Ceremony surrounded the Celtic domestic hearth. Even more ceremony surrounded the provision of large meals. Banquets and feasting were major characteristics of the Celtic way of life.
Posidonius described a feast:
The Celts sit on hay and have their meals served up on wooden tables raised slightly above the earth. Their food consists of small numbers of loaves together with a large amount of meat, either boiled or roasted on charcoal or on spits. This food is eaten cleanly, but they eat like lions, raising up whole limbs in both hands and biting off the meat...
When a large number dine together they sit around in a circle with the most influential man in the centre, like the leader of the chorus, whether he surpasses the others in warlike skill, or lineage, or wealth. Beside him sits the host and next on either side the others in order of distinction...
The Celts sometimes engage in single combat at dinner. For they gather in arms and engage in mock battles, and fight hand-to-hand, but sometimes wounds are inflicted, and the annoyance caused by this may even lead to killing unless the bystanders restrain them. In former times, when the hindquarters were served up the bravest hero took the thigh piece, and if another man claimed it they stood up andfought in single combat to the death.
Feasts such as these were designed to reinforce the pecking order among the warriors, and to strengthen the ties among members of the band.
The main drinks in an Iron Age Celtic feast were beer and mead, though the nobility adopted wine as soon as the trade routes to the Mediterranean allowed. At first it was a very expensive luxury. There was even a tale current in Rome that the Celts had crossed the Alps and invaded Italy just to get closer to the vineyards.
FORTIFICATIONS
On some of the hilltops there were large hilhbits, surrounded by complex ramparts and palisades. Although called forts, they had several limctions. They were stock enclosures and reliiges in times of danger, they housed permanent settlements, and they were the focus of tribal gatherings and feastings {See Food and Feasting, Tribes). They probably also had a ceremonial and religious limction, as well as acting as clear territorial markers—literally landmarks—that would help to create a sense of cohesion among people who were normally scattered across the landscape in separate homesteads.
The hilhbit was usually laid out on the summit of a hill and surrounded by an earthwork that was intended to be clearly visible from below. The massive squared ramparts were faced front and back by rows of upright timbers tied by horizontal crossbeams. The earthen rampart was topped by a stout palisade, to defend the fighting-platform behind it, as at HoUingbury in Sussex. All the timber breastworks have disintegrated now, and the earth and rock they supported has slipped sideways, yet the ramparts can still be imposing. Maiden Castle in Dorset is the most impressive of the hillforts, with a complex mazelike entrance; it was the capital of the Durotriges tribe.
In Galicia, there were lots of defended homesteads built on hilltops. The presence of these castros distinguishes Galicia from the rest of the Iberian peninsula; they are the hallmark of its ancient Celtic past. The castro is a hilltop settlement, like a miniature hillfort, defended by multiple walls. Within, there is an ordered settlement, mostly with round stone houses built to a high density. Castro de Barona is a fine example {See Dwellings).
FUNERAL ODES
One of the duties of a Celtic bard was to write a limeral ode on the death of his king. Aline example has survived, entitled Marwnad Uthyr Pendragon, which can be translated as The Funeral Ode to the Wonderful Pendragon. For a long time this was thought to be the fianeral ode for Uther, Arthur’s father, but the word “uter” can be an adjective meaning “terrible” or “wonderful,” while pendragon is a Celtic title for High King or dux bellorum. This means that the ode might have been addressed to Arthur himself
The longing and lamentation of the multitude Are unceasing throughout the host.
They earnestly yearn for the joyful prize of blue enamel There your stone with your name became a riddle.
They also wish for their Prince.
All around appears the rule of order at the head of the feast.
They seek to dress the head of the feast with black.
They unendingly shed blood among the war-bands,
Longing for you to defend them and give them succour.
The sword that was in the van in taming the brothers of Caw of the Wall They crave with longing for a portion of your cause Andfor refuge in the manliness of Arthur.
They long for your coming in a hundredfortresses.
A hundred manors long for your assurances.
They long for your coming in a hundred schools.
A hundred chieftains long for your coming:
The great and mighty sword that supported them.
They look for your best judgements of merit,
The restoration of principalities.
Your sayings are remembered, soothing the aggressive.
The eloquence of the bards is not great enough:
Toiling for weeks with the eagerness of beavers.
With the names of men and war-bands to compare you.
Above the eagles, above the fear of disorder, lam the one who is with the great Warrior, lam the bard, the bagpiper. lam with the Creator;
Seventy musicians create the great rhapsody of the first power...
The Leader of Heaven has left the nation without a roof.
“Caw of the Wall” seems an odd phrase. The Life of Cadoc tells us that Caw (Cauus) lived in southern Scotland, not far from Hadrian’s Wall; he was the father of Gildas.
In another poem. The Dream of Rhonabwy, Arthur is described as sitting with Gwarthegydd, another son of Caw.
Other evidence confirms that Arthur and Caw were contemporaries, so the ode was written at the right time to have been for Arthur. If it is his eulogy, it tells us a great deal about the way he was regarded at the time of his death. The final image is the most telling of all: “The Leader of Heaven has left the nation without a roof”
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