Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 15:58, 5 March 2007

So far this template is organized very much by text (or textual cycle), which makes sense as mythology has to do with the written word. Other users may want to include sections on individual characters, places, gods, and creatures; but I didn't want to get into that, because for me, brevity is essential for this kind of template. On the other hand, Nantonos will probably reproach me for having over-extended the term 'mythology' into other fields of religion (priesthood, lists of gods, etc). Of course, we can always rename this template if need be. QuartierLatin1968 17:33, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

An accurate prediction. Insular religious material is indeed largely attested by mythology; continental religious material largely by archaeology, epigraphy, and occasional mentions in contemporary writings. I would have preferred 'Celtic religion' therefore. --Nantonos 22:20, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

You're right, of course. But the problem I feared with a 'Celtic religion' template was that it would mushroom into this vast list of every known name of gods and mythological figures. Choosing a mythology theme, and a textual focus, with a bit of related but non-mythological stuff thrown in, seemed like a defensible compromise. QuartierLatin1968 23:11, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Name of template

Ermm, Satanael has just changed the theme of the template to 'Celtic religion' rather than 'Celtic mythology'. It may not be a bad idea, but the template was really written with a mythological focus – the main preoccupation is not with gods, fanums, totems, sacred sites, or sacrificial rites, but on mythological texts. If this is to be a Celtic religion template, other sections should be added to reflect this broader scope. QuartierLatin1968 17:32, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

If this template is about Celtic religion now, and we have a category for *ancient* Celtic religion, might it make sense to include a *brief* section on modern Celtic religion? I'd suggest listing Celtic Reconstructionism and possibly modern versions of Celtic Christianity. However I think it would only work to include modern religion if it can be kept limited and not include any of the non-Celtic traditions that mistakenly get called "Celtic". --Kathryn NicDhàna 21:05, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

My main preoccupation is keeping this template brief, because one template that tries to do everything may end up doing nothing very well ... however, we could maybe start a division of labour along the lines that they have for ancient Roman religion. So, we might have a series of Celtic religion templates with specializations for ancient religious material, mythology stricto sensu, and modern revival (to give but one potential schema). Come to think of it, we could have a number of footer templates for the deities as well, like they do in the Greek, Roman, and Norse series. Q·L·1968 ☿ 00:25, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

I think that unless and until we do that, the name of this template should be changed back to "Celtic Mythology". --Kathryn NicDhàna ♫♦♫ 03:23, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, it's been a while and no one has said this *needs* to be called "Celtic Religion", so, I'm going to return it to it's original title. I think that is preferable to trying to increase the scope of the template. I don't have the time or energy to start a whole new round of sub-templates at this point, but think that would be a fine thing to do down the road if others are also interested. Slàinte Mhath, ~ Kathryn NicDhàna ♫♦♫ 22:13, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Other tables and templates

I thought the massive table down under "See also" in the Celtic mythology article was a template but it's not. Might be too overwhelming to turn into a template, yet it does cover a lot. The Celtic Mythology article needs help, too. ~ Kathryn NicDhàna ♫♦♫ 22:28, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Misconceived Template

I see a user has made some bizarre changes in the template. The editor has added Breton mythology to the Welsh mythology section, see here . From my reading of Welsh mythology, it is not the same as Breton Mythology, and should not be grouped in the same section. I tried to undo the erroneous changes but my efforts were scuttled by several editors. All very bizarre.
Also the same editor has added Scottish mythology into the Irish mythology section, see here , another very bizarre edit. Scottish mythology never included Irish mythology, until recently that is, in Misplaced Pages. Yes there were a few pieces from Irish mythology, but only a small section. The James MacPherson's deceit, about his supposed discovery of Ossian, uncovered by Dr. Samuel Johnson, well that's about the one major similarity. A totally misconceived edit. Manopingo 12:02, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Presumably they've done this because of the language groupings? Deb 12:57, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

As an Irish interest editor, I can see clearly that lumping together Scottish mythology and Irish mythology into one section and doing likewise with Breton mythology and Welsh mythology is confusing to any reader because the implication is that EVERY topic listed underneath each (now) combination section heading belongs to each of those (double) section heading titles. This is totally not the case. If the reason was for language groupings that too is a misconceived view. Having read each of the sub-topics listed, as far as I can see, none of them have ANY Scottish mythology or Breton mythology connection so why are they listed as headings for topics that are not covered by the heading above them. Templates are supposed to allow clarity of navigation and content hierarchy, so the solution for total clarity is to have separate sections for Scottish mythology or Breton mythology with any sub-topics as appropriate (though non are listed at present). I have to agree with Manopingo that the additions are a misconceived edit but hope he can express his views better, and calmer, than he has recently. ww2censor 15:58, 5 March 2007 (UTC)