Post originally by Bhikku at 2003-05-29 15:49:41
Converted from Phorums BB System

As in so many things, it comes down to faith.

Celtic faith taught that after death, we go on to an afterlife or Otherworld very similar to our earthly lives, and that we will eventually come back around to earth for another, similar life. Thus, death was nothing to be afraid of - literally, in the sociopathic sense except that even the most well-adjusted of warriors was expected, at least ideally, to have zero fear of death.

Related to this was the matter of honor or, more accurately, glory. Fearlessness was held as a virtue, and it's been suggested that Celts mocked the "timid" romans who locked themselves in metal for fear of a little thing like getting killed.

Many archaic writers (even as late as the early 20th century!) describe persons as "naked" who are, in face, clothed in some manner - as in loincloth or slip, f'rinstance. So possibly the legend of naked warriors is a mistranslation - but maybe not. I can easily imagine the kind of testo-laden brutes I went to school with drinking up some courage the night before a battle, and boasting about how they not only disdain armor, but are going to streak.

By contrast, the Roman faith that taught ideas of afterlife and reincarnation was not quite as popular as the philosophical stance that life exits the body with the final breath, and simply ceases. This led to that famous "eat, drink and be merry" line, which in turn led to the famed vomitorium, a high-water mark in cultural psychoanalysis.

As for the effectiveness of this tactic... well, the Romans did defeat a vast swath of Celtic lands. Of course, this was after such a vast history of defeat at Celtic hands that it's part of what made Caesar imperial material. Applying the psychological/religious concepts into an imagined battle, I'd suggest that the Celtic warriors would be virtually impossible to demoralize, at least in regular battle. They would not shy from great risks, and they would not balk at the sight of their fallen comrades. The fearlessness and seeming-insanity of these 'barbaric' hordes would tend to demoralize their foes, even if such foes might otherwise have won through superior tactics or armament. It's not always going to turn the tide of battle, but psych-warfare is an important element.

Notably, the Romanized Celts known as the Britons seemed to have lost some of this battle-frenzy, and so were conquered by the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons, who still had their berserkers and such tactics. So perhaps there is some serious advantage to an army that includes raging lunatics. (For those who don't know it, the Britons were renamed "the Welsh" by the Anglo-Saxon conquerers, a name which essentially means "the Slaves." This is, as wiser scholars than I have said, a significant factor in attitude of the modern-day Welsh toward everybody else.)

Above historical hoo-hah left deliberately a bit vague, as all my scholarly references are scattered and hard to find, and because i'm lazy.

-Bhikku