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Beltane E2: Spring Sacrifice · Wild Kin: A Celtic Podcast

0:03
Hi friend,
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welcome to Wild Kin,
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where we reconnect to Celtic myths,
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one story at a time.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm your host,
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SPEAKER_00: Jess,
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and I'd love for you to pull up a chair by my fire as we
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explore traditions held
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SPEAKER_00: near the first of May,
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SPEAKER_00: and what once might have been asked of the people who kept them.
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So let's step back in time to see a young boy on the cusp of
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his first initiation
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SPEAKER_00: on the morning of Beltane.
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SPEAKER_00: The boy was roughly shaken awake before dawn,
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SPEAKER_00: his older brother hissing at him to get a move on.
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He carefully rolled off his pallet bed before stepping out into
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the cool spring air.
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The first glimmers of sun caught the drops of dew on every
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strand of grass in their field.
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He turned toward the chicken coop to gather fresh eggs as his
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contribution for the day.
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the other young men from the village had gathered at the edge
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of the moor,
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SPEAKER_00: packs full of their own supplies.
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SPEAKER_00: This was his first time joining them on Beltane,
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SPEAKER_00: a sign he was growing into a man as he stepped into the circle of tired,
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SPEAKER_00: grim faces.
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SPEAKER_00: The typically rowdy group was silent as the birds began to sing.
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SPEAKER_00: They followed a well-worn path into the bog,
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Only those who lived in the village could find their way
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through this treacherous landscape.
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The light began to warm their faces,
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glinting on the pools of water at the boys' feet.
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They reached a wide stretch of earth where the scars of a fire
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pit still scorched
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SPEAKER_00: the ground,
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SPEAKER_00: and set to work with their kindling.
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SPEAKER_00: A bowl was pulled from a pack,
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SPEAKER_00: and the boy proudly handed over his eggs to mix into oat flour and milk.
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SPEAKER_00: His older brother kneaded the dough as the fire built up before them,
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SPEAKER_00: and then they placed it on a heated stone over the flames.
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SPEAKER_00: All were quiet as they watched the bread rise,
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SPEAKER_00: only the crackling of dried wood filtering out into the boggy plain.
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SPEAKER_00: When it had turned golden brown,
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SPEAKER_00: his brother cast his eyes over the group,
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SPEAKER_00: counting their number,
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SPEAKER_00: before dividing the bread into pieces.
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Then he picked up the last piece and held it over the flames,
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charring it black.
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The tension vibrated through the air like a taut bowstring as
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the pieces were
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SPEAKER_00: placed into a sack,
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SPEAKER_00: that last blackened piece among them.
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the sack was handed to each person in turn with a pause before
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a sigh of relief
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then the boy felt the rough fabric against his arm taking a
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deep breath before
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dipping his hand in to clutch a piece of the warm bread in his
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palm he looked down
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SPEAKER_00: to find he pulled a clean piece
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SPEAKER_00: Immediately searching for his brother across the fire,
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SPEAKER_00: the two locked eyes,
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SPEAKER_00: both brothers,
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SPEAKER_00: had been spared.
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The boy handed the sack to the man next to him and watched him
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anxiously reach his
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SPEAKER_00: hand in,
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SPEAKER_00: only to pull out the blackened bread.
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He tried to hide his terror,
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but silent tears began to slide down his rough cheeks.
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SPEAKER_00: After a long pause,
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the man ate the bread with trembling hands and then began to
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strip off his clothes.
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SPEAKER_00: Another boy pulled a small bottle from his pack and offered it to him.
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It was downed quickly,
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for the man fell to his knees at the edge of the bog.
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SPEAKER_00: The boy then fixed his gaze forward.
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SPEAKER_00: He'd known this was coming, had known it could have been him.
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SPEAKER_00: and yet he was still cold with fear.
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SPEAKER_00: The moor grew quiet,
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SPEAKER_00: as if it too was holding its breath,
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SPEAKER_00: for what was to come on the spring morning of Beltane.
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SPEAKER_00: The Celtic Iron Age was likely a brutal place.
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SPEAKER_00: Life and death held different meanings.
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SPEAKER_00: and it's possible they believed that with the fruitfulness of life,
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SPEAKER_00: the gods demanded a life in return.
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SPEAKER_00: At least,
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SPEAKER_00: that's what's been surmised from evidence recorded by Julius Caesar,
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who wrote about the prolific amount of human sacrifices done by
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the Celts.
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SPEAKER_00: Apparently,
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the Celts would use criminals or outcasts from the community
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for their sacrifices,
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SPEAKER_00: but would use innocent people when they ran out of victims too.
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SPEAKER_00: In fact, the wicker man,
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The famous horror movie from 1973 was actually inspired by the
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image Julius Caesar
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SPEAKER_00: created when he wrote,
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SPEAKER_00: quote,
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SPEAKER_00: Others have figures of immense size,
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SPEAKER_00: the limbs of which formed of willow branches.
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They fill with living men,
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which being set on fire,
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the men perish enveloped in the flames.
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SPEAKER_00: Through these recordings from Roman writers,
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it seems Celtic-speaking people were consistently connected
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with ritualized
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SPEAKER_00: killings.
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SPEAKER_00: But we also can't know if this was a bit of Roman propaganda.
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SPEAKER_00: Later Roman writers,
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SPEAKER_00: like Strabo and Tacitus,
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SPEAKER_00: recorded similar tales of heathen brutality of the Celts,
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which could have just been used as justification for civilizing
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them under Roman
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SPEAKER_00: authority.
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SPEAKER_00: But as with every tale, maybe there is a kernel of truth here.
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We actually have real archaeological evidence that the Celts
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likely did conduct
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SPEAKER_00: human sacrifices,
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SPEAKER_00: just maybe not as prolifically as Caesar implied.
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SPEAKER_00: In 1984,
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a body was discovered in a lowland peat bog in northwest
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England and is now known
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SPEAKER_00: as the Lindo Man.
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It was determined he was about 25 years old when he died and
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came from the Iron
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SPEAKER_00: Age,
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SPEAKER_00: likely between 2 BC and 119 AD.
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Forensics determined he was struck in the head with a blunt
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object like a club or
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SPEAKER_00: an axe,
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SPEAKER_00: and possibly strangled before his throat was cut.
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He was found naked except for a fox fur armband and had a
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groomed beard with trimmed nails.
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So despite his lack of clothing,
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it's believed he might have actually been a kind of nobleman.
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SPEAKER_00: And he was relatively healthy beyond some stomach parasites.
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SPEAKER_00: He didn't even have any cavities.
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SPEAKER_00: which begs the question, why was he killed so brutally?
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SPEAKER_00: And why was he naked?
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SPEAKER_00: If he was killed in a skirmish or murdered,
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surely his body would have been dumped without the effort of
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stripping him?
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SPEAKER_00: Or if he was buried intentionally,
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SPEAKER_00: he likely would have been left with some type of clothing,
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SPEAKER_00: or maybe weapons and even personal keepsakes.
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Because his death doesn't really align with bog burials from
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the same time period,
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SPEAKER_00: some scholars believe the brutality of how Lindoman died
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SPEAKER_00: points to him being killed in some kind of ritualistic act.
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SPEAKER_00: Bogs were seen as liminal places,
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SPEAKER_00: often marking territorial boundaries,
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SPEAKER_00: so a body found in one could have been interpreted as symbolic.
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SPEAKER_00: The Celts' religion centered around animism,
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SPEAKER_00: and they believed their gods were part of the earth.
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SPEAKER_00: Mother Nature was essentially the embodiment of their sovereign goddess.
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe that meant,
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SPEAKER_00: as Caesar suggested,
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SPEAKER_00: they believed it was necessary to sacrifice people to a piece or two.
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The three different types of violent acts against the Lindoman
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also suggest this
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SPEAKER_00: wasn't just someone being murdered.
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SPEAKER_00: This was something that needed to be witnessed.
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SPEAKER_00: Like the later medieval death sentence of being drawn and quartered,
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these brutal killings were public acts meant to give a message
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to the people as
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SPEAKER_00: much as it was for the person being tortured to death.
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SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the Lindoman was killed publicly to send some kind of message.
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SPEAKER_00: To his community, and maybe even his gods.
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There are a couple other pieces of evidence from his body that
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have stirred up a
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SPEAKER_00: lot of controversy and speculation too.
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SPEAKER_00: From the contents of his stomach,
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it appears he had recently eaten charred griddle cake and
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inhaled mistletoe pollen,
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SPEAKER_00: which only spreads in springtime.
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SPEAKER_00: Mistletoe has been linked to the Druid's,
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SPEAKER_00: the spiritual authority figures of the Celts,
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but it can't be confirmed if the pollen was inhaled
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accidentally or intentionally.
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SPEAKER_00: And this burned bread might have just been what was available to him,
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SPEAKER_00: but if we fast forward another 1600 years or so,
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burned bread is actually found as part of a Celtic festival
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that also just happens
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SPEAKER_00: to occur in spring.
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We know from archaeological evidence of ancient Celtic
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calendars that they marked
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SPEAKER_00: the first of May as Beltane,
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SPEAKER_00: a significant day connected to their agricultural cycle.
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Cattle would be let out into the summer pastures as villages
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held hope for a
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SPEAKER_00: successful harvest and communities gathered to prepare for the season.
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SPEAKER_00: Fire was also significant,
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with some communities extinguishing their own hearths in order
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to relight them from
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SPEAKER_00: the sacred flames of Beltane.
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Otherwise,
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little is known about Celtic Iron Age practices from this time
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of year,
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but there are lingering traditions that might have carried on
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throughout the Middle Ages.
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Traditional folklore practices started to be recorded in the
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18th century by men
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SPEAKER_00: like John Ramsey,
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a historian who traveled across the Scottish countryside to
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witness these local
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SPEAKER_00: customs.
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John Ramsey recorded a practice seen in multiple regions where
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young men would
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SPEAKER_00: gather at the time of Beltane.
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SPEAKER_00: In Wales,
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Boys would go out into the woods and build two fires before
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baking round cakes and
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SPEAKER_00: brown meal cakes,
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SPEAKER_00: then placing all the pieces from each type into a flour sack.
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Whoever pulled the brown meal cake pieces had to jump over the
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flames they'd
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created three times and then run around those same bonfires
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three times to ensure a
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SPEAKER_00: plentiful harvest.
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SPEAKER_00: In Scotland,
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SPEAKER_00: instead of brown meal cake,
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SPEAKER_00: it was a blackened piece of bannock,
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SPEAKER_00: just a type of flat bread.
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SPEAKER_00: In this case,
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the unlucky man who pulled the blackened piece would be lifted
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up by the village
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SPEAKER_00: people as they pretended to throw him into the fire.
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SPEAKER_00: In other accounts,
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they would lay him on the ground and mock pretend to quarter
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him before he was
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pelted with eggshells and marked as a type of outcast for the
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rest of the year.
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The people of the village would even pretend he was dead for
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the rest of the festival.
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SPEAKER_00: In West Perthshire,
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SPEAKER_00: Ramsey writes,
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SPEAKER_00: quote,
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whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person who is the
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sacrifice to ball,
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SPEAKER_00: whose favor they meant to implore in rendering the year productive of the
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SPEAKER_00: sustenance of man and beast.
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SPEAKER_00: Whether they were defined as the devoted person or the Beltane Kaliak,
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SPEAKER_00: or simply singled out from the crowd,
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SPEAKER_00: In one version or another,
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it seems these men were essentially hazed by their communities
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to ensure a good
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SPEAKER_00: harvest.
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SPEAKER_00: Of course,
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SPEAKER_00: in all these cases,
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SPEAKER_00: though the symbology was morbid,
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SPEAKER_00: this was a merry event,
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SPEAKER_00: with mock sacrifices carried out in good fun amidst the festivities.
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SPEAKER_00: So Beltane was more typically known in Ireland and Scotland,
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SPEAKER_00: but in the UK they celebrated May Day.
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SPEAKER_00: Similarly,
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this festival marked the beginning of summer and versions of it
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were observed
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SPEAKER_00: across England,
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SPEAKER_00: France,
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SPEAKER_00: Germany,
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SPEAKER_00: and Scandinavia.
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Everyone brought out greenery and flowers with communal
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celebrations of dancing,
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SPEAKER_00: music,
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SPEAKER_00: and sometimes courtship.
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One such ritual from the 18th century was called Variations of
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Jack in the Green.
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A man would be enclosed in a wicker or wooden structure that
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was covered with
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SPEAKER_00: leaves and greenery.
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SPEAKER_00: Then he would parade through the streets as this spectacle,
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SPEAKER_00: as he symbolized bringing greenery back into the summer season.
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A letter found from a man writing to his daughter in the 1820s
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describes this scene.
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SPEAKER_00: Quote,
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They have generally a green man in company who is also called
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Jack in the Bush,
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SPEAKER_00: because he is in the middle of a green bush,
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SPEAKER_00: which covers him all over,
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SPEAKER_00: head and all,
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SPEAKER_00: so you can see nothing but his feet,
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SPEAKER_00: and he goes dancing with the rest.
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SPEAKER_00: So, although they might not have been directly related,
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SPEAKER_00: Throughout history,
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SPEAKER_00: from the Iron Age,
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SPEAKER_00: Middle Ages,
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SPEAKER_00: and even into the Victorian period,
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there is consistently some kind of ritual celebration at the
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start of summer.
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SPEAKER_00: And in many cases,
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SPEAKER_00: men seem to be singled out as symbolic figures,
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SPEAKER_00: in jest or otherwise,
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SPEAKER_00: to help usher in the season.
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe these are still echoes of an ancient rite,
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although they're far less violent than what might have been the
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original intent.
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SPEAKER_00: If we go all the way back to the Lindoman,
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hard not to wonder why human sacrifices were part of the Celts'
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belief system.
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SPEAKER_00: They were an incredibly advanced culture in a lot of ways,
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SPEAKER_00: yet this seemed to be a part of their religious practices too.
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SPEAKER_00: And it might be easy to dismiss them,
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SPEAKER_00: as Caesar and other Roman writers did,
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to simply label the Celts as uncivilized heathens who hadn't
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ascended to a greater
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SPEAKER_00: level of reason.
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SPEAKER_00: But what if they simply didn't see death in the same way?
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SPEAKER_00: There's evidence that the Celts believed in reincarnation,
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SPEAKER_00: as Caesar himself recorded from his time with the Druids.
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This meant that their soul would continue to cycle back into
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another body if they
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SPEAKER_00: were killed in this life.
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SPEAKER_00: This made them incredibly fierce warriors,
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SPEAKER_00: often striking fear even into the infamous Roman legions.
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SPEAKER_00: Could their human sacrifices have carried the same belief?
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SPEAKER_00: Could the Lindoman, an otherwise young healthy nobleman,
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SPEAKER_00: maybe felt that his death was not actually the end?
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SPEAKER_00: In fact,
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his time of death might have occurred when the Romans were
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invading Britannia,
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SPEAKER_00: which is now the UK.
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It's been hypothesized that his death could have been used to
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help bring protection
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SPEAKER_00: to the people in a time of great uncertainty.
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SPEAKER_00: And despite the threat of war,
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SPEAKER_00: for as long as people have been dependent on agriculture,
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SPEAKER_00: the beginning of summer is an uncertain time.
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it marks a crossroads where communities hold out for the hope
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of a good harvest,
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before the potential for disease killing their livestock or
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drought decimating
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SPEAKER_00: their crops,
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let alone war preventing them from having enough food to last
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through the winter.
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Perhaps this fear led the Celts to believe an extreme gesture
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was necessary to
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SPEAKER_00: appease the gods,
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SPEAKER_00: that by giving a life,
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SPEAKER_00: they would be ensured life in return.
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SPEAKER_00: We might not ever know the reason why,
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SPEAKER_00: but somewhere in time,
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a young man was brutally killed in springtime with a last meal
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of blackened bread
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SPEAKER_00: before he faded into the depth of a bog,
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SPEAKER_00: waiting almost 2,000 years for his story to be told.
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SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Wild Kin.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more Celtic-inspired stories and resources,
15:41
SPEAKER_00: subscribe to Wild Kin Studio on Substack.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: Link is in the show notes.
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SPEAKER_00: So glad you could join me by the fire, and we'll meet again soon.