Ásatrú BARBARIANS
Iron Age Germanic, Celtic and ScythianRe-enactment Group
STARTER’S HISTORICAL GUIDE
INDEX
The Ásatrú
Asatru Meaning
Authenticity Policy
Asatru Roles
Background to the Celts
Celt Meaning
Who were the Celts?
Clothing
Celtic Foods and Feasting
The Celts as Warriors
Celtic Weapons
Games and Pastimes
Gender Roles
Head Hunting
Background to the Germanic Peoples
Terminology
Historical Perspective
Early Written Records
Clothing
Social Organisation
Way of Life
Foods
Gender Roles
Germanic Warriors
Warrior Armour and Clothing
References and Sources
Book References
Internet Sources
The Ásatrú
Asatru Meaning
Ásatrú(pronounced “au satru”) derives from Old Norse. The word consists of two parts - the first being Ása-, genitive of Áss, denoting one of the group of Norse gods called Aesir; the second part, trú, means “faith, word of honour; religious faith, belief” (archaic English troth “loyalty, honesty, good faith”). Thus, Ásatrú means the “faith/belief in the Æsir”. Today it has come to mean “belief in the gods”, “those loyal to the Gods”, or “those who believe in the Aesir and Vanir”.
“Asatru Barbarians” as a name was chosen as it recognises that our group is pagan in origin. Members depict the European peoples prior to the adoption of Christianity.
Authenticity Policy
The policy of the Asatru Barbarians is to present as high a standard of historical accuracy as is possible. When on a camp any non-period equipment should be hidden from view or disguised. It is ok to have comforts (eg comfortable bedding) as long as it is not obvious to a casual scrutiny by members of the public.
Ideally clothing should be hand made but, failing this, hidden stitches can be machine sewn as long as any exposed stitches are hand stitched.
Asatru Roles
Europe during our time period was a melting pot of different tribal groups. The ancient Germans were most likely a mix of German, Celtic and other groups. Up till the first century BC the Greeks and Romans considered northern Europeans as either Celtic or Scythian.Julius Caesar described the Germans as more primitive and rugged than the “semi-civilised” Celts and set the Rhine as the demarcation between the two peoples, Germans to the east and Celts to the west. However, he also writes that Celt and German tribes often intermixed with little regard for ethnic and geographic boundaries. German leaders often had Celtic names and the name Teutones was a Celtic term for people in general, while Germani is believed by some scholars to have been a Celtic tribal name. From Caesar’s time onwards German becomes the name commonly given to people living east of the Rhine (Anon., 1994).
Despite the cultural differences between the Celts and Romans, there was considerable intermingling among the two peoples. The mixing of peoples is strongly suggested by the linguistic situation. Some Germanic tribes spoke Celtic and some Celtic tribes German. Classical historians usually provide the same physical description for Celts and Germans, suggesting considerable intermingling (Duffy, 1996, pp. 127-128).
Asatru members can play any of these three groups (Germanic, Celtic or Scythian)and at times each of themhas been depicted in events or displays in one way or another. The important thing is that there is no mismatching of clothing and kit in this portrayal.
This guide concentrates on the Germans and Celts as being the main tribes the Asatru will portray.
Background to the Celts
Celt Meaning
The ethnonym Celts (Latin: Celtae; Ancient Greek: Κελτοί Keltoi, later also Κέλται Keltai) seems to be based on a native Celtic tribal name (cf. Celtici in Portugal) (Pokorny, 1959). The name probably stems from the Indo-European root *kel- or *(s)kel-, but there are several such roots of various meanings: *kel- “to be prominent”, *kel- “to drive or set in motion”, *kel- “to strike or cut”.
Who were the Celts?
It is said that the Celts dominated Western Europe for as long as a thousand years and were a major force and widespread over many countries. They were renowned as fierce intimidating fighters who would disregard body armour in battle. The basic history of the Celts traces them back years where they are believed to have started life in Austria, before spreading widely across Europe. The Celts lived a fairly simple existence insofar as they were not as advanced as civilizations like Rome and Greece. Living a mostly rural existence they did not strive to build large cities or towns, yet they were still the dominant group in the Iron Age era, before Rome and Greece became serious forces.
Clothing
“[The Celts] wear astonishing clothes,” exclaimed Diodorus Siculus, “dyed tunics, displaying every colour, and trousers that they call breeches. On top they pin striped garments made of shaggy material in winter, and smooth material in summer, divided into small squares of every shade.” Archaeological remains (mostly from the Danish bogs) show capes and tunics for the men and long skirts and sleeved blouses for the women (Anon, 1994).
The Celts unlike Roman men wore trousers.
Celtic Foods and Feasting
The Celts grew 3 ancient types of wheat – cinkorn, spelt and emmer. Oat, rye and millet were also planted. Legumes (lentils, peas, beans) were also an important resource. Cows milk was a principle source of nourishment and broken pottery strainers uncovered at various sites hint at cheese production. Beef accounted for more than half the meat consumed. The Celts were also great lovers of pork and loved nothing better than feasting on the savoury flesh of a fat pig. Salt pork from Europe’s western fringes was sold as a great delicacy in the markets of Rome (so bacon is allowable). Lamb was also eaten. Wild foods included seaweed, salmon, watercress, mushrooms and water parsnips. Athenaeus wrote that the Celts preferred their salmon baked, sometimes flavoured with salt or vinegar or spiced with cumin (Anon., 1994).
The Celts were great drinkers of wine, mead and beer. At feasts they would have tellers of tales, poets and musicians to delight the company. Knowing the Celt’s enthusiasm for wine, Italian merchants carried on a lively commerce, exchanging wine for such commodities as iron, gold and slaves (Anon., 1994).
Athenaeus describes their feasts thus: “When a large number dine together they sit around in a circle with the most influential man in the centre like the leader of a chorus. Beside him sits the host. Their shieldsmen stand behind them while their spearmen are seated in a circle on the opposite side, and feast in common like their lords.” Diodorus Siculus wrote: “Beside them are hearths blazing with fire with cauldrons and spits containing large pieces of meat. Brave warriors they honour with the finest pieces.” Athenaeus again: “They partake of [the meat] in a clearly but leonine fashion, raising up whole limbs in both hands and biting off the meat, while any part of which is hard to tear off they cut through with a small dagger which hangs attached to their sword-sheath in its own scabbard.”
The Celts as Warriors
In Battle Celtic warriors threw caution to the wind and their style of combat was highly aggressive and unrefined. They were considered in later years by civilizations like the Romans as Barbarians, possibly due to their ferocious nature and rural wild living standards. Often they were said to have disregarded armour and fought naked, but armour has been found from Celtic warriors including helmets and breastplates. These items would have belonged to higher ranking Celts, who would have armour and helmets adorned with intricate patterns or often animals and symbols.
Ruthless and reckless, Celtic warriors struck terror into the hearts of those under assault. The very sound of a Celtic army in the field was enough to scare off many opponents. “They are given to wild outbursts and they fill the air with hideous songs and varied shouts,” wrote Livy, who explained elsewhere that “their songs as they go into battle, their yells and leapings, and the dreadful noise of arms as they beat their shields in some ancient custom—all this is done with one purpose to terrify their enemies.” Diodorus Siculus observed of their trumpets that they were “of a peculiar barbaric kind; they blow into them and produce a harsh sound that suits the tumult of war.”Diodorus Siculus said Celtic armour included individually decorated man-sized shields. “Some of these have projecting bronze animals of fine workmanship that serve for defence as well as decoration. Their bronze helmets had “large projecting figures” attached to them (Anon., 1994).
Celtic warriors are said to have enhanced their appearance by painting blue patterns all over their bodies. They would also use white lime mead, and pead in their hair, combined with the patterns on their bodies this would give the Celts a powerful visual image and instantly striking and recognizable in a fight on the battlefield.
Figure 4Scenes from the Gundestrup cauldron depicting Celtic warriors wearing horned helmets, dated between 200 BC and 300 AD.
Celtic Weapons
Celtic weaponry used a variety of materials but for metal weapons a combination of bronze and iron was popular. The Celts were around for the majority of the Iron Age and they were well renowned for their mastery of metalwork with items dating back as far as 750 BC, found in Wales. The common weapons used were swords and spears, with shields used too as a defensive item. Celtic warlords would often wear more armour including metal armour surrounding their midsection, a trade off in mobility on the battlefield in return for better protection from the enemy’s melee attacks.
Games and Pastimes
One of the Celt’s pastimes was bird hunting and old Irish tales report how the men struck the birds with stones from their slingshots or with a “wooden weapon” described by Strabo as “thrown by hand and not by means of a strap with a range greater than that of an arrow.” There is archaeological and textual evidence for board games and various outdoor contests between competing teams. A 1965 excavation of an Iron Age grave at Welwyn Garden City, just north of London, turned up a set of game pieces and dice, which archaeologists surmise may have been the components of an old Celtic board game known as brandub, or black raven. The upper classes, according to Irish lore, enjoyed a close relative of chess. Called fidchell, or wooden wisdom, it was played with two opposing armies of wooden pieces facing each other on a board. Celtic outdoor contests, using sticks and balls, resembled modern hockey or games such as hurley and caman, still played in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in which teams of defenders (nude, according to archaeological evidence) try to prevent their opponents from getting the ball into a goal (Anon., 1994).
Gender Roles
Archaeological evidence indicates that female tasks included spinning, weaving, playing the lyre, riding horses (smaller than those ridden by men), grinding grain, leatherworking, and dancing both singly and in a strange twosome that some have interpreted as a fight in progress. Male roles include handling/chasing animals, riding horses, and driving a horse-drawn wagon. There is some controversy, however, over such a clear distinction in gender roles (Anon., 1994).
The evidence for women as warriors in Celtic Europe are inconclusive but among the British Celts there is a greater amount of historic documentation to suggest warrior roles for women (e.g. Boudica).
Head Hunting
Diodorus Siculus in his 1st-century History had this to say about Celtic head-hunting:
“They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants and striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in cedar oil the heads of the most distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold.”
As Asatru members we depict this practice by placing animal skulls over our tents.
Figure 6Butser Ancient Farm, where researchers try to re-create methods and structures to have been typical of Iron Age British farming. Note the Celtic roundhouses.
Background to the Germanic Peoples
Terminology
The term German literally translates into “Spear man” (gar spear + man) as the spear was the most common of weapons in ancient Germanic society and every free man had at least one. In ancient times, many barbarian tribes were given the broad label of Germanic (Latin: Germanicus) by the Romans. Although these tribes fully recognized themselves as sharing a common ethnic origin, spoke mutually intelligible dialects and shared a common religion, they were not unified or connected in any political sense. Each tribe and group would have its own unique traits, traditions, and individual fighting styles.
The word Teutonic is often used instead of the word Germanic. The terms Teutonic and Germanic are synonymous, both referring to a language group.
Historical Perspective
The Germans, Gauls, Slavs and Romans were descended from one great race, the Aryans, who dwelt in western Asia or eastern Europe. These Aryan peoples eventually separated and moved away in different directions. One branch of them entered Italy and became the ancestors of the Greeks and Romans. Another entered what is now France, and became the Gauls. One settled in Germany, and still others settled in other lands.
The ancient Germans lived in the lands extending from the North Sea and the Baltic on the North, to the DanubeRiver on the South; and from the Rhine on the West, to the rivers Elbe and Oder on the East. To the East were the Slavs, a people still ruder and more uncivilized than themselves. To the West were the Gauls, in what is now France. To the South were provinces of the Roman Empire, separated from them by the broad stream of the river Danube.
Julius Caesar defeated the Suevian tribe (about 70 BC) and took possession of Gaul for Rome, and was penetrating into Asia and North Africa when he was assassinated in 44 BC. He was succeeded by his nephew Augustus, who continued Rome’s expansionary policy moving east and begun to establish a substantial presence east of the Rhine. Augustus sent his stepson Drusus with mighty armies to bring the Germans under his sway.
Drusus made three successful expeditions into the heart of Germany, cut a canal to connect the Rhine and the Yssel, sailed along the coast of the North Sea, and built no fewer than fifty fortresses along the banks of the River Rhine. Drusus later died through a fall from his horse.
But the German tribes were to tremble before a still more terrible invader. This was Drusus’ brother Tiberius, a man of skill and cunning, who knew how to stir up internal strife, setting tribe against tribe, winning over chiefs with bribes of gold or positions in his army, until with comparatively little bloodshed he brought all the peoples between the Rhine and the Elbe under his sway.The northern district was committed to the care of Publius Quintilius Varus, a leader of much experience, who made military roads, repaired the castles built by Drusus, and established courts of justice presided over by Roman judges.
In 9 AD a young warrior from the Cherusci tribe named Hermann or Armin, known as Arminius by the Romans, leading an alliance of Germanic tribes,ambushed and decisively destroyed three Roman legions and their auxiliaries, led by Varus, in the TeutoburgForest. Arminius had acquired Roman citizenship and received a Roman military education,thus enabling him to personally deceive the Roman commander and foresee the Roman army's tactical responses. The Romans never again attempted to conquer Germanian territory east of the RhineRiver.The Romans built a 300-mile defensive line roughly along the Rhine during the 1st century AD. Thus Germany east and west of the Rhine developed differently.