The Celts produced some spectacularly beautiful art. Much of their best work was done in metal. They applied the same attention to intricate detail to their poetry. Poets, like great craftsmen, were honored members of society, welcome in any noble home.

Metalwork

Celtic metalwork is intricately decorated. Celtic smiths worked in gold, iron, and bronze. The Celtic aristocrats liked to have nice things on hand to give as gifts to honored guests, which would bring great honor to the giver, and they especially liked finely wrought metal.

Celtic men and women wore heavy necklaces of twisted gold, called torques. These became status symbols, and the gods were also represented as wearing them. Celtic burial sites are full of decorative pins called fibulae, which are similar in design to the modern safety pin.

Archaeologists have also discovered mirrors, combs, and a beautiful little model boat with oars. Many of these artifacts are elaborately decorated with the distinctive spirals and interweaving designs that the Celts are famous for.

A traditional Celtic design

Celtic smiths must have been very skilled to produce their works. They used the lost-wax casting technique — molding an object out of wax, surrounding it with clay, baking the whole thing so the clay hardened and the wax ran out, and then pouring in metal to form the object. They also formed objects out of sheets of metal, hammered thin and then cut and formed into the desired shape.

Celts held their craftsmen in high regard. Craftsmen belonged to a special privileged class of learned men, and the ordinary rules of serfdom and allegiance to a lord did not apply to them. They traveled from patron to patron plying their trade, and their status protected them from assault.

Celtic Poetry

Poetry was extremely important to the ancient Irish. Poets, like craftsmen and judges, belonged to the privileged class of learned people. Poets preserved the history of the clan and of Ireland, including lore of the gods and the genealogy of the ruler. The ancient myths and legends were preserved by countless generations of poets, who memorized them and recited them to their listeners.

Poets came in several grades; a poet of the highest status was equal to any chieftain. Training to become a poet took years and involved memorizing thousands of lines of verse. Poets also had a reputation for knowing something about magic and prophecy. A patron would expect a poet to sing his praises, but he had to be careful; poets demanded large rewards, and an unsatisfied poet could create burning satire that could ruin a chieftain's reputation.