Celtic Otherworld - Beliefs of The Ancient Gauls

Beliefs of The Ancient Gauls

Many Graeco-Roman geographers tell about the Celtic belief in islands consecrated to gods and heroes. Among them were Anglesey (Môn), located on the Northern Welsh Coast, which was the sacred island of the druids of Britain; the Scilly islands, where archaeological remains of proto-historical temples have been found; and some of the Hebrides Islands, which were, in the Gaelic tradition, home of ghosts and demons: on one of them, Skye, the Irish hero Cúchulainn was educated by the war goddess Scathach.

Byzantine scholar Procopius of Caesarea described the Otherworld beliefs of the ancient Gauls. He said it was thought that the Land of Dead lay some place west of Great Britain. The Continental Celtic myths told that once the souls of the dead had left their bodies, they traveled to the Northwestern coast of Gaul and took a boat in direction to Britannia. When they had to cross the Channel, the souls went to the homes of the fishermen, and knocked desperately at their doors. The fishermen went then out of their houses and led the dead to their goal in ghostly ships.

There are still remains of those beliefs in the Breton and Galician traditions. In Brittany the name Bag an Noz is used to denote those ships who carry the dead to their goal: Anatole Le Braz describes in his book La légende de la mort chez les Bretons armoricains, the existence of souls' processions which make their way toward coastal places like Laoual, in order to start their last travel from there.

On the northern coast of Galicia is the village of San Andrés de Teixido, where there is a little hermitage consecrated to Saint Andrew, which keeps, according to the legend, his bones. Because his shrine was less popular than Saint James's, the saint was very sad. Jesus comforted him and said: "Do not worry, Andrés, for those who do not visit you in life will surely visit you in death". And it is still said in Galicia "Anyone who does not visit San Andrés de Teixido when he is alive must visit after he is dead". It is thought that the people who did not visit the sanctuary in life will have to do it after life, taking the form of serpents and lizards: because of this, the pilgrims who travel to the hermit take care not to step on those animals. San Andrés de Teixido is located near Cape Ortegal, which according Tacitus was the place where "heavens, seas and earth end": it was the End of the World.

Some Spanish authors, like Constantino Cabal, have supposed that the Pagan inhabitants of Northwestern Spain believed that this was the starting place of the souls of the dead on their trip to the Other World. In this manner, traditions of Astorga tell us of a Rock of the Souls (identified with San Andrés de Teixido) situated on the Sea of the Dead, that is, the Ocean which surrounds the Northern Coast of Galicia. These traditions still testify the ancient Celtic beliefs in an "Other World" located beyond the Sea.