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Information about Celtic Jewelry and Irish Jewelry
Celtic Culture<
You don't have to of Irish decent to appreciate Celtic culture because the symbolism and history of Irish jewely can be enjoyed by people in any culture. Celtic jewelry involves symbolic themes of love, friendship, loyalty, eternity and the crossing of spiritual and physical lives. Read below to find out about some of traditions, legends and symbols why they appear in contemporary designed Irish and Celtic jewelry today.
Have you ever wondered about the recurring symbols, circles and knots that appear in all of Celtic Jewelry? Here are just a few answers below:
Celtic Knot
Some sources maintain that the Celtic Knot dates back as far as the 5th Century. The interlaced and unbroken lines have no beginning and no end and it is believed that it symbolizes man's spiritual growth, eternal life and never ending love. The interlacing of the different strands in the Celtic knot are said to represent our lives crossing with others. Although there are different shapes of knots which have been interpreted into different meanings, but the Irish maintain that Irish knots are all lovers knots. The intricate design of the never ending knot has been used extensively to decorate the famous Book of Kells, around 800 AD.
The Book of Kells, c800AD
During the Middle Ages, when manuscript painting was considered a renowned art, monks illuminated and decorated their codices (scriptures/biblical books) in several ways. Within the text, initial letters were enlarged and adorned sometimes they contained figures and scenes and shaped into animal like (zoomorphic) figures and imaginary beings. The Book of Kells was believed to be the masterpiece of the era.
It contains an illuminated and graphic depiction of the four gospels, written on vellum and at this present time contains 680 pages. Just two of the pages are without ornament, while about thirty pages have been lost. Experts are really uncertain where the Book of Kells first began, but we know it would have taken a long period of time to produce and could have been written in separate places.
Evidence now points to a monastery on the Isle of Iona and later, during the Viking raids of the 9th century, it was moved for its protection to Kells Monastery, County Meath, Ireland. The manuscript was given to Trinity College, Dublin in the 17th century and since 1953 has been restored and bound in four volumes and has been on display in the Old Library since the 19th century.
Legends of the ancient Celts were passed down orally, and it may have been from this source that later medieval monks gathered tales and retold ancient myths and legends with a Christian twist. To a large extent, the great reputation and popularity with which Celtic jewelry and design have today is based on the exceptional quality of the images found in the ancient Book of Kells.
Celtic jewelry involves symbolic themes of love, friendship, loyalty, eternity and the crossing of spiritual and physical lives. Read below to find out about some of traditions, legends and symbols why they appear in contemporary designed Scottish, Irish and Celtic jewelry today.
The Celtic Cross or Irish Cross
The Celtic Cross and Irish Cross shape has been symbolised by many ancient cultures even before the advent of Christianity to the UK and Ireland. The Celtic Cross is illustrated by monuments of crosses in Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria, Scotland and the Isle of Man.
It has been said that the Celtic Cross was a symbol of the four quarters, the North, which represents wisdom, stability, and winter; the East, for knowledge, learning, and spring; the South for vitality, passion, strength, and summer; and the West, for intuition, emotion, and inner knowledge. The circle connecting the four arms of the Celtic cross has been said to symbolize many things from sun worship to the eternal cycle of life and rebirth.
Another interpretation of the Celtic Cross is found in the Chi-Rho monogram, a cross made by combining the first two letters of the name of Christ in Greek, Chi (or X), and Rho (or P). For a Christian the Celtic Cross may represent a halo may be a symbol of eternity and the endlessness of God's love.
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The Triquetra - Trinity Knot
The Trinity Knot or Triquetra symbol, forming a Celtic knot, is a recurring theme in Celtic Jewelry and you will find a form of this symbol in Irish contemporary designed Celtic jewelry from Celtic pendants, necklaces and bangles, to rings and earrings. For early Christians this sign represented the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
But, the Celts were not always as maybe we would like to remember them. They were not the gentle earth witches and lovers of nature as some believe but savage warriors - Read what Diodorus wrote when he noted that:
Their aspect is terrifying...Their aspect is terrifying...They are very tall in stature, with rippling muscles under clear white skin. Their hair is blond, but not naturally so: they bleach it, to this day, artificially, washing it in lime and combing it back from their foreheads. They look like wood-demons, their hair thick and shaggy like a horse's mane. Some of them are clean shaven, but others - especially those of high rank, shave their cheeks but leave a moustache that covers the whole mouth and, when they eat and drink, acts like a sieve, trapping particles of food.....
Did you know they cut off the heads of their victims and nailed them to the doors of their dwellings - Diodorus goes on:
..............in exactly the same way as hunters do with their skulls of the animals they have slain.... they preserved the heads of their most high-ranking victims in cedar oil.
Roman historian - Diodorus Siculus, History.
The Story of the Claddagh
There are many stories about the history of the Claddagh. The true one represents the story of Ireland's unique symbol of love and friendship. Irish Claddagh ring
The legend of the Claddagh ring tells us that in the early 16th Century in the village of Claddagh, Co. Galway a young man by the name of Richard Joyce was enslaved to be shipped off to the West Indies. Richard was due to be married the week he was captured and his bride to be became inconsolable. While at sea the ship was attacked by Moorish pirates and Richard was enslavened to a wealthy goldsmith from Algiers who taught Richard the trade. Whilst working as a slave he became a master of his trade, goldsmithing. He fashioned a unique wedding ring for his beloved fiance back home - the woman he could never forget. After eight years Richard was granted freedom and returned to Claddagh and found his fiance had waited all those years for him.
The Claddagh design is in the shape of two hands cradling a crowned heart, the heart for love, the hands for friendship and the crown for loyalty. The design represented the wish that love and friendship should reign supreme.
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