Ynys Môn

“And so the seasons went rolling on into summer, as one rambles into higher and higher grass.”

-Henry David Thoreau

“The mountains whisper for me to wander; my soul hikes to the call.”

the lake district, cumbria, england 🌿

In Irish folklore, the children of Lir -  Fionnula, Aodh, Conn, and Fiachra - were children of King Lir, turned by their stepmother Aoife into swans. 

Children of Lir moodboard

“Pancharevo, Bulgaria” by noisiaz​

Okay, so I’ve been seeing a lot of people mixing up terminology around Celtic related things recently. I thought it might be helpful to make a post explaining what’s going on, particularly with the terms in the post heading. This post will absolutely not be perfect by any means, so if anybody has any suggestions for alterations that need to be made to make this more accurate please let me know.

Celtic - The term “Celtic” refers to a collection of cultures and/or languages (which will be in brackets from now) from Europe. This term encompasses Ireland (Irish), Scotland (Gaelic), Wales (Welsh), The Isle of Man (Manx), Cornwall (Cornish) and Brittany (Breton), among other historical, extinct or lesser known cultures and languages

Gaelic - This term refers to a smaller sub-category within the group that falls under the term “Celtic”. More specifically, it refers to Ireland (Irish), Scotland (Gaelic) and the Isle of Man (Manx). This term may also appear as Goidelic, which is often used to specify the language family.

So that might leave you wondering - what about the other cultures/languages? Well, these fall under a different term exclusive to them

Brythonic - This term refers to the second sub-category that falls under the term “Celtic”. It refers to Wales (Welsh), Cornwall (Cornish) and Brittany (Breton). You may also see this term written as Brittonic. These words are not exclusive to the languages, and also encompass the cultures/countries.