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Celtic Knotwork

    The two panels on my home page (reproduced at the top and bottom of this page) are examples of Celtic knotwork.  Knotwork was one type of art that flourished among the Celts of Ireland and Scotland from the late 7th through early 9th centuries.  Other typical aspects of Celtic art were spirals, keywork, and zoomorphic creatures.  These elements all were used in the famous books of Durrow, Lindisfarne, and Kells, as well as many other lesser-known but still exquisite illuminated manuscripts.  The same elements also appear on gravestones and standing stones of the period, many of which can be seen around the Scottish and Irish counrtyside or in several museums.

    The two panels that I have used differ only slightly, but the result is that one contains a knot made of a single strand, whereas the other contains four strands.  The differences arise from breaking the single strand at certain crossing points and then rejoining the broken parts in a different way than they originally were connected.  Trace your finger or the mouse cursor along one and then the other to see where the patterns differ.

    Celtic knotwork looks very difficult to construct, but in fact it is easy to do once you have learned the basic principles.  There are several good books that teach you how to do it.  The book that first made Celtic art accessible was

             Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction
                        by George Bain

now published by Dover.  Bain was an artist and had figured out for himself methods for constructing Celtic knots, spirals, and keywork.  Unfortunately, he seemed to have more of an intuitive understanding of his methods than an analytical one, and often his description of the methods - especially those for knotwork - are impenetrable.  Nonetheless, the book is a treasure trove of examples and ideas.

    A better book for actually learning how to construct Celtic knotwork patterns is by George Bain's son, Ian Bain.  Ian was an engineer, and after hearing from many artists that his father's work was inspiring but difficult to decipher, he decided to decipher it himself.  He did so and wrote an admirably clear book that I recommend highly:

             Celtic Knotwork
                        by Ian Bain

originally published by Constable, London, but now also published by Sterling Publishing Company, New York.  The ISBN is 0-8069-8638-7.  I used the methods in this book to draw the knotwork panels on my home page.

    Ian Bain subsequently wrote another book on keywork patterns:

             Celtic Key Patterns
                        by Ian Bain

also published by Constable (ISBN 0-09471820-2).  It may be published by Sterling as well.

    Knotwork and keywork become quite complicated quite quickly, and you will have a difficult time doing them without first mastering some method such as that proposed by Ian Bain for keeping things in order.  With a good method at your disposal, however, complicated-looking patterns come easily.   Spirals are much easier than knots or keys.  In my opinion, the simple methods explained by George Bain are quite adequate for constructing beautiful and intricate spiral designs.

    There are other books by other authors.  Some seem quite good; others are not very useful for learning to do the designs yourself.  I recommend that you examine any books before you buy them and try to follow some of the instructions to see if you find them clear and helpful.  Some books look pretty and make a good impression on first glance but upon close examination turn out to say very little that is useful in learning the methods for doing such artwork yourself.

    Besides books on methods of construction, there are many good art history books that illustrate various Celtic illuminated manuscripts.  They are lots of fun to look at.  The Book of Kells (published by Thames and Hudson, London, copyright 1976) contains extensive descriptive text and 126 color photos of pages or parts of pages of the original Book of Kells.  The Lindisfarne Gospels, by Janet Backhouse (Phaidon Press Limited, Regent's Wharf, All Saints Street, London, NI 9PA, copyright 1981, reprinted 1999) has descriptive text and good reproductions of the illustrated pages of the Lindisfarne gospels.  The Book of Durrow: A Medieval Masterpiece at Trinity College Dublin, by Bernard Meehan (Town House and Country House, Trinity House, Charleston road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland, copyright 1996, ISBN 1-86058-006-3), has text and reproductions from the Book of Durrow.  Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Painting, written by Carl Nordenfalk (Braziller, New York, copyright 1977, ISBN 0-8076-8026-2) has good color reproductions from the books of Durrow, Lindisfarne, and Kells, as well as other manuscripts.  I don't know if any of these books is still in print.

A Note on Pronunciation:  Selt, not Kelt.

    When I was in high school in the early 1960s, one of my teachers insisted that the proper pronunciation of Celt was Kelt.  He was the first person I ever met who pronounced it that way.  Up until then, everyone I knew pronounced it Selt.  Subsequently, I heard more and more people pronouncing it Kelt.  This pronunciation always seemed odd to me.  After all, we don't say that someone went with great kelerity, that a priest is kelibate, and so on.  I eventually got around to looking up the word in the dictionary.  Here is derivation given in the American Heritage Dictionary, 1969: "French Celte, singular of Celtes, from Latin Celtae, from Greek Keltoi."  [A footnote to Keltoi says that Keltoi is "Of obscure origin."].  There is no doubt that the initial letter in the Greek Keltoi is a K sound.  There is more doubt about how to pronounce the Latin Celtae.  It would be Kel-tai in classical Latin pronunciation but Chel-tay in Latin vulgate and Church Latin pronunciation.  The vulgate is the version of Latin that was spoken by the comman Roman and even the uncommon Roman in everyday affairs.  Cicero, the great Roman republican politician, orator, and philosopher, used classical Latin in his speeches and formal writings but used the vulgate in his letters to friends and family.  (See Grammatica Italiana, terze edizione, by Maurizio Dardano and Pietro Trifone, Zanichelli Editore S.p.A., Bologna, Italia, copyright 1995.)  The vulgate is the antecedant of modern Romance languages, including French.  The French word Celtes is pronounced with a soft C, as in Seltes.  A native French speaker confirmed this pronunciation for me.  The English word derives from the French, and the French pronunciation is with a soft C.

    The pronunciation Kelt has swept the English-speaking world, including Celtic scholars, such as my daughter.  Nonetheless, even though my daughter tells me to get over it, the proper English pronunciation is Selt, not Kelt.

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