Is there a Celtic pantheon?

Does the concept of a pantheon fit Celtic deities?

0:00 Intro
2:43 Dangers of comparing Celtic deities to Greco-Roman
4:50 Deities in different Celtic cultures
5:20 Get to know deities as individuals
6:50 Dieties from Gaul
8:59 Irish deities
10:21 Deities in Britain and Wales
13:51 Localised deities
15:00 Theological issues
15:32 Pre-Christian Scotland
20:35 Neolithic monuments
21:43 Recap on the pantheon question

[robgau]

You hardly ever hear anyone say this. She's absolutely right and it's vital to understanding the spirituality of a people. The structure of the group of gods in a given culture and how they were viewed is required to understand the "religion, " for lack of a better word.

[Alasdair]

I'm glad you pointed that not all pre-Christian religions can fit into this term of pantheon Greek and Norse work well because there are really only a handful of main players in their mythology that they center around with the Greeks having loads of lesser deities that fill the background and Norse having things like elves and dwarves in the background behind the gods. We often try to fit other systems like Egyptian, Celtic, and Hindu into this same system but one size does not fit all and the Egyptians had hundreds of local gods that were only worshiped in particular parts of Egypt during specific dynasties we just don't talk about those ones as much cause it gets really complicated really fast and tend to focus on the biggest most popular ones like Ra and Horus.

[garryrushworth]

Hi Kris being an Englishman who has the good fortune to live in Galloway, South West Scotland, i know exactly what you mean by the feeling of overlapping imprints of both Brythonic and Irish cultural history. Thank you for your excellent and informative videos.

[Mrcool]

Your awesome! I am a descendant of Welsh I hope I can find my genealogy someday!

[stacycanterbury]

Re: genealogy and connections to famous people. OMVG, YES!!! Sorry for the caps, but Kris cannot stress this enough. I’ve been working with genealogy for several years and North Americans are infamous for this. My husband’s family actually is related to a famous Western outlaw, but for a long time, I attributed the connection to wish fulfillment, rather than genetics. The reasons for fictional ancestors are manifold, including the practice of posthumous baptism that Kris refers to in her comment. I can think of two additional reasons as well. Those of us who have ancestors from Western Europe are looking for a sense of connection and history. Most of our ancestors who immigrated from Western Europe did so for economic reasons. Connection to a famous (or infamous) ancestor can make people feel connected and important. There are also cultural reasons: the adoption of what anthropologists call “fictive kin” can establish a right to inhabit a specific place. See the Fitzgeralds of Ireland for an example of this process at work.

[ryomahoffman]

I mean in terms of Greek and Norse gods (especially Norse gods) there are multiple variations of the same gods, for example there might be an entire town that believes in a god like Thor, but each individual household will believe in a different kind of Thor. The pantheons didn’t really exist until somebody took all the stories and put them down in one big story.

[BlazeLeeDragon]

so want to pick your brain, wish I would have come across this channel sooner. I'll be mentioning you in future videos. This is a great perspective and I really like where you are coming from. What I'd like to know, which would help me greatly is how to find some of the original sources. I have alot of trouble digging through BS and hearsay and get miss lead often enough when attempting to research. I have finally starting finding good sources more recently such as Ronald Hutton but it's very hard to dig that type of stuff out.

[serviustullus]

Celtic Culture was analogous in practice, but not identical in name.

[janvika]

Hinduism doesn't believe in many seperate deities in the same way paganism does. The many deities are aspects of one Supreme God/ess. Much like a woman may wear a blue dress, or jeans and t-shirt, or a red dress - same woman many clothes.

[serviustullus]

NO. Centralized Olympian ideals did not exist in the local, rural Celtic world.

[sarahdicksondarkmoondreame]

I have a question, not necessarily related to this video, but I know you ask for questions. I have been researching my Welsh genealogy which can be traced right back to people mentioned in the Mabinogion and other Welsh myths. I keep noticing the mention of Joseph of Arimathea and his daughter Anna. They keep popping up in myths and stories surrounding various celtic figures. I am wondering whether they have been added into stories to Christianise them. Why would people from the middle East keep appearing in Wales and England? Christianity would have been unheard of in Britain in Joseph of Arimatheas time.

[ekaust]

There is not only welsh as a brithonic language, you still have breton in france, still alive, barely, but still there. Manx and cornish are being revitalized and there are speakers nowadays, both of them also brithonic.

[meredithemmaneil]

Thank you so much for this Kris 💕you remind me of the cailleach 😅💕

[veronicalogotheti]

The kelts had the druids magicians women

[MariusRomanum]

It's more like a megatheon not a pantheon

[veronicalogotheti]

It seems there were periods of celtic people

[veronicalogotheti]

They have a different dna
North south

[veronicalogotheti]

They were fighting naked
The south was roman

[ravenking]

Half accurate half not so much, which renders the foundation of the video being built on soggy ground . it would not stand