The “Q” and “P” families were first identified in the early eighteenth century by Edward Lhuyd. Q-Celtic is recognized from the presence of the “Q” sound in the word Mac, “son of.” P-Celtic has the “P” sound in the corresponding position: Map. This “P/Q” exchange is found in other words as well.
The relationship between the Cornish and Breton languages is the closest. This is explained by the exodus of Britons, via Cornwall, in the Dark Ages, as they were driven out by the advancing Anglo-Saxons. These British refugees fled westward through southern Britain to Cornwall, then crossed to Brittany in considerable numbers, and they took their language with them.
In the Middle Ages, Scotland was divided culturally between Highlands and Lowlands. The Highlanders spoke Gaelic (Irish “Celtic” or Erse), while the Lowlanders spoke Scots, which was a Germanic language close to English. This difference was perhaps a legacy of the Anglo-Saxon colonization of the Scottish Lowlands in the Dark Ages.
In the late 1980s Professor Colin Renfrew put forward the view that Celtic speech evolved from its Indo-European ancestor in the British Isles and the adjacent continent at some time after 4000 BC. Professor Renfrew believes that the Celtic language was not taken to Britain at all, but developed in situ. This is very much in line with the general view emerging of Celtic culture as a whole.
Much of what was passed on to others was learned by listening. Little was written down (See Writing). There were nevertheless the means to write. The Ogham alphabet was made of combinations of short and long marks, often chipped along the edges of stones. It was an ideal method for recording someone’s name on a gravestone. Ogham was widely used in southern Ireland, and more than 900 examples have been found in Britain and Ireland as a whole.
It is widely believed that the Celtic language was completely wiped out in England, but there are many surviving Celtic place-names. For a long time after the Anglo-Saxon colonization period (about AD 400–700), Celtic and Anglo-Saxon names existed side by side. Sometimes it is the Celtic name rather than the English name that we know today. The Cotswold Windrush River had an English name, Dikler, which died out as late as the sixteenth century; we now call the river by its older Celtic name, even though it has (or had) an Anglo-Saxon name. The Cotswold Hills take their name from a Celtic word and an Anglo-Saxon word. Cuda was a goddess of the Dobunni tribe; wold was the Anglo-Saxon word for a wooded upland.
In the Roman occupation and the post-Roman period, Celtic kings and princes thought it smart to use Latin. Grave markers from the fifth and sixth centuries are often inscribed in Latin. A gravestone at Penmacho in North Wales reads CARAVSIVS HIC IACIT IN HOC CONGERIES LAPIDVM, “Here lies Carausius in this heap of stones.”
LEARNING
Celtic society was highly structured and it allowed for the cultivation of learning and literature. There were professional classes who were responsible for their maintenance: the Druids, the bards, and a third order between them, known in Ireland as “the poets.”
In Ireland by the seventh century AD the Druids had disappeared, as they bore the brunt of the Church’s opposition, and the intermediate group, known as the filidh, were the sole inheritors of the druidic tradition. The filidh managed to establish a remarkable modus vivendi with the Church that enabled the two authorities to continue running side by side and were therefore able to maintain many of their ancient functions. The Irish bards suffered an eclipse too, as they limped on with a reputation as inferior rhymers.
In Wales, it was again the poets, or filidh, who emerged from the clash with Christianity in a position of strength, or at least with an enhanced and dignified reputation. Confusingly, the Welsh equivalents of the filidh were called bards.
According to Julius Caesar’s description, the Druids in Gaul were teachers and disciples of learning. They distrusted the written word, committing vast amounts of poetry to memory. Caesar said the period of study necessary to become a Druid lasted 20 years. Similarly in Ireland, it took at least seven years to qualify for the filidh.
We know the Druids had views about the size and nature of the universe, but unfortunately we do not know what those views were.
LEONORUS
Leonorus (510–61) was a pupil at Illtud’s school and confirmed by Dubricius at the age of 15. He emigrated to Brittany with 72 disciples and many servants, landing near Dinard.
They cleared a wooded site of trees, but the seed corn they had brought from Britain had been lost on the voyage. Fortunately, they were miraculously helped by a robin and Leonorus also dug up a golden ram.
The king of the Breton territory, Rigaldus, died and the land was annexed by Conomorus. To escape persecution by Conomorus, Leonorus and others escaped to Paris. There, Leonorus presented the golden ram he had found to Childebert, in exchange for confirmation of his rights to land in Brittany.
Conomorus was defeated in 560, and Leonorus died soon afterward.
LEUDONUS
Leudonus, or Llew mac Cynvarch, was a brother of Urien, King of Rheged. He was ruler of Lodoneis and the father of Gwalchmai (Gawain).
LINDOW MAN
See Places: Lindow Moss.
LLEW MAC CYNVARCH
See Leudonus.
LLYWARCH HEN
See Rhun, Son of Maelgwn.
LOEGAIRE
See Ciaran of Saigar, Fiacc of Sletty, Patrick.
LUERNIOS
LUGID
See Aillel Molt.
MACLOVIUS
See Malo.
MAELGWN
The great king of Gwynedd, who ruled in North Wales from about 517 until his death in 547. His father was Caswallon Lawhir, son of Einion Urdd, son of Cunedda Gwledig, son of Edeyrn. He is mentioned in an inscription made in about 540 at Penmachno; there he appears as MAGLO MAGISTRATUS—“King Maelgwn.” He appears in Gildas’s Ruin of Britain as Maglocunus