Myths & Legends of the Celtic RaceRolleston, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race
Rolleston, T. W. (Thomas William)
Celts -- Religion; Mythology, Celtic
The religions of primitive peoples mostly centre on, or take their rise
from, rites and practices connected with the burial of the dead. The
earliest people inhabiting Celtic territory in the West of Europe of whom
we have any distinct knowledge are a race without name or known history,
but by their sepulchral monuments, of which so many still exist, we can
learn a great deal about them. They were the so-called Megalithic
People,(30) the builders of dolmens, cromlechs, and chambered tumuli, of
which more than three thousand have been counted in France alone. Dolmens
are found from Scandinavia southwards, all down the western lands of
Europe to the Straits of Gibraltar, and round by the Mediterranean coast
of Spain. They occur in some of the western islands of the Mediterranean,
and are found in Greece, where, in Mycenæ, an ancient dolmen yet stands
beside the magnificent burial-chamber of the Atreidae. Roughly, if we draw
a line from the mouth of the Rhone northward to Varanger Fiord, one may
say that, except for a few Mediterranean examples, all the dolmens in
Europe lie to the west of that line. To the east none are found till we
come into Asia. But they cross the Straits of Gibraltar, and are found all
along the North African littoral, and thence eastwards through Arabia,
India, and as far as Japan.
*Dolmens, Cromlechs, and Tumuli*
[Dolmen at Proleek, Ireland]
Dolmen at Proleek, Ireland
_(After Borlase)_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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