Celtic Mythology (ケルト神話 Keruto Shinwa?) is the mythology of the Celts, an ancient Indo-European group of tribal societies present across the length of Europe from Britain to Asia Minor during the Iron Age.
In Toaru Majutsu no Index, Celtic Mythology is used as a base for certain forms of Magic.
Principles[]
The Celtic symbol of three conjoined spirals, or triskele/triskelion, popularly considered a Celtic symbol even though predates it by millennia and was only later incorporated into Celtic culture.
The Celts worshipped a variety of gods, who appeared in their tales. Most were all-powerful local deities linked to places rather than to specialized roles, with each tribe having its own god who protected and provided for the welfare of that tribe. Some of them had similar characteristics: for example, the Dagda, the god of life and death in Ireland—known as "the good god"—resembled Esus, the "master" god of Gaul. Some deities also had more clearly defined roles, like Lug, a sun god associated with the arts, war, and healing, and the horned god Cernunnos, who was a god of animals and fertility.
According to the Celts, before people came to the archipelago now called the British Isles, a race of intelligent magical non-humans calling themselves the Tuatha Dé Danann ("the children of the goddess Danu" in Gaelic) lived there. With the arrival of people and their permanent settlements, the Tuatha Dé Danann continued to muck about in the lives of people, but retreated to the Otherworld, their home world, a world still reachable through places such as fairy forts or fairy burrows called sidhe. This Otherworld is probably the "Fairy Island" (妖精の島 Yōsei no Shima?) Othinus mentions when explaining the Phases.
In the Irish myths, as in those of Wales, the heroes often are half-human and half-divine and may have magical powers, like Cú Chulainn, the warrior and champion of Ireland, and the heroic Finn Mac Cumhail, leader of a band of bold warriors known as the Fianna.
Many of the stories in the Mabinogion, a collection of eleven tales of Welsh mythology, deal with Arthurian legends. In fact, the popular Arthurian tales of medieval European literature are a complex blend of ancient Celtic myths, later stories, and historical events. The legends are rooted in Celtic mythology, and references to Arthur appear in a number of ancient Welsh poems.
Background[]
There were in the past six Celtic nations: Éire, Cymru, Alba, Kernow, Breizh, and Ellan Vannin. (Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man respectively.) All Celtic nations had varied mythology and culture, but mainland Europe's Celtic traditions were mostly lost due to invasion and assimilation of Celtic populations in their conquerors' own societies, as well as a cultural taboo against consigning knowledge to writing. Some of our knowledge also come from Roman sources, but, as the Romans sometimes referred to Celtic gods by Roman names and because the Romans and Celts were battlefield enemies, Roman descriptions of Celtic beliefs are often unfavorable and not always reliable. Much of what is now known about Celtic mythology is based on medieval manuscripts, the efforts of later Irish and Welsh monks who wrote down the stories in the 700s and the 1300s respectively.
There are thus two main (surviving) strands of Celtic mythology: Goidelic (Irish/Scots/Manx) and Brythonic (Welsh/Cornish/Breton). They are further split into 'Cycles' (Ireland) and 'Branches' (Wales). While they share many traits and have certain figures in common, they do not really overlap; each has its own unique stories.
Chronology[]
Toaru Majutsu no Index[]
British Royal Family Arc[]
- Main article: British Royal Family Arc
During the British Halloween, a spiritual item based on Brionac is used by the Knights of England.[1] The Knight Leader also made use of Hrunting, which incorporated analysis of certain Celtic weapons such as Brionac and Fragarach into its development.[2]
Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index[]
Salome Arc[]
- Main article: Salome Arc
Salome's main spell is External Offering, Celtic-based sacrifice magic which allows her to destroy and offer up weapons to a god, in her case the sea god Manannán mac Lir, in order to increase her strength and gain the destroyed weapons' traits.[3]
Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index[]
New Year's Arc[]
- Main article: New Year's Arc
One of the Bridge Builders Cabal's Transcendents, involved in their ceremony on January 4th, bore the name and identity of Blodeuwedd, an artificial woman featured in the Mabinogion.[4]
Uses of Celtic Mythology in the story[]
| Name | Description | Usage in Toaru Majutsu no Index |
|---|---|---|
| Blodeuwedd | A woman made from broom, meadowsweet and oak to be the wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes. | One of the Bridge Builders Cabal's Transcendents bears the name and identity of Blodeuwedd.[4] |
| Brionac | A name supposedly ascribed to the spear of the god Lugh.[Notes 1][5] |
|
| Cernunnos | A horned deity of Gaulish Celts. | Coronzon refers to Cernunnos while discussing the origins of demon horns, from ancient male gods as symbols of reproductive power, with Hamazura Shiage.[7] |
| Cú Chulainn | A legendary hero of Irish mythology, and son of the god Lugh. | The legendary hero is mentioned in the narration when Othinus throws her Gungnir at Kamijou Touma, as apparently having been killed by his own spear as did not return to him unlike the other legendary weapons in mythology.[8] |
| Fragarach | The sword of Manannan mac Lir and Lugh Lamfada. When held at one's throat, the sword was said to prevent them from telling a lie, hence its name, meaning 'Answerer'. | Fragarach was one of the weapons analyzed by the Knight Leader in his development of Hrunting.[6] |
| Leannán Sí | An Irish beautiful woman of the Aos Sí who takes a human lover. | Leannán Sí is the name of a known individual Stativarius.[9] |
| Manannán mac Lir | The Irish god of the Sea, and the psychopomp to five planes of the afterlife. | Salome's magic consists of offering weapons as sacrifices to Manannán mac Lir in order to gain their destructive power.[3] |
| Miach | Son of Dian Cecht, the god of medicine, who surpassed his father by giving Nuada an arm of flesh and blood again. | The name of the drug for cyborgs Miahilin derives from his name.[10] |
| Morrígan | The Irish Goddess of war and fate, especially with foretelling doom, death, or victory in battle. | Aradia referred to the Morrígan as an example of how ancient goddesses of wisdom would view the world from three perspectives while providing the priestess serving them with a powerful protection, while invoking the night, moon and witches, and the 'triple goddess'.[11] |
| Nuada | The first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who lost the throne after losing his arm but regained it after gaining a new silver arm, hence his epithet Airgetlám (silver hand/arm). | A member of the true Gremlin is called Nuada.[12] |
| Selkie | A legendary being, a seal that can take the form of a woman. |
|
| Sheela na Gig | Stone carvings of naked women. It is likely that either the origins of this is from Celtic Mythology or part of an ancient folklorish tradition of the British Isles. | Kamijou Touya brought a figure of Shella na Gig to the beach and showed it to Touma, referring to it as a fertility goddess.[15] |
| Tathlum | A ball used by the Celts as a projectile for slingshots, made from the brain and bones of dead enemies hardened with lime. | Leivinia Birdway refers to these 'magic balls' during her discussion with Kanzaki Kaori about immortality and the methods that people have used to attempt to reach it.[16] |
Notes[]
- ↑ Brionac is a popular name for unique spears in Japanese video games, but has apparently never appeared in surviving Irish or Welsh texts. Apparently, the name "Brionac" was in fact first found and possibly invented in a 1990 book by the Japanese game writer and designer Takerube Nobuaki, who is not an expert on the subject.
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 17 Chapter 4 Part 5
- ↑ Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 18 Chapter 5 Part 9
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 15 Chapter 2 Part 2
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 08 Epilogue
- ↑ Wikipedia discussion on the origin of "Brionac". Retrieved on 27 May 2020.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 18 Chapter 5
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 22 Chapter 3 Part 10
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 09 Chapter 8 Part 6
- ↑ Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS3 Chapter 2 Part 4
- ↑ Ogino Kentarou (Railgun editor), Twitter. Retrieved on 05 September 2020.
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 06 Chapter 3 Part 5
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 13 Epilogue
- ↑ Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 16 Chapter 2 Part 3
- ↑ Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 18 Chapter 7 Part 3
- ↑ Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 04 Chapter 1 Part 1
- ↑ Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Kanzaki Chapter 6 Part 2