Society
For other early examples of heraldry, compare the
"proto-heraldic" use of boar-crested helmets, golden banners, etc., as described
in the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) epic poem Beowulf, a pre-literate oral composition
first written down in the eighth century. The boar was considered to be a magical beast,
and was famed for its courage. It appears later on the armorial shields of several Irish
families, such as the O’Hanleys and O’Hanlons. The distinctive boar’s head
arms of the Swintons of Lowland Scotland and their relations, the Gordons and Chisholms,
is made more interesting by the knowledge that the Swintons
are an ancient family of royal Anglo-Saxon genesis. Another example of early heraldic
practice is the famous raven-banner of the Vikings (the raven was considered in pagan days
to be a manifestation of Odin, and was later borne on the banner of the Picto-Norse earls
of Caithness and Orkney in Scotland). Another worthy example is the antiquity of the arms
of the Scottish family of Murray, derived, like their name, from the province of Moray.
Silver and blue were the ancient livery
colors of the Morayshire Picts, and stars are said to have been painted on their bodies,
in these colors, as a war-paint" by which they could be distinguished from other
tribes in battle. There was a noticeable tendency toward the use of blue in the original
arms of the northeastern mormaerships (Celtic earldoms), the region including Mar, Buchan
and Moray. In addition, stars appear in ancient Morayshire cave carvings, a possible
indication of their ancient local significance. The heraldic device of "three Moray
stars" appears in the arms of the Murrays and most old Morayshire families, including
the MacRaes. These colors, silver on blue, also relate to the origin of the Scottish
national flag, the cross of St. Andrew (Adam 520, 533).
The heraldic use of the three Moray stars by
Murray families in the south of Scotland shows that their significance as a dynastic
symbol extended even into preheraldic times, as these families migrated from the province
of Moray before formal heraldry developed during the twelfth century. Such preheraldric
dynastic affiliations throughout Gaeldom go hand-in-hand with shared heraldic symbology as
a proof of the antiquity of pre-formal heraldry.
Such armorial bearings were born in the mists
of the unrecorded past. They are a constant reminder of the ancient European origins of
the Gaelic race, as indeed, much of what people think and do in their daily lives today is
a direct legacy from their earliest ancestors. Many of the assumptions which guide
people’s lives reflect basic attitudes born of long tradition, and yet they are as
common in our day as the Christmas tree (symbol of continuous life in winter) or the
Easter egg and Easter bunny (symbolic of fertility in the rites of spring)—all
equally survivors from Western civilization’s earliest IndoEuropean roots.
Many such attitudes are so close to us that
we scarcely notice them, or else they are held subconsciously. Jungian views on the
"collective unconscious and "racial memory" take on a special aspect when
considered in light of our heritage from those distant times. Nightly visitations by a
"shee" (faery) prophesying the return of a leader, selfless and heroic (such as
Arthur), from an otherworldly sleep (such as on the Isle of Avalon, or within a faery hill
or "Sheed") to inspire great loyalty and deliver his people from an enemy (such
as the English)—or at least lead them on a great quest (such as for the Grail):
These are recurrent archetypal themes, common
to the Celtic peoples and their literature. They are an outgrowth of the
pre—Christian religion of the Germanic and Celtic peoples (the "dawn
religion") which arose out of a mix-ture
of ideas at least partly derived from the pre—Celtic Western-European peoples they
conquered and assimilated—peoples of ancient sanctity and impressive temples (e.g.,
Stonehenge and Newgrange). Thus, one way or another the "dawn religion" seems to
ultimately descend from the ancient fertility cults of Neolithic Europe (associated with
the famous Cro-Magnon "mother-goddess" or "Venus" figures), and so we
have the matrilineality of the Picts (see Chapter IV), and also the nature worship,
"second sight," druids, folk-medicine and fertility rites associated with the
folk-tradition of historical times. Later, Christians came to associate evil with the
horned manifestation of the fertility spirit ("Pan incarnate"), and thus we have
the horned devil of today; burning, it seems, with lust. Such ancient fertility cults
perceived divinity in the "spark of life" (Moncreiffe 21), and the vitality of
this belief is directly expressed in the folklore, music, and dance of Gaelic tradition
(Murray 1921). Here faeries are not of the diminutive winged creatures of the traditional
English "fairy-tale," but rather are life-sized inhabiters of the otherworld, or
of our dreams at any rate.
Gaelic society combined the vitality of its
ancient Indo-European tribalism with progressive social institutions, as we shall see in
the next chapter. Furthermore, its very existence indicates that the Roman legacy was not
the only alternative for Western advancement. Gaeldom long existed in the far west of
Europe as a great tribal society never directly touched by the empire of Rome, a society
showing its direct links with the most ancient European ethos. It could be brutal and
barbaric, yet its church produced a beacon of humanism and civilization that lit the
Western world from Aachen to Ravenna, and passed on an uncompromising legacy.
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