When someone mentions the word "Celt", most people automatically think of Ireland. Sometimes, the names of Scotland or Wales might be mentioned, or possibly ancient Gaul. But what of the other Celts… those of the Distant Realms. These are the people who once inhabited the Danube Valley, Galatia and Iberia.

Who were these people and where did they come from? Quite obviously, they did not "magically" appear in Ireland and other places, as some seem to think.

Most authorities of today agree that the Celts had their origin in the area to the north and east of the Black Sea. These were a nomadic folk… Neolithic hunter-gatherers, living in separate tribes or families but sharing a common (Indo-European) language and a common set of beliefs. Around 7,000 years ago, these people began to migrate westward. Whether from population pressure or flooding of the Black Sea Basin is a matter still under debate. However, they packed up what they could carry and began to move west. The most convenient route in that direction was the Danube Valley.

They followed the river, seemingly creating settlements wherever there was a convenient hilltop to build their fortified enclosures. They hunted the forests, tilled the soil, mined and worked metals, first bronze and later, iron. They traded with distant lands and warred among themselves and with their neighbors. They interacted with the Greeks, who gave them the name of "Keltoi", from which we get the term, "Celt". In the early part of the first millennium BC, they began to migrate again. Some went west into Germania and Gaul. Others went south toward Italy and Greece, but were unwelcome there. They turned east and eventually found a new home on the Anatolian Plateau, in central Turkey. These were the Galatians to whom St. Paul addressed his famous letters.


Some went into Egypt and fought as mercenaries for the Pharaoh. When their job was done there, they continued their westward trek and crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Iberia. There, they met with other Celtic tribes who had crossed the Pyrenees from Gaul. Within a few centuries, they and mingled with the native Iberians to form a new ethnic group - the Celt-Iberians.

The Roman Empire did its best to eradicate the Celtic way of life. As they expanded, they beat the Celts into submission with superior arms, strategy, and numbers. Though the Celts won many battles, they were eventually crushed and the Romans built their forts on the ruins of the Celtic settlements. However, the Celts left their own legacy in the form of many of today's modern cities. Ancyra (Ankara, Turkey), Aquincum (Budapest, Hungary), Vindobona (Vienna, Austria), Singidunum (Belgrade, Yugoslavia), and Brigantia (La Corunna, Spain) are just a few of the unwritten epitaphs which they left behind.