Mar 27 2008
The appeal of Celtic Men by Kelly Heckart
Kelly Heckart, one of our favourite authors, has a piece included in the collection of faerie stories called “In the Gloaming” which you can find outmore about at her site. She ahs appeared as a guest blogger on the Romance Junkies blog where she tells us about her passion for Celtic Men. It is a fun blog to read and she does come up with avery interesting point about channeling aggression, when she says:
If modern Celtic men with pent up fire burning inside could walk around with big swords sheathed in leather at their sides, and engage in a cattle raid or two, they might not get into so much trouble if they could divert some of that passion..
It does make you wonder.. Celtic tribes would live ‘next door’ to each other and raid each other quite happily. Raids would test the mettle of their young men and women and this practice went on for centuries without serious internecine warfare.
She then tells us about the Fianna, who as wandering mercenary bandsm perhaps typified the Celtic ideal better than anyone by saying:
My favorite of the ancient Celts were the warriors of the Irish Fianna who were fierce mercenaries with the hearts of poets. In fact, one of the requirements to be part of the Fianna was to be a skilled poet. The most famous of these warriors is Fionn mac Cumhail. The king could call upon the Irish Fianna, or Fianna Eireann, in times of conflict. When not fighting, they lived apart from society as hunters in the forest. Mysterious…hmmm. Sounds like rock star material to me.
It’s well worth a read, and you can find it here.
2 Responses to “The appeal of Celtic Men by Kelly Heckart”
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I couldn’t agree with Kelley more, there’s nothing quite like a Wild Celtic man armed with a sword and a twinkle in his eye lol
I have to agree, too. I love watching movies with men and battles, but I particularly liked Arthur (the Clive Owen version) where the pictish women joined in and the battles were fierce.
I was also reading (just last night) how young celtic men would test their skills in one-on-one combat in order to win the right to carve the meat and take the best bit. These were fights to the death.
There are parallels to be drawn with the poetry of the Fianna and the Samurai, who believed in rich cultivation of the spirit and mind through the arts of writing, painting, calligraphy, philosophy, etc.