtic Europe. He had shrines in Gaul, as at Saint-Sabine in Burgundy, where horse-images were offered to him."
19. The mythical Tuatha Dé Danann ("children of the goddess Danu") were the last divine race to rule Ireland. They were decendants of a previous race in Ireland, called the Nemed, and brought the four major objects of power to the island the Sword of Nuadha, the Spear of Lugh, the Cauldron of The Daghdha and the Stone of Fal. Stewart, 1990, p. 130:
    "The sword was deadly, and none could escape its blows, the spear conferred victory upon its user; the cauldron was a vessal of perpetual plenty and nourishment; the stone shrieked under the foot of the rightful king."
20. The Milesians were the children of Mil, a Celtic leader who supposedly lived in Spain. In the 12th Century text Leabhar Gabhala Eireann, or the Book of Invasions, the Milesians are described as the ancestors of the present-day Irish. Having defeated the divine rulers of Ireland, the Tuatha Dé Danann, the conquerors could not agree upon which son of Mil should be king. Before this could be decided, however, they first made a bargain with the Dananns. Amairgen promised the three major goddesses of Ireland -- Banba, Fotla and Eriu -- that their names would be synonymous with the island. Only to Eriu does he promise that her name shall be used forever. In the text there also is a poem devoted to the seven wives of Mil's seven sons, many of whom gave their names to the land in some way: Scéne (Inverskena), Scota (Scotland), Tea (Tea-mhair or Tara), Fíal, Fás, Líben, and Odba.
21. Amairgen White-knee is regarded as the first Irish Druid. He came to Ireland with the Milesians. His wife, Scéne the Shapely, perished in the invasion and also gave her name to Inber Slaíne, now known as Inverskena (the Kenmare River). Holding political and spiritual power, Amairgen decided the first judgement over who would be the first king.
22. Ross, 1976, p. 134.
23. Saint Walpurgis (or Walburga) was a sixth century English Catholic missionary and sister of Saint Willibald. About 748 A.D. she was summoned to Germany by the English Benedictine missionary Saint Boniface, and in 754 A.D. she became abbess of the Benedictine religious house in Heidenheim. Her feast day is usually celebrated on May 1, and the preceding night, formerly the date of a Pagan festival marking the beginning of summer, is known as Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht). Because the Pagan festival had been associated with witchcraft, it was believed that on Walpurgis Night witches meet with the devil in certain places, especially at the Brocken mountain peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany. Brocken is noted for the phenomenon called the Specter of the Brocken or Brockengespenst, an optical illusion in which a shadow of a specter is projected on the mists of the mountain under certain atmospheric conditions.
24. Niamh of the Golden Hair was the daughter of Manannan Mac Lir (later Shakespeare turns him into King Lear), the sea god. Niamh fell in love with the poet Oissin and they lived happily in her father's Otherworldly realm of the Land of Promise. Niamh and Oissin had a daughter, Plur nam Ban which means "Flower of Woman."
25. Oissin was the son of the Fianna leader Finn MacCool. His mother was Sadb, the grandaughter of An Dagda. Oissin means "Little Fawn," as Sadb first appeared to Finn as a deer, enchanted by a spurned suitor. Oissin was trained as a skilled warrior like his father, but also inherited Sadb's eloquence and became known for his songs and poetry.
26. Kondratiev, 1998, p. 161.
27. Frazer, 1993, p. 123.
28. There has been some confusion over the exact meaning of this Medieval custom. The word "handfasting" comes from the Medieval Scottish tradition of joining the hands of a couple as part of the public betrothal proceedings. Unlike many who think it is a "Pagan marriage" for a "year and a day," handfasting is an entirely Christian construct. Many thanks to Sharon Krossa for sharing her research on this subject. She quotes Anton's "Handfasting in Scotland." [The Scottish Historical Review (1958) XXXVII.124: 89-102]:
    "If, in medieval Scotland, a couple consented to marriage in the present tense, then they were *married* -- they were not handfasted, they were *married*. It did not matter if there were any witnesses or not. Witnesses only made it easier to prove. It did not matter if a priest was present, or not. It did not matter if the marriage was blessed, or a Mass followed, or not. It did not even matter if the marriage was consumated, or not. (This was true in Scotland until 1940.) If, in Medieval Scotland, a couple formally became betrothed, that is, promised to marry each other sometime in the *future*, with witnesses, marriage contract, and ceremony, then they were handfasted, that is, they were *engaged* to be married. They were *not* married. If, in Medieval Scotland, a couple had sex after a promise of future marriage, whether this promise was made publically at a formal handfasting/betrothal ceremony or was made privately with no witnesses at all, then the couple was *married*, not handfasted, but *married*. This is because the act of sex after such a promise of future marriage was considered to amount to present consent to marriage."
29. Kondratiev, 1998, p. 168:
    ". . .we can deduce it's Old Celtic name – Medio-saminos, '(of) summer' – from its descendants in many modern Celtic names for the month of June: Irish Meitheamh, Welsh Mehefin, Cornish Metheven, and Breton Mezheven."
30. A prior version of this article noted that the word "Litha" came from Norse or Anglo-Saxon for "longest day." This was erroneous. Liþa rather comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning "moon" and can refer to the sixth and seventh month of the Anglo-Saxon calendar: ærra Liþa (before Litha) and æfterra Liþa (after Litha). There could be as many as three Liþa times per year, but often referred to the Summer Solstice. Many thanks to John Osborne and the Ða Engliscan Gesiþas (The English Companions) site, specifically their article "The Anglo-Saxon Calendar" for this information.
31. Ross, 1976, p. 135. It should be noted that the word "corn" refers to wheat, barley or some form of grain. It does not refer to North American corn, also known as maize. The word corn is a Middle English and Old English word derived from the Indo-European base *gere-, which means "to ripen, mature or grow old." Maize corn, like pumpkins and potatoes are New World crops. (Nautin-Mayer, 1998.)
32. Kondratiev, 1998, p. 178:
    "According to current interpretations, Lughnasadh would fall in the month Edrinios of the Coligny Calendar. This is reinforced by the Cornish name of the month of July, Gortheren, which seems to have originally meant 'against/before Edrinios.' If Edrinios was, in an earlier form, Aedrinios (as it is indeed spelled in some sections of the Coligny Calendar), it would be derived from the stem 'aid'-- 'fire, intense heat' and would mean 'the end of the heat,' a direct counterpart to Ogronios 'the end of the cold.' Since the end of summer heat does play an important role in the symbolism of Lughnasadh in all its ritual manifestations, it is quite possible that the Druids of southern Gaul once called the feast Aedrinia."
33. The word Lammas comes from Middle English Lammasse, derived from Old English hlfmæsse: hlf, loaf + mæsse, Mass. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as (a) the Feast of Bread formerly celebrated in England, during which bread from the season's first wheat was consecrated at Mass in thanksgiving for the harvest; (b) a feast formerly celebrated in commemoration of Saint Peter's deliverance from prison and (c) August 1, the day on which these feasts were celebrated.
34. The "stag dance" was a rite to celebrate the god Cernunnos. Stewart, 1990, p. 113:
    "St. Augustine forbade 'that most filthy habit of dressing up as a horse or stag' in the fourth century AD."