Celtic knots are ornamental woven designs found on cultural artifacts, including religious texts and structures. The term “Celtic” is controversial, as the knots were not limited to Great Britain and Ireland. The knots feature complex geometric designs and stylized animal shapes, which may reflect early religious prohibitions against figure depictions. The knots have no pagan origins and were not recorded prior to Christianization.
A Celtic knot is a stylized woven design resembling a knot in the sense of a rope knot only in the more ornamental sense. Knots adorn a number of Celtic cultural artifacts, including stone carvings and jewellery, but it really began to flourish in the Christian era, when Celtic knots were adopted to decorate religious texts and structures. Many people connect Celtic knots with the early culture of Great Britain and Ireland, although similar complex geometric designs can also be found in Scandinavian cultures and on the European continent.
There is some controversy over the use of the word “Celtic” in this case. A “Celt” is someone who speaks a member of the Celtic language family, and at one time, Celts were widespread across much of Europe. Numerous historians have written of the Celtic people, including the Romans, who fought bitterly with them in Gaul and Britain. The so-called “Celtic knot” reached its peak in Ireland and Scotland, although it was by no means limited to these areas; the term “Celtic knot” is used mainly by convention, although it is perhaps not entirely accurate.
Whatever you want to call it, a Celtic knot is a very distinctive work of art. Many were designed to be endless, with a repeating pattern that had no clear beginning or end. The knot could take the form of a complex grid, a stylized drawing of a plant or animal, or any number of shapes. If specific designs had particular meanings, those have been lost to history, despite what the card attached to your Celtic knot necklace might say.
The stylized animal shapes in Celtic knots are believed by some historians to reflect early religious prohibitions against the depiction of figures, and the few examples of Celtic knots from early periods of Celtic history appear to support this theory. These early knots were often purely geometric in design.
There is no actual record of the Celtic knot prior to the Christianisation of the Celtic peoples, and some people have suggested that the Celtic knot has no pagan origins, despite fervent wishes to the contrary. Some of the best examples of such knots can be found in early Christian architecture, Bibles and various religious documents, and some very beautiful patterns can be seen on tombstones. While simple knots were created before the advent of Christianity, more advanced and complex versions didn’t appear until Christianity was firmly established among the Celts.
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