Few ancient civilizations have had a richer or more pervasive influence on modern popular culture than the Celtic one. From the great early twentieth-century fantasy writers who drew on Welsh and Irish tradition to the contemporary film and television industry, from the late nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts movement to the global phenomenon of Celtic knotwork in jewelry, tattoos, and graphic design, from the traditional music of the Celtic nations to the international success of Riverdance and the related Celtic music phenomenon, the Celtic influence on modern fantasy and popular culture is one of the most visible and most distinctive elements of the Celtic legacy today. The visual, literary, and musical traditions of the Celtic world have been a major source of inspiration for modern artists, and the modern popular image of the Celtic past, although it is a romanticized version of the older reality, has had a substantial and continuing influence on the European and global imagination.
This page is part of the broader survey of Celtic legacy today and examines the influence of Celtic tradition on modern fantasy literature, the visual arts, the film and television industry, the music and dance traditions, the use of Celtic symbols in modern design, and the broader cultural and political significance of the Celtic presence in modern popular culture.
The Literary Inheritance: Tolkien, Lewis, and the Modern Fantasy
The great early twentieth-century fantasy writers drew on a wide range of European traditions, and Celtic material was among the most important of these. J. R. R. Tolkien, although he was also a scholar of Old English and Old Norse, was influenced by the Welsh and Irish traditions, and many of the names and motifs of his Middle-earth draw on a wide range of sources, including Celtic, Norse, and Finnish material. The place-names of Tolkien’s Middle-earth are heavily influenced by Welsh and Old English: the names of the rivers, the hills, and the regions of Middle-earth draw on the older Celtic and Germanic traditions, and the linguistic work that Tolkien did to create the Elvish languages was influenced by his study of Welsh, Finnish, and Old Norse. The influence of the Mabinogion on Tolkien’s work is particularly clear in the Silmarillion and the related tales, alongside his better-known debts to Norse and Finnish sources.
The other great figure of twentieth-century Christian fantasy, C. S. Lewis, drew on a range of European traditions in his Chronicles of Narnia. The names of the principal locations, the figure of Aslan the great lion, and the themes of sacrifice and renewal have been linked to a range of sources, including Christian, classical, and Celtic traditions of sacred kingship.
The more recent fantasy literature, including the works of Ursula K. Le Guin, Guy Gavriel Kay, Susanna Clarke, and Patrick Rothfuss, all draw on Celtic material alongside other sources. The works of Lloyd Alexander, in his Prydain Chronicles, draw directly on the Welsh Mabinogion.
Film and Television
The film and television industry a significant vehicle for the Celtic influence on modern popular culture. The Disney/Pixar film Brave of 2012, set in a fictionalized medieval Scotland, drew heavily on the older Scottish Gaelic tradition, and the figure of Merida, the red-haired princess who defies the convention of her people, a significant addition to the modern popular image of the Celtic world.
The Outlander television series, based on the novels of Diana Gabaldon and first broadcast in 2014, a significant popular success, and the series has had a substantial effect on the popular image of the Scottish Highlands. The series draws on the older Scottish Gaelic tradition, on the Jacobite history of the eighteenth century, and on the older Celtic mythological material.
The Game of Thrones television series (2011-2019), based on the novels of George R. R. Martin, drew on a wide range of European historical and mythological material, including the older Celtic and Norse traditions. The figure of Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled princess who leads a campaign to reclaim her father’s throne, has been compared to Boudicca and to the queens of the older Celtic world.
The film King Arthur of 2004, directed by Antoine Fuqua, attempted to portray Arthur as a historical Roman-era British chieftain rather than as a medieval king, and the film drew on the older Romano-British and Celtic visual traditions. The BBC television series Merlin of 2008-2012, which was aimed at a younger audience, drew on the older Welsh and English Arthurian traditions, and the figure of Merlin a significant element of the popular image of the Celtic past.
Music and the Celtic Revival
The modern music and dance tradition of the Celtic nations a significant element of the Celtic legacy today. The traditional music of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany, with its distinctive instruments (the fiddle, the uilleann pipes, the bodhrán, the clàrsach, the harp), its distinctive forms (the jig, the reel, the hornpipe, the strathspey, the waltz, the polka), and its distinctive contexts (the seisiún, the céilí, the concert), a significant element of the cultural life of the Celtic nations and a major source of the modern popular image of the Celtic world.
The Irish traditional music tradition, with its great fiddlers and pipers, its great singers of the sean-nós tradition, and its great composers, a significant element of modern Irish cultural life. The Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ), founded in 1951, has been the central organization for the promotion of the traditional music, and the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the great festival of traditional music held annually in different locations, a significant element in the maintenance of the tradition.
The Scottish traditional music tradition, with its great fiddlers, its great pipers, and its great singers, a significant element of modern Scottish cultural life. The Royal National Mod, the Scottish Gaelic cultural festival held annually in different locations, has been a central institution of the Scottish traditional music, and the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh a significant center for the study of the tradition. The Féis movement of Gaelic cultural festivals an important element in the maintenance and development of the Scottish traditional music.
The Riverdance phenomenon, which began as the interval act of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest and which developed into a major international stage show, has been the most visible single element of the modern Celtic music and dance tradition. Riverdance and its offshoots, including Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames, have been performed to millions of people in more than fifty countries, and they have given the Irish and broader Celtic music and dance tradition a global presence. The show, with its combination of traditional Irish step dancing, traditional Irish music, and contemporary choreography, has been credited with reviving interest in the Irish traditional arts and with giving a major boost to the Irish cultural tourism industry.
The Breton and Welsh music traditions, although less well known internationally, have been important elements of the Celtic music revival. The Breton fest-noz (night festival) tradition a significant element of modern Breton cultural life. The Welsh traditional music tradition, with its distinctive instruments, a significant element of modern Welsh cultural life.
Celtic Music in the Global Imagination
The international success of Celtic music in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries a significant element of the modern popular image of the Celtic world. The great modern Irish music groups, including Clannad, The Chieftains, Altan, and The Pogues (who combined Irish traditional music with punk rock), have had a substantial international following, and the work of individual artists, including Enya, Máire Brennan, Moya Brennan, and the late Liam Clancy, has been particularly influential.
The Scottish music tradition has produced a remarkable series of international successes. The group Capercaillie, with its combination of traditional Gaelic music and contemporary arrangements, a significant international success, and the work of the singer Julie Fowlis, who sings in Scottish Gaelic and who recorded the song “Touch the Sky” for the Disney/Pixar film Brave, a significant element of the modern Scottish music revival.
The singer Loreena McKennitt, the Canadian musician who has drawn on the older Celtic tradition for her work, a significant international success. McKennitt’s albums, including Elemental, To Drive the Cold Winter Away, and The Mask and Mirror, have drawn on the older Welsh and Irish literary and musical traditions, and her work a significant element of the modern Celtic popular music. The singer and harpist Alan Stivell, the Breton musician who combined traditional Breton music with contemporary rock and electronic music, a significant international success, and his work a significant element of the modern Breton cultural revival.
Celtic Symbols in Modern Design
The use of Celtic symbols in modern design a significant element of the Celtic influence on modern popular culture. The Celtic knotwork of the medieval Celtic world, with its intricate interlace patterns, its spiral designs, and its zoomorphic ornaments, a significant source of inspiration for modern designers, and the use of Celtic knotwork in jewelry, in graphic design, and in the visual arts has been a global phenomenon.
The Celtic cross, the high cross of the early medieval Celtic church with its characteristic ring surrounding the intersection of the cross arms, a significant element of the modern visual culture of the Celtic nations. The Celtic cross is found in the graveyards of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall, and the image of the Celtic cross has been used in jewelry, in tattoos, in architecture, and in the visual arts of the modern period.
The triskele, the triple spiral that is one of the distinctive symbols of the older Celtic world, is a significant element of the modern Celtic visual tradition. The triskele appears on the older Celtic metalwork, on the early medieval Celtic sculpture, and in the later medieval manuscript illumination of the Celtic world, and it has been adopted today as a symbol of the Celtic identity. The triskele appears on the modern flag of the Isle of Man, the flag of Sicily (a legacy of its medieval Norman and earlier history), and various other modern emblems.
The Celtic knot, one of the distinctive visual elements of the older Celtic art, is a significant element of the modern popular culture. The Celtic knot is used in jewelry, in tattoos, in graphic design, and in the visual arts, and the image of the Celtic knot has been a global phenomenon.
Celtic Tattoos and the Global Celtic
The use of Celtic symbols in modern tattooing has been a global phenomenon. The Celtic knot, the Celtic cross, the triskele, the claddagh (the traditional Irish ring design of two hands holding a crowned heart), and the various zoomorphic and interlace patterns of the older Celtic art are all common in the modern tattoo tradition, and the use of Celtic designs in tattooing a significant element of the popular image of the Celtic past.
The use of Celtic designs in tattooing is, in part, a product of the broader modern interest in the Celtic past, and the practice is not without its critics. Some scholars and members of the modern Celtic communities have objected to the use of Celtic symbols in tattooing as a form of cultural appropriation, and the use of sacred symbols in non-sacred contexts has been a subject of discussion in the modern Celtic world. The popularity of Celtic tattoos, however, has continued to grow.
The Broader Cultural Significance
The Celtic influence on modern fantasy and popular culture is, a complex phenomenon. On the one hand, the modern popular image of the Celtic past, as it appears in the fantasy literature, the film and television industry, the music and dance tradition, and the design and tattoo traditions, is a romanticized version of the older reality. The figure of the noble Celtic warrior, the mystic Celtic Druid, the wild Celtic princess, and the magical Celtic past is, in large part, a product of the modern imagination.
On the other hand, the modern popular image of the Celtic past has had real cultural and political functions. It has given the Celtic-speaking peoples of the British Isles and Brittany a heroic past with which to identify, and it has distinguished them from their English and French neighbors. It has provided a foundation for the cultural and political movements of the modern Celtic identity, and it a significant element in the development of the modern cultural institutions of the Celtic nations. The Celtic influence on modern popular culture, whatever its historical accuracy, is a real and substantial element of the modern European and global cultural landscape.
The future of the Celtic influence on popular culture is likely to be substantial. The success of the Outlander series, the continuing popularity of the Riverdance show, the global use of Celtic symbols in design, and the continuing publication of fantasy literature drawing on Celtic material all suggest that the Celtic tradition will continue to be a major source of inspiration for modern popular culture.
Related Topics
- The Celtic revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is examined in detail, with attention to the work of the major scholars, writers, and artists of the period.
- The Celtic identity of the modern nations is examined through the cultural and political movements of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man.
- The Celtic knotwork and symbolism of the older Celtic art is the basis for much of the modern design tradition described above.
- The Celtic art and craftsmanship of the older Celtic world, including the metalwork, the stone carving, and the manuscript illumination, is the foundation for the modern visual tradition.
- The Celtic mythology and the heroic tales of the older Celtic world are the source for much of the modern literary and film tradition described above.