The Celtic Cross: An Illustrated History and Celebration

The Celtic Cross: An Illustrated History and Celebration. By Nigel Pennick. London: Blandford, 1997. Hdbk 16.99 [pounds sterling].

The modern Celtic spirituality movement has inspired a number of developments interesting to folklorists. The current upsurge in activity takes various forms worthy of study, in particular in terms of modern religious belief. This book by Nigel Pennick is a product of two strands of the modern movement, together with some additions which are perhaps unexpected but certainly accord with the eclectic nature of the emergent tradition.

Celtic spirituality manifests itself in two main forms, the neo-pagan and the Christian. The Christian form contains regional and national variations, and, as the books which the movement generates become increasingly derivative, it displays a tendency more towards devotional orthodoxy than academic credibility. The "Celtic" strand is increasingly used as an extended metaphor for recent developments in environmental theology and popular spirituality. The pagan variants appear to be less regionalised, more adventurous, and to possess a relationship to the academic world of Celtic studies more tenuous than that of their Christian counterparts.

Not all aspects of the modern Celtic movement are new, and not all of them are mutually contradictory. However, the widespread interest and attraction is a recent development, though many of the themes are those which have been around since the last Celtic Twilight. Certain emphases have undergone extensive change during the last hundred years or so.

Nigel Pennick's volume is a product of the pagan Celtic movement, but one which seeks to attract a wider audience. Like all such works, the author faces a challenge, as most of the existing sources have come to us through the medium of literacy, and therefore, in a northern European context, through the medium of Christianity. It is therefore necessary to uncover---or otherwise acquire--the original version of anything that is regarded as important. Mr Pennick has chosen a subject which to some extent frees him from the constraints of literacy, and provides ample scope for personal interpretation, a prominent feature of the modern Celtic movement. Of course, he does not escape, nor it must be said does he avoid, the need to use literary sources in conjunction with the monumental sculpture which is his chosen subject.

He also addresses another challenge. Wisely, in view of the title, he has set out not only to attract those already familiar with his works, but to capture the Christian market as well. The Christianisation of paganised Christian sources on pagan and Christian practice could be regarded by many as both creative and challenging. Mr Pennick is not daunted by challenge, nor does he restrict himself to a discussion of crosses. Stones of every description appear in his book, upright and prone, embossed and indented, carved and plain. Everything is included: megaliths and maypoles, holed stones and holy wells, icons and tattoos. The reader moves breathtakingly and breathlessly from subject to subject, country to country, century to century, often within the confines of a single sentence.

This is why the book is so hard to read. The author includes many ideas, contradicts himself regularly, and examines nothing in detail. The accumulated information is bundled together without reference to order or relevance. It is mind-numbing in its diversity. Nothing is followed through; the connections between his snippets of information are too slight to carry the weight he applies to them; and the book contains no discernible argument.

It seems that nothing is excluded in his discourse on the origins of the Celtic cross. The cross with a circle, the circle usually set within the arms of the cross, is found carved on stones generally accepted as predating the free-standing crosses. The normally accepted explanation is that this is a formalisation of the chi rho, the first two letters of the Greek for Christ. This derivation does get a mention (p. 63), but, not unexpectedly, the author opts for a sun-wheel origin.

The desire to appeal to both potential audiences results in frequent attempts to weld together diverse ideas. For example, at the beginning of the section on pagan and Christian images, he points to similar images found on crosses and carved stones, stating that they can be interpreted equally as representing different myths: "so there is the image that can be interpreted as the archetype of the hunter, Daniel amid the lions, or the hero or god such as Odin, who overcomes or else is devoured by the beasts" (p. 36). The juxtaposition of pagan and Christian images, he tells us, reinforces the "archetype of holiness." One might ask where in the surviving myths Odin is represented as an archetype of holiness? Moreover, neither Daniel nor Odin was a hunter. There remains the difference that Odin at Ragnarok is swallowed by the beast Fenrir (an event depicted on carvings from the Norse sphere of influence), while Daniel survives the lions. Without the depiction of the actual swallowing, the scene carved on a cross is almost certainly of Daniel. It was, indeed, a popular subject. Pennick is right to point to the superficial similarities, but fails to take account of the context.