OBS Chapter 2193 Please vote for me! ! ! !
Chapter 2193 Please vote for me! ! ! !
Chapter 2193 Please vote for me! ! ! !
In short, the status of Avalon was very high among the ancient Celts. The ancient Celts did not have the concept of heaven and hell. They believed that human beings were also part of nature. After death, the soul would return to nature and become trees, insects, birds, beasts, etc.
In ancient China, it was believed that being reborn as an insect, bird or beast in the next life was a sin and a punishment. But for ancient druids, this was not a problem. After all, humans are just a part of nature. They are nurtured by nature and return to nature after death to nourish nature. This is natural.
But Avalon is an exception, where heroes and gods return. Surrounding Avalon are dense swamps, dense woods and hazy mists, making it difficult for ordinary people to reach. In the forest outside Lake Avalon, the Green Knights guard closely to ensure that ordinary people cannot enter the holy land. Once an intruder is discovered, the Green Knights will kill without mercy. A group of beautiful and proud lake maidens live in Lake Avalon, among which Vivian plays a leading role. In Irish mythology, the fairy Morgan is regarded as a trinity of goddesses. Since the Celts regard "three" as a sacred number, they expanded the number to nine to guard the magic furnace of Anwen in the paradise together. These fairies, led by Morgan, rule Avalon, the legendary island of the dead. As for the origin of the name Avalon, some people believe that it comes from the Celtic word "abal", which means "apple", symbolizing the British legend that the island is famous for its beautiful apples. Another view is that it comes from the Celtic word "Annwyn", which means fairy land or underworld, which fits the mysterious atmosphere of Avalon in King Arthur's legend. In the legend, Avalon is surrounded by swamps and fog and can only be reached by boat. The island is guarded by elves, time has lost its meaning here, and nothing will age.
There, there are no worries, only happiness.
But ordinary people cannot enter there, only the greatest heroes can.
In the context of ancient Celts, heroes, demigods and gods were often used interchangeably.
So ordinary people cannot enter. Only demigods with divine blood can enter... the so-called heroes.
"Don't confuse the reality with those half-baked anime you watch. That's an insult to the Celtics!"
Kai said seriously.
Thor also touched the back of his head to express his apology.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that... But, by the way, are there still Celtics now? Where are they, England?"
"Well, there should be no pure-blooded Celts." Kai said a little helplessly.
After Kai woke up, he also tried to look for shadows of the past, such as looking for the descendants of the ancient Celts... Unfortunately, no one knew where to find those things.
If you ask whether the Celtics still have bloodline inheritance, of course they do.
That is the Celtics in a broad sense now, but even the shadow of the past has disappeared.
Throughout history, there has always been an imbalance in economic development between regions, which is manifested in that some regions have made rapid progress while others have lagged behind. In early social forms, ethnic groups with low levels of development and slow civilization progress were often called "barbarians" by neighboring civilized societies, just as the Central Plains countries called the Chu State "Chu barbarians" during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Similar situations are also reflected in European history. The Roman Empire collectively referred to the three major ethnic groups of Germanic, Slavic and Celtic as barbarians. It is worth noting that the relationship between civilization and barbarism is not limited to military confrontation. The two often achieve integration through cultural exchanges. This integration process actually promotes the transformation of barbaric society into civilized society. With the decline of the Roman Empire, the two major ethnic groups of Germanic and Slavic established a number of prominent regimes, including the Frankish Kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. To this day, these two nations still maintain a significant influence on the world: when mentioning Germanic, people naturally think of Germany; when mentioning Slavic, Russia becomes the primary object of association. However, what is puzzling is that the Celts, who were once equally active, seem to have disappeared. Why is their historical presence far less prominent than that of the Slavs and Germans?
As one of the three ancient barbarian tribes, the Celts took a leading position in the process of civilization. The development of their Iron Age can be traced back to the early 10th century BC, which was even earlier than the earliest Greek civilization in Europe. In terms of iron smelting technology, the Celts were at an advanced level in the world at that time. Although Greek civilization began to use iron about a century earlier than the Celts, the gap was not significant. With advanced iron technology, the Celts undoubtedly had an overwhelming technological advantage over other tribes that were still in the Bronze Age or even the Stone Age.
In order to seek a wider living space and obtain more resources, the Celts migrated from their settlements in the upper reaches of the Rhine to various parts of Europe in the form of tribal alliances. In the 10th century BC, they crossed the Rhine and migrated to the present-day France and the Netherlands. In the 7th century BC, they crossed the English Channel and arrived in the British Isles. In the 6th century BC, they crossed the Alps and the Pyrenees and entered the northern part of the Italian Peninsula and the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. After hundreds of years of expansion, the Celtic footprints were almost all over Europe. In the early 4th century BC, the Celtic tribes and the emerging Roman Republic broke out in a military confrontation on the Italian Peninsula. The Celts captured the city of Rome and set it on fire, which was regarded as a major national humiliation by the Romans. Subsequently, the Celtic tribes migrated eastward to the northern part of the Greek peninsula and met Alexander the Great in the Macedonian region. Out of respect for the monarch, the Celts did not take hostile actions. However, after Alexander's death, they immediately assembled a huge army of more than people and launched a large-scale military offensive against Macedonia. The Celts ultimately won the battle, and the Macedonian King Ptolemy II was killed in the battle. Afterwards, the Celts launched a large-scale plundering of the city-states in northern Greece. Although the Greek Federation successfully stopped their further advance, some Celts broke away from the main force and entered the Anatolia region of present-day Turkey. At that time, the Germans and Slavs were still struggling for their livelihoods, while the Celtic influence had expanded to Western Europe, Central Europe, and Southern Europe, and even to Western Asia. Even the later Roman Empire may not be able to expand beyond this achievement.
The Celts failed to form a unified political entity, and the tribes were in a state of dispersion for a long time, which became the main constraint on their development. In contrast, the Romans achieved political unity by relying on the geographical advantages of the Italian peninsula and promoted territorial expansion with a common goal. Thanks to the location conditions in the Mediterranean region, the Romans actively absorbed foreign civilizations, especially the inheritance and integration of the essence of Greek culture. It is worth noting that since the Celts captured the city of Rome, this historical event has inspired the Romans to strive for strength and significantly accelerated their development process. In the middle of the 3rd century BC, Rome successfully seized control of the western Mediterranean from the Phoenicians. The economic advantages brought by this victory significantly enhanced Rome's comprehensive national strength. Subsequently, the Celts in northern Italy assembled a huge force of more than 2 people, trying to restore their former glory and attack Rome. However, at this time, the Roman legions had far surpassed the Celtic army in terms of tactical level, weapons and equipment, and strict military discipline, and the strength of the two sides was very different. The victory of this battle further consolidated Rome's unstoppable rise. The Celts' active provocation of Roman authority was bound to lead to serious consequences. Under the strong pressure of Rome, the Celts in Macedonia were the first to bear the brunt. Although they had helped the Macedonians to repel the Roman army, this victory was only temporary. The Roman legions quickly replenished their forces and eventually forced the Celts and Macedonians to submit to Roman rule. Subsequently, Rome's expansion was directed at the core area of the Celts-Gaul. At the end of the 1nd century BC, the Roman army crossed the Alps and successfully occupied the southern Gaul region. The situation became increasingly critical. The Roman army in the south was pressing forward step by step, and the Germanic tribes in the north crossed the Rhine to compete with the Celts for territory. At this time, the Celtic tribes were still in a state of internal strife and disputes with each other. The Romans took the opportunity to adopt a differentiation strategy to defeat them one by one. In order to expand their territory, some Celtic tribes took the initiative to seek support from the Roman army. In response, the tribes that opposed Rome turned to the Germans, causing the Celts to be more divided. By the middle of the st century BC, Caesar had become increasingly adept at using a combination of kindness and severity, eventually incorporating the entire Gaul region into the Roman territory.
Similar to the cultural integration process of the Jurchens in the Central Plains, the Celts quickly integrated into the more advanced Roman civilization system after being conquered by the Roman Empire. At the end of the 1st century BC, the Celtic tribes in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula tried to resist Roman rule, but the confrontation with a huge disparity in strength ultimately ended in failure, and their culture was gradually replaced by Roman civilization. Even if there were some cultural remnants, by the middle of the 5th century AD, with the invasion of the Visigoths, a branch of the Germanic people, these cultural relics were completely absorbed. The Visigothic Kingdom established here would naturally not tolerate any Celtic cultural forces in its territory that might threaten its rule. In the conquest war launched by Caesar, the Celtic groups in Gaul suffered heavy losses, with about one-third of the population killed and the same proportion becoming Roman slaves. The surviving one-third of the Celts gradually merged with the large influx of Roman immigrants, not only forming a mixture of blood, but also gradually turning to Latin in language. Although Celtic culture was partially preserved, the Germanic Franks occupied Gaul and established the far-reaching Frankish Kingdom in the late 5th century AD, which eventually led to the complete disappearance of the Celtic Gaulish language. The Celtic experience in the present-day Balkan Peninsula and Turkey presents a series of cultural changes. They first experienced the process of Hellenization, then were influenced by Roman civilization, and then blended with Phrygian, Slavic and Arab cultures. Although these tribes had a rich life due to their excellent military strength and obtained rich spoils, they never achieved internal unity. The three main tribes remained independent for a long time, and this split eventually led to their conquest one by one by the surrounding powerful forces. Around the 4th century AD, the Galatian language, which belongs to the Celtic language family, also died out. On the European continent, some Celts gradually integrated into the Germanic and Slavic groups. This phenomenon is similar to the historical changes of the nomadic peoples of the northern grasslands in ancient China: during the heyday of the Xiongnu, many tribes surrendered and became Xiongnu; after the rise of the Xianbei, some Xiongnu people turned into Xianbei people. Similar situations can be seen in the replacement of the Turkic, Khitan, Jurchen and Mongolian ethnic groups. In the era when the concept of nation had not yet been formed, the strong dominated everything. Those groups that did not survive until the rise of the concept of nation were eventually assimilated by other ethnic groups.
Faced with an unchangeable situation, the Celts finally chose to integrate into Roman culture. In less than a century, the Celtic culture in England was gradually replaced by Roman civilization. Since Scotland was never completely controlled by the Roman Empire, this land became the core area for the Celts to resist Roman rule, causing the Romans to invest a lot of resources to build the famous Hadrian's Wall as a dividing line between the two sides. With the arrival of the early 5th century AD, the Roman Empire fell into a situation of internal and external difficulties and had to withdraw its troops from Great Britain. The Celts were full of hope and looked forward to the arrival of a better life.
After the Romans, Germanic tribes such as the Saxons, Angles and Jutes also launched a struggle for control of these islands. Although the Celts put up a tenacious resistance for more than a century, the Germans eventually took control. Compared with the Romans, the Germans lacked a strong ability to assimilate culture, which allowed many Celts in Scotland, Wales and Ireland to continue their traditional civilization. Today's Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Irish are all derived from the Celtic language family, which is a clear proof of this historical process. Overall, the Celts had a relatively weaker influence than the Germans and Slavs. This phenomenon can be analyzed from three dimensions: geography, time and culture. In terms of geographical factors, the Celtic settlement area overlapped with the expansion of the Roman Empire, making it easier for them to be conquered and assimilated by the Romans; in contrast, the Germans and Slavs were located far away from the core area of the Roman Empire, making it difficult for Roman forces to penetrate deeply, which allowed their traditional culture to be better preserved. From a temporal perspective, the Celts, as an early rising nation, played an important role in hindering the expansion of the Roman Empire in history.
In the cultural field, although Celtic civilization was once glorious, its internal foundation was relatively weak and it was difficult to compete with Roman culture. If its cultural accumulation was deep enough, the assimilation process of the Roman Empire would face greater resistance. In addition, the issue of unity should not be ignored, which is another key factor. The Celtic group is large in size, and it is indeed difficult to achieve overall unity. Even the Germans failed to do so. However, it should be feasible to achieve unity in a smaller range, but the Celts failed to seize this advantage, and instead complicated the unity that could have been achieved, which undoubtedly provided an opportunity for Rome's differentiation strategy.
So strictly speaking, this nation has died out.
Even if Kai wanted to find his past self, he couldn't find it!