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Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson or An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man is the first volume of the All and Everything trilogy written by the Greek-Armenian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff. The All and Everything trilogy also includes Meetings with Remarkable Men (first published in 1963) and Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am' (first privately printed in 1974).

Purpose and significance
The book was intended to be the main study tool for Gurdjieff's Fourth Way teachings. As Gurdjieff's idea of "work" is central to those teachings, Gurdjieff went to great lengths in order to increase the effort needed to read and understand it. Gurdjieff himself once said, “I bury the bone so deep that the dogs have to scratch for it." The book covers many topics. It is an allegory and myth in a literary form all its own.

In his prospectus for All and Everything, printed at the beginning of each part of the trilogy, Gurdjieff states his aim in the first volume of "destroy[ing], mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world."

Beelzebub's Tales is included in Martin Seymour-Smith's 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written, with the comment that it is "...the most convincing fusion of Eastern and Western thought [that] has yet been seen."

Author
Gurdjieff was most notable for introducing the Fourth Way. He claimed that the Eastern teachings brought by him to the West expressed the truth found in other ancient religions and wisdom teachings relating to self-awareness in one's daily life and humanity's place and role in the universe. It might be summed up by the title of his third series of writings: Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am', while his complete series of books is entitled All and Everything.

Composition
After Gurdjieff was in a serious car accident in 1924, he decided to pass on something of his theoretical teachings by writing a number of detailed books. After many writings and rewritings, the first volume was released under the title Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson. Gurdjieff first mainly dictated Beelzebub's Tales in Russian and Armenian between 1924 and 1927, as he was initially unable to write personally because of his condition after the accident. After realizing from the various public readings of his texts that those people who were not familiar with his form of mentation and expression would not be able to understand anything, he decided to completely rewrite everything.

Details of Gurdjieff's other activities while writing the book can be found in his third book Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'.

Readings
Gurdjieff often held various readings of his texts to both his students and strangers. William Buehler Seabrook noted that Gurdjieff asked him to invite some of his friends to Gurdjieff's apartment, where Gurdjieff gave a reading from the manuscript of Beelezbub's Tales. The listeners (including the behaviorist John Watson, Lincoln Steffens, and George Seldes) were apparently perplexed and unimpressed.

Content
Beelzebub's Tales uses the framing device of the musings of an extraterrestrial known as Beelzebub (who shares a name with the demon of the same name) to his grandson Hassein, as they travel through space towards Beelzebub's home planet, Karatas, on the spaceship Karnak. Beelzebub recounts his adventures and travails amongst the "three-brained beings" (humans) of the planet Earth. Beelzebub details the history, customs and psychology of humanity and relates the esoteric theory behind the workings of the universe.

Beelzebub narrates a history of creation that allegorically explains the human condition as perceived by Gurdjieff: Earth is described as being orbited by two satellites which broke off the planet during its early phase after it was hit by a comet: the Moon and a second body (unknown to mankind) called Anulios. In order to maintain cosmic stability it was necessary that both bodies remain in Earth's orbit. To ensure this stability, men were required to emit a certain substance. An artificial organ was implanted into all human beings by the "high powers" making them oblivious of this mechanism but causing psychological side effects such as vanity, pride, and other vices: "And then, in fact, with the help of the Chief-Common-Universal-Arch-Chemist-Physicist Angel Looisos, who was also among the members of this Most High  Commission, they caused to grow in the three-brained beings  there,  in  a  special way,  at  the  base  of  their  spinal column,  at  the  root  of  their  tail—which  they  also,  at  that time,  still  had,  and  which  part  of  their  common  presences furthermore  still  had  its  normal  exterior  expressing  the,  so to say, ‘fullness-of-its-inner-significance’—a ‘something’ which assisted the arising of the said properties in them. 10.89  “And  this  ‘something’  they  then  first  called  the  ‘organ Kundabuffer.’" That organ was later removed but the side effects remained: "[...] not only during the  period  when  this  organ  Kundabuffer  existed  in their  presences,  but  also  during  the  later  periods  when, although this astonishing organ and its properties had been destroyed  in  them,  nevertheless,  owing  to  many  causes,  the consequences  of  its  properties  had  begun  to  be  crystallized in their presences."

The protagonist then reports his visits to Earth and the gained insights about humanity. This narration is interrupted by embedded explanations of the author's philosophical world view.

Original English version
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson was first published in 1950 by Harcourt, Brace & Company and Routledge & Kegan Paul. This first translation was made, under the personal direction of the author, by a group of translators chosen by him and "specially trained according to their defined individualities." It was republished in 1964 by E.P. Dutton & Co, in 1973 by E.P. Dutton & Co (in paperback in three volumes), and in 1993 by Two Rivers Press. It was republished in 1999 by Penguin Arkana in paperback. The 1999 edition contained corrections of errata and the insertion of two paragraphs omitted from page 568 of Chapter 32 "Hypnotism" in earlier editions.

Revised translation
A revised translation of Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson was published in 1992 by Arkana, an imprint of Viking Penguin. A number of Gurdjieff's follower objected. The revision was begun on the initiative of Jeanne de Salzmann. The translation team included members of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York, the Gurdjieff Society (London) and the Institut Gurdjieff (Paris), as well as Triangle Editions, the holder of the copyright to both texts. The latter edition was regarded by some of Gurdjieff's followers, outside of the membership of the International Gurdjieff Foundations, as "a major degeneration that showed disregard of Gurdjieff's work." The introduction to the revised edition states that the 1950 edition, overseen by Orage, who did not know Russian and was unable to read Gurdjieff's original text, produced, "in many passages an awkward result." The introduction states that before Gurdjieff's death in 1949, he entrusted the book and his other writings to Jeanne de Salzmann, his closest pupil, with instructions for future publication. De Salzmann had followed Gurdjieff for more than thirty years and played a central role in his decision in the 1940s to organize the practice of his teaching. As for the first edition, Gurdjieff had called the translation a "rough diamond," and had asked De Salzmann to revise it at a later time.

Opponents of this view, such as John Henderson, claim that Orage had worked closely with Gurdjieff to produce the original English translation.

They point out that the revision resulted in changes to nearly every paragraph, and included substantial changes to both content and presentation. Following are three short representative examples taken from a digital comparison between the 1950 and 1992 versions.

Ordinary text indicates passages that are present in both the original and revised versions. Struck out text indicates passages that were in the original but not in the revision. Underlined text indicates passages that are in the revision but not in the original. Page numbers refer to the 1999 reprint of the 1950 version.

Example changes
Page 242

"So, my boy, when, as "As I have already told you, those three-centered beings there among the second and third generation of the contemporaries of Saint Buddha in whose psyche, already my boy, from the time of the loss of Atlantis, that peculiarity had been fixed, the property called the 'organic-psychic 'psycho-organic need to wiseacre ,' began-unfortunately for ' had become fixed in the psyche of your favorites. (sentence continues in original version)

Page 240:

"Little by little they so completely changed these indications and counsels of His that if should their Saintly Author Himself should chance to appear reappear there and for some reason or other should wish to make Himself acquainted with learn about them, He would not be able never even to suspect that he himself had given these indications and counsels were made by Him Himself. counsels.

Page 750:

 * "The-line-of-the-flow-of-forces-constantly-deflecting-according-to-law-and-uniting-again-at-its-ends." (This version contains hyphenation between all the words.)

 * "The flow of forces follows a line that constantly deflects at specific intervals and unites again at its ends."

The intent of the book
Gurdjieff said that he had answered every question that could possibly arise in a person's mind and advised readers to read his work once, "for the welfare or the peace of the souls of one's parents", then "for the welfare of one's neighbor" and a third time "for oneself personally".

Although not indicated in the text, it appears that ever since it was written, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson was intended not to be intensely studied alone, but to have various pieces of understanding conveyed to the reader through oral tradition to enable a much greater degree of understanding as to what is being written about.

Main characters
Beelzebub relates his past experiences in a solar system called Ors (our solar system) where he had been banished for rebelling against His Endlessness. He spent his exile in observation of the solar system, and of Earth and humans in particular. He visited Earth six times and observed it from just after its creation until 1922. Because of his help in the eradication of animal sacrifice on Earth, Beelzebub was pardoned from his sentence.

Beelzebub tells the tales to his grandson Hassein while they are traveling together on the spaceship Karnak for his conference on another planet, shortly after his return from the exile. He took Hassein with him so he could use his free time during this journey for the purpose of giving a proper education to his grandson. Hassein listens to his grandfather's stories patiently, and with admiration. Ahoon is a devoted old servant of Beelzebub who accompanies him and Hassein throughout the space journey.

The name Beelzebub is a derogatory Hebrew renaming of the pre-Judaic Canaanite god Baal, meaning literally "Lord House-fly" (Baal-zevuv) (monotheistic Jewish reference to Baal was almost certainly pejorative, and grew to be used among other terms for Satan. The name later appears as the name of a demon or devil, often interchanged with Beelzebul), while the name Hassein has the same linguistic root with Husayn (حسین). Sigmund Freud theorized Judaism and Christianity as expressing a relationship between father (Judaism) and son (Christianity). In this light, Gurdjieff's choice of grandfather and grandson suggests a pre-Judaic and post-Christian relationship.

The spaceship Karnak derives its name from a famous temple in Egypt, located on the banks of the River Nile. When humans are liberated enough to ascend through the ancient knowledge, they could travel through the universe, hence the temple's name for the spaceship.

Other major characters

 * Mullah Nassr Eddin is an impartial teacher with a wise (or "wise") saying for every life situation.
 * Lentrohamsanin is a being who destroyed all of the traces of the holy labors and teachings of Ashiata Shiemash.
 * Gornahoor Harharkh is a scientist living on the planet Saturn who specializes in elucidating the particularities of Okidanokh, as well as being Beelzebub's "essence friend".
 * Archangel Looisos is the Arch-Chemist-Physician of the universe who invented the special organ Kundabuffer, which was implanted at the base of the human spine to prevent humans from perceiving reality. The original word Kundabuffer was corrupted into "Kundalini." Looisos approached Beelzebub to ask for a solution to the widespread practice of animal sacrifice on Earth, the quantity of which was endangering the formation of an atmosphere on the moon.
 * Belcultassi is the founder of the society called Akhaldan which was (and to date, is) unmatched in terms of knowledge on Earth.
 * King Konuzion invented "Hell" and "Paradise" as a means of making people stop chewing opium.
 * Choon-Kil-Tez and Choon-Tro-Pel are Chinese twin brothers who rediscovered the law of sevenfoldness, and invented an apparatus called the Alla-Attapan.
 * Hadji-Astvatz-Troov is a Bokharian Dervish familiar with the laws of vibrations and their effects.

Saintly cosmic individuals
Ashiata Shiemash, Saint Buddha, Saint Lama, Saint Jesus Christ, Saint Moses, Saint Mohammed, Saint Kirminasha, Saint Krishnatkharna

Minor characters and historical figures mentioned
Leonardo da Vinci, Pythagoras, Alexander of Macedonia, Menitkel (a "learned being" original to the work), Charles Darwin, Ignatius, Franz Mesmer, Dmitri Mendeleev, various angels, various Archangels

Neologoisms
In the text, Gurdjieff invented many words and terms, such as Triamazikamno – law of three, Heptaparaparshinokh – law of sevenfoldness, Solioonensius – certain cosmic law, and so on. Whether Gurdjieff invented these words, or applied certain concepts to them is unclear. Many of these words have roots in modern languages, while others have roots in ancient languages. Another possibility is noted in Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am', where Gurdjieff wrote that he accidentally learned of the word Solioonensius from a Dervish.

Gurdjieff applied these words to minor concepts, as well as some major ones. One of the major concepts is where Gurdjieff applies the word Hasnamuss to certain types of people. According to Beelzebub's Tales, Hasnamuss is a being who acquires "something" which creates certain harmful factors for himself, as well as for those around him. According to Gurdjieff this applies to "average people" as well as to those who are on "higher levels".

This "something" is formed in beings as a result of the following manifestations:

 * 1) Every kind of depravity, conscious as well as unconscious
 * 2) The feeling of self-satisfaction from leading others astray
 * 3) The irresistible inclination to destroy the existence of other breathing creatures
 * 4) The urge to become free from the necessity of actualizing the being-efforts demanded by nature
 * 5) The attempt by every kind to artificially conceal from others what in their opinion are one's physical defects
 * 6) The calm self-contentment in the use of what is not personally deserved
 * 7) The striving to be not what one is

Inpenetrability of the text
Gurdjieff went to great lengths to add layer upon layer of complexity to the, at times, dry, long-winded, or absurd text, As noted, he also added a number of long words and phrases which appear often throughout the text. The definition of those words are often given later on in the text, which functionally necessitates more than one reading of the text. He believed that knowledge which comes without any effort from the student is useless. He believed that true knowledge comes from personal experiences and individual confrontations actualized by one's own intentions.

The first chapter, entitled "The Arousing of Thought" (more of a preface or introduction) was edited or rewritten by Gurdjieff thirty times. Gurdjieff would expound one of the book's most controversial ideas in an early chapter entitled "The Arch-absurd: According to the assertion of Beelzebub, our Sun neither lights or heats".

One of Gurdjieff's chief criticisms of modern society, expressed quite clearly even to the casual reader in this particular volume, is the inexactitude of modern language.

The complexity and the length of this book has limited the readers to those with strong interest in Gurdjieff's ideas. This has significantly limited criticism and discussion of it.

title: Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson


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Black Dyke Band

Black Dyke Band, formerly John Foster & Son Black Dyke Mills Band, is one of the oldest and most well-known brass bands in the world. It originated as multiple community bands founded by John Foster at his family's textile mill in Queensbury, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, in the mid-19th century. The ensemble has become prominent in competitive band championships and through recordings for film and television.

The band is well-known for recording the soundtrack to the BBC gardening makeover series Ground Force in 1997, and appeared in the Christmas edition of Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies in 1999. In 1998, they played on the Academy Award-nominated song "That'll Do" from Babe: Pig in the City. They have featured on recordings and live appearances by acts including the Beatles, Paul McCartney and Tori Amos. In 2014, the band won the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain for a record 23rd time, and the British Open Championship for another record 30th time. They have also won the European Championships a record thirteen times, most recently in 2015.

History
The band was formerly the band of the Black Dyke Mills in Queensbury, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, a company owned by John Foster. Foster, a French horn player, joined with others in a small brass and reed band in Queensbury in 1816. This band faltered, and another band formed – called the Queenshead Band – which consisted of 18 musicians around 1843. This second band also faltered, but in 1855, Foster and other musicians established the new mill band, and outfitted it with uniforms made from the mill's own cloth. Most of the musicians in the band also worked at the mill, and a close bond was fostered with the local community. The band has remained active since that time, and still rehearses in its original rooms.

Black Dyke was the first band to achieve the "Grand Slam" in 1985 by winning the Yorkshire regional, European, British Open and National Championship contests. They were also voted BBC Band of the Year.

They appeared in an episode of Victoria Wood's dinnerladies sitcom in 1999.

Recordings
Black Dyke Band has made over 350 recordings, including one of the first brass band recordings in 1904 and classical music. It has recorded with classical bass trombonist Douglas Yeo, and pop acts Tori Amos, Peter Gabriel and The Beautiful South. The band also worked with Gabriel on the highly acclaimed Millennium Show, featured in the Millennium Dome, as well as recording the music for the BBC programme Ground Force.

In September 1968, the band released a single on The Beatles’ Apple Records label. The A-side was an instrumental composed by Lennon–McCartney called "Thingumybob" (the theme to a London Weekend Television sitcom of the same name starring Stanley Holloway). The flipside was a brass band instrumental version of another Lennon–McCartney song, "Yellow Submarine". The single was released under the name John Foster & Son Ltd Black Dyke Mills Band, produced by McCartney, and was one of the first four singles issued on the Apple label. In 1979, the Black Dyke Mills Band worked again with McCartney on a track for the Wings album Back to the Egg.

In August 2009, the band undertook a tour of Australia with multi-instrumentalist James Morrison which culminated in a concert at the Sydney Opera House.

Members
As of 2020, the principals of the band's line up included: The band's current principal conductor and director of music is the Welsh euphonium virtuoso Prof. Nicholas Childs. His predecessor was trumpet player James Watson.
 * Soprano cornet: Connor Lennon
 * Principal cornet: Richard Marshall
 * Flugelhorn: Zoe Hancock
 * Solo horn: Siobhan Bates
 * Solo baritone: Katrina Marzella
 * Solo trombone: Brett Baker
 * Bass trombone: Adam Reed
 * Solo euphonium: Daniel Thomas
 * Solo E♭ bass: Gavin Saynor
 * Solo B♭ bass: Matthew Routley
 * Drums and Percussion: Logan Thompson

Paul Lovatt-Cooper was the band's 'composer in association' and former principal percussionist. He retired from playing in early 2011 in order to concentrate on his teaching, conducting and composition.

Black Dyke Band is the brass band in residence at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and Childs also conducts the RNCM Brass Band.

Former members

 * John Maines, principal trombone
 * Maurice Murphy, principal cornet
 * James Shepherd, principal cornet

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Black Dyke Band


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European School, Culham

The European School, Culham (ESC) was one of the fourteen European Schools and the only one in the United Kingdom. Located in Culham near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. It was founded in 1978 for the purpose of providing an education to the children of staff working for the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).

History
The European School, Culham was founded in 1978 for the purpose of providing an education to the children of staff working for the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) on the Joint European Torus (JET) fusion energy research programme based nearby, and later, additionally, children of staff seconded as part of the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA).

With the relocation of European Union-seconded researchers and their families following the formation of JET's successor in France, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and the formation of EFDA's successor, EUROfusion, to support ITER's development, it was announced that the school would close on 31 August 2017. The school confirmed that this was a move unrelated to Brexit. The final two employees, the bursar and accountant, continued to work until 31 May 2018.

The former ESC campus was subsumed by the Europa School UK on 1 September 2017. ESUK is a 'free school' and an Accredited European School with all students following a learning programme leading to the European Baccalaureate qualification. Accredited European Schools are schools under national jurisdiction within European Union (EU) member states which, without forming part of the intergovernmental network of European Schools, offer its multilingual curriculum and the European Baccalaureate.

Notable alumni

 * Henry Brett, England polo player
 * Tommaso Allan, Italian rugby union player
 * Pablo Martinez (Welsh footballer), professional football player

Notable former staff

 * Tom Høyem, school Director (1987-1994)
 * Marcus Stock, former teacher of Religious Education.
 * Colin Hannaford, former mathematics teacher.

title: European School, Culham


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User:Poetscientistdrinker

Just a quick thing to say who I am and what I'm about: I'm an absurdly young (well, it feels it) PhD student from Evesham in Worcestershire, although I study both in Aberdeen and Reading. I'm basically working in landscape ecology, which is the synthesis between geography and ecology, and is heavly reliant upon computing power. Basically it's a case of what lives where.

I let my sense of humour get the better of me sometimes, so if you don't like an edit or entry then let me know so I'm not repeating mistakes.

title: User:Poetscientistdrinker


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Culdees

The Culdees (Céilí Dé; ) were members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in the Middle Ages. Appearing first in Ireland and then in Scotland, subsequently attached to cathedral or collegiate churches; they lived in monastic fashion though not taking monastic vows.

Etymology
According to the Swiss theologian Philip Schaff, the term Culdee or Ceile De, or Kaledei, first appeared in the 8th century. While "giving rise to much controversy and untenable theories", it probably means servants or worshippers of God. The term was applied to anchorites, who, in entire seclusion from society, sought the perfection of sanctity. They afterward associated themselves into communities of hermits and were finally brought under canonical rule along with the secular clergy. It was at the time the name Culdee became almost synonymous with secular canon.

According to François Bonifas, however, the Culdean Church was founded in the 2nd century and restored by Saint Patrick in Ireland in the 5th century.

Ireland
In the course of the 9th century, nine places in Ireland are mentioned (including Armagh, Clonmacnoise, Clones, Devenish and Sligo) where communities of Culdees were established.

Óengus the Culdee lived in the last quarter of the 8th century and is best known as the author of the Félire Óengusso, "the Martyrology of Óengus". He founded Dísert Óengusa near Croom in AD 780. Maelruan, under whom Oengus lived, drew up a rule for the Culdees of Tallaght that prescribed their prayers, fasts, devotions, confession, and penances, but there is no evidence that this rule was widely accepted even in the other Culdean establishments. Fedelmid mac Crimthainn king of Munster (820–846) was said to have been a prominent Culdee.

According to William Reeves, they were analogous to secular canons and held an intermediate position between the monastic and parochial clergy. In Armagh, they were presided over by a Prior and numbered about twelve. They were the officiating clergy of the churches and became the standing ministers of the cathedral. The maintenance of divine service, and in particular, the practice of choral worship, seems to have been their special function and made them an important element of the cathedral economy.

However, after the death of Maelruan in 792, Tallaght is forgotten, and the name Ceile-De disappears from the Irish annals until 919, when the Four Masters record that Armagh was plundered by the Danes but that the houses of prayer, "with the people of God, that is Ceile-De", were spared. Subsequent entries in the annals show that there were Culdees at Clondalkin, at Monahincha in Tipperary, and at Scattery Island.

The Danish wars affected the Culdee houses. Clondalkin and Clones disappeared altogether. At Clonmacnoise, as early as the eleventh century, the Culdees were laymen and married, while those at Monahincha and Scattery Island, being utterly corrupt and unable, or unwilling, to reform, gave way to the regular canons. At Armagh, regular canons were introduced into the cathedral church in the twelfth century and took precedence over the Culdees, six in number, a prior and five vicars. These still continued a corporate existence, charged with the celebration of the Divine offices and the care of the church building: they had separate lands and sometimes charge of parishes. When a chapter was formed, about 1160, the prior usually filled the office of precentor, his brethren being vicars choral, and himself ranking in the chapter next to the chancellor. He was elected by his brother Culdees and confirmed by the primate, and had a voice in the election of the archbishop by virtue of his position in the chapter.

As Ulster was the last of the Irish provinces to be brought effectually under English rule the Armagh Culdees long outlived their brethren throughout Ireland. The Culdees of Armagh endured until the dissolution in 1541 and enjoyed a fleeting resurrection in 1627, soon after which their ancient property passed to the vicars choral of the cathedral.

Scotland
In Scotland, Culdees were more numerous than in Ireland: thirteen monastic establishments were peopled by them, eight in connection with cathedrals. The Ionan monks had been expelled by the Pictish king Nechtan son of Derile in 717. There is no mention of any Culdees at any Columban monastery, either in Ireland or in Scotland, until long after Columba's time: in 1164 that Culdees are mentioned as being in Iona but in a subordinate position. The Culdee of Loch Leven lived on St Serf's Inch, which had been given them by a Pictish prince, Brude, about 700. In 1093, they surrendered their island to the bishop of St Andrews in return for perpetual food and clothing but Robert, the bishop in 1144, handed over all their vestments, books, and other property, with the island, to the newly founded Canons Regular, in which the Culdees were likely incorporated.

The Culdee chapel in St Andrews in Fife can be seen to the north-east of its ruined cathedral and city wall. It is dedicated to "St Mary on the Rock" and is cruciform. It is used by the local St Andrews churches for their Easter morning service. In the early days there were several Culdee establishments in Fife, probably small rude structures accommodating 30 or 40 worshippers, and possibly such a structure stood at or near the present church. In 1075 AD, the foundation charter of Dunfermline Church was granted by King Malcolm III, and amongst the possessions, he bestowed on the church was the Shire of Kirkcaladinit, as Kirkcaldy was then known. Crínán of Dunkeld, the grandfather of Máel Coluim III, was a lay abbot, and tradition says that even the clerical members were married, though unlike the priests of the Eastern Orthodox Church, they lived apart from their wives during their term of sacerdotal service.

The pictures that we have of Culdee life in the 12th century vary considerably. The chief houses in Scotland were at St Andrews, Scone, Dunkeld, Lochleven, Monymusk in Aberdeenshire, Abernethy and Brechin. Each was an independent establishment controlled entirely by its own abbot and apparently divided into two sections, one priestly and the other lay. Culdee priests were allowed to marry. At St Andrews about the year 1100, there were thirteen Culdees holding office by hereditary tenure, some apparently paying more regard to their own prosperity than to the services of the church or the needs of the populace. At Loch Leven, there is no trace of such partial independence.

Nineteenth Century Scottish historian of religion and Presbyterian minister James Aitken Wylie asserted in his History of the Scottish Nation, Vol. III., "The 12th century, particularly in Scotland and Brittany, was a time when two Christian faiths of different origins were contending for possession of the land, the Roman Church and the old Celtic Rite. The age was a sort of borderland between Culdeeism and Romanism. The two met and mingled often in the same monastery, and the religious belief of the nation was a mumble of superstitious doctrines and a few scriptural truths".

A controversial movement to put Scotland's church under the authority of Rome was inaugurated by Malcolm III's wife, Queen Margaret and carried through by her sons Alexander I and David I. Gradually the whole position passed into the hands of Thurgot and his successors in the bishopric. Canons Regular were instituted and some of the Culdees joined the Roman Catholic church. Those who declined were allowed a life-rent of their revenues and lingered on as a separate but ever-dwindling body till the beginning of the 14th century when excluded from voting at the election of the bishop, they disappear from history. In the same fashion the Culdee of Monymusk, originally perhaps a colony from St Andrews, became Canons Regular of the Augustinian order early in the 13th century, and those of Abernethy in 1273. At Brechin, famous like Abernethy for its round tower, the Culdee prior and his monks helped to form the chapter of the diocese founded by David I in 1145, though the name persisted for a generation or two.

By the end of the thirteenth century, most Scots Culdee houses had disappeared. Some, like Dunkeld and Abernethy, were superseded by regular canons: others, like Brechin and Dunblane, were extinguished with the introduction of cathedral chapters. One at least, Monifieth, passed into the hands of laymen. At St Andrews, they lived on side by side with the regular canons and still clung to their ancient privilege of electing the archbishop. But their claim was disallowed at Rome, and in 1273 they were debarred even from voting. They continued to be mentioned up until 1332 in the records of St Andrews, where they "formed a small college of highly-placed secular clerks closely connected with the bishop and the king".

England
Similar absorptions no doubt account for the disappearance of the Culdees of York, the only English establishment that uses the name, borne by the canons of St Peter's about 925 where they performed in the tenth century the double duty of officiating in the cathedral church and of relieving the sick and poor. When a new cathedral arose under a Norman archbishop, they ceased their connection with the cathedral, but, helped by donations, continued to relieve the destitute. The date at which they finally disappeared is unknown. These seem to be the only cases where the term "Culdee" is found in England.

Wales
The term "Culdee" is rarely found in Wales. We do not know the fate of the Culdean house that existed at Snowdon and Bardsey Island in north Wales in the days of Giraldus Cambrensis, mentioned (c. 1190) in Speculum Ecclesiae and Itinerarium respectively. The former community was, he says, sorely oppressed by the covetous Cistercians.

Origin
Hector Boece in his Latin history of Scotland (1516), makes the Culdees of the 9th to the 12th century the direct successors of the Irish and Ionan monasticism of the 6th to the 8th century. Some have suggested that these views were disproved by William Reeves (1815–1892), bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore. James A. Wylie (1808–1890) makes a strong case that the Culdees (Keledei) of Scotland are related to the Celtic Christian Pelagian spirituality of the monks of Iona.

Reeves suggests that Maelruan may have been aware of the establishment of canons in Metz by Archbishop Chrodegang, (died 766), as an intermediate class between monks and secular priests, adopting the discipline of the monastic system, without the vows, and discharging the offices of ministers in various churches.

Tallaght Abbey (Mainistir Tamhlacht)
Tallaght Abbey became the mother house of the Culdee (Céile Dé) movement. Tallaght or Tamlacht in Irish means 'burial ground', it was a pagan plague-burial ground that was connected with the people of Parthalón. It was such an important institution that it and the monastery at Finglas were known as the "two eyes of Ireland". Saint Máel Ruain was founder and abbot-bishop of the monastery of Tallaght (Co. Dublin, Ireland). He had been a disciple of Óengus the Culdee, a son of a Óengobann, a king of Dál nAraidi. The monastery produced a comprehensive martyrology of Irish Culdee Saints and some non-Irish Saints ina manuscript known as the Félire Óengusso Céli Dé in Tallaght Monastery. Today St. Maelruain's stands on the grounds the original monastery once stood. Máel Ruain and Óengus were said to have been the authors of a text, which sets out the rule of the Céilí Dé monks. One of the earliest Celtic Rite books, the Stowe Missal was completed in Tallaght Monastery, not long after the death of Saint Máel Ruain and then carried by an anchorite called Máel Dithruib to the monasteries at Terryglass and Lorrha. Saint Máel Ruain was known to be a Anam Cara to this same abbot, Máel Dithruib of Terryglass. The abecedarian hymn of Archangelum mirum magnum is attributed to Mael Ruain. The Hiberno-Latin hymn is in praise of St. Michael, whose name is associated with the founding of the Tallaght Monastery, a copy of the song is found in Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek.

Armagh (Ard Mhacha)
Some of the locations of the earliest Culdee churches were sited near or on top of what used to be important Pre-Christian sites. In Ireland, a notable example is when Saint Patrick choose to build his first stone church in Ireland, he decided to build it as close as possible to the Ancient Druidic site of Emain Macha. The oldest of the two Cathedrals in Armagh is located on a steep sided hill which Queen Macha allegedly had chosen as a defence of the ancient Fortress at Emain Macha in Pre-Christian times.

Blathmac
The find in 1953 of the old Irish poems of Blathmac, constituted the largest ever addition of text to the corpus of Early Irish, some parts of it also still remain untranslated and unpublished due to its poor condition. They were discovered among a collection of ancient seventeenth century manuscripts, which had once belonged to the Brehon and scribe Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, it was found by a twentieth century Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies scholar, Nessa Ní Shéaghdha. The poems were edited and published eleven years later by James Carney in Vol. 47 of the Irish Texts Society monographs. They date back to the 8th century, possibly earlier and consisted of detailed references to the importance Christ and to the Virgin Mary. Carney had suggested that Blathmac may have originally come from filí and druidic background but later been a convert to become part of the Culdee Reform movement through a detailed study of the structure of his poetry, which resembled in style to the Félire Óengusso.

Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nóis)
An important Culdee monastery was Clonmacnoise: the Annals of the Four Masters mention Conn na mbocht (Conn of the Paupers), who was head of the Culdees and Bishop of Clonmacnoise. Much of the information of Pagan or Pre-Christian Ireland was transferred into text by monks and scholars for the first time at Clonmacnoise from what had previously been Orally passed down generations. With the arrival of the Christian age, the Martyrology of Oengus highlighted the growing emergence of the religious power of Clonmacnoise in contrast at that time to the diminishing importance of the Pre-Christian site of the Cruachan. The Rathcroghan Pagan tale of the Táin Bó Cúailnge was first written down by Celtic Monks at Clonmacnoise, Lebor na hUidre also has references to the Pre-Christian site of Cruachan, one of the key scribes was Máel Muire mac Céilechair. Other manuscripts originating or connected with Clonmacnoise include, Chronicon Scotorum, Book of Lecan and Annals of Tigernach.

In the Book of Lecan it describes a particular story of the last Pagan King in Ireland Diarmait mac Cerbaill and details about his subsequent death. There was a prophecy by the Kings druid Bec mac Dé, who told of a threefold death he uttered on the day of his death, when he meet Colum Cille. Diarmait mac Cerbaill was murdered by the then king of Cruthin, Áed Dub mac Suibni. According to some early texts Irish kings Diarmait mac Cerbaill and Muirchertach mac Ercae may have both died a threefold death on Samhain, which may be linked to human sacrifice, similar to the dead victims discovered in Irish bogs, it was a ritual in ancient Ireland to sacrifice a king or someone of high status around the time of Samhain, which according to Annals of the Four Masters it is an ancient tradition that goes back to the worship of Crom Cruach, a Celtic god associated with the harvest, Samhain and he is also associated to the headless horse man or Dullahan, as part of the Sídhe in Irish Mythology.

Soon after Diarmait's death Áed fled to the island of Tiree, where it was said he trained to be a Culdee priest, much to the disgust of both Columba and Adomnán. Columba himself on hearing the news had prophesied by means of a curse that a threefold death would happen to the bloody murderer Áed Dub mac Suibni.

Devenish Island (Damh Inis)
A Culdee (Céilí Dé) community on Devenish Island, Lough Erne in Fermanagh was founded by Saint Molaise, it consisted of an oratory and Round tower. The Devenish Island carried on the Pre-Christian tradition of Stone Carved heads structures that existed on the Pagan Boa Island also on Lough Erne, the lake itself bursts with legend, with its own banshee and ghosts. According to much older pre-Christian folklore the first ever settlement on the Island was said to have been established by Ollamh Fodhla.

St. Seachnall's Church, Dunshaughlin (Cill Sechnaill, Dún Seachlainn)
Sechnall (Secundinus) was the founder and patron saint of Domhnach Sechnaill, Co. Meath, who went down in medieval tradition as a disciple of St Patrick and one of the first bishops of Armagh. Although modern historians have disputed his connection with St Patrick and suggested this was later tradition in fact invented by Armagh historians in favour of their patron saint and that Secundinus is more likely to have been a separate missionary, possibly a companion of Palladius.

Secundinus was the author of an early Latin hymn in praise of St Patrick, known as Audite Omnes Amantes ("Hear ye, All lovers") or the Hymn of Secundinus written in trochaic septenarius, the earliest copy of which is found in the late 7th-century Antiphonary of Bangor.

Fore Abbey (Mainistir Fhobhair)
The Christian monastery at Fore was founded by St Feichin, it was estimated that there were as many as 300 monks and 2000 students in residence. Today, all that remains is the pre-Norman building of St Feichin's Church, which was built in the 12th century, on top of the original monastery, the ruins are located near the passage tomb and megalithic at Loughcrew Cairns. It was claimed that St Feichin once acted as a mediator between the Muimne, Luigne and Laigne of Connacht and Meath. The saint's name may derive from the old Irish word for fiach, which means raven. The name is explained in this manner in a note added to the Félire Óengusso, which says that he received this name when his mother saw him gnawing on a bone and exclaimed "my little raven!" The place name of "Fore" is the anglicised version of the Irish "Fobhar", meaning "water-springs". There are two wells associated with St Feichin: one was called Doaghfeighin well and the other Tobernacogany from the Irish meaning "Well of the Kitchen".

Scattery Island (Inis Cathaigh)
A Céile Dé Monastery existed on Scattery Island or Inis Cathaigh which consisted of a monastery and Round Tower. The island was once the hermitage of Senán mac Geircinn, a 6th-century saint. The saint's name of Senan is said to have derived from the Christianised and masculinised version of Sionann (pronounced Shannon), a pagan River Goddess associated with the source of the River Shannon. The Old Irish word associated with the name of the island is cathach, also called a Phéist. The word cathach translates as "sea serpent", which formed part of the Aos sí in Irish folklore; it was a legendary sea monster going back to Pre-Christian times that once inhabited the island and terrorised the people on the island. Cathach is also associated with the word "battle" which Saint Senan fought and won against the giant serpent. According to legend the cathach advanced "its eyes flashing flame, with fiery breath, spitting venom and opening its horrible jaws", but Senan made the sign of the cross, and the beast collapsed and was chained and thrown into the dark waters of Doolough Lake.

A hagiography of Saint Senan and Amra Senáin ("The Eulogy of Senán") is contained within the Lebar Brec manuscript and also it contains explicit information such as the sex of the cathach that had lived on the island. The poetic eulogy was written by a friend of St Senan called Dallán Forgaill, who was a Chief Ollam of Ireland. Once Senan had expelled the Cathach, he drove him from Scattery into the dark waters of Doolough Lake. A local chieftain called Mac Tail, hired a druid to put a spell on the saint. However, as the druid landed on a nearby island, a tidal wave enveloped him and swept him to his death. The island is still pointed out as Carraig a Draoi or The Druid's Rock. It lies between Hog Island and Scattery, and can be seen at low tide.

In the Psalter Cathach of St. Columba, the opening paragraph letter of Q (Qui Habitat) is decoratively depicted a serpent like head of a fishy beast with its mouth open and wearing a collared cross, the large letter looks like a lower case "g" but is in fact a "q" for "Qui habitat", the opening words of Psalm 91 which translate as "He who dwells". The psaltar was the central reason for what was known as the Battle of the Book near Benbulbin. Like Saint Senan, in Scottish folklore Saint Columba had a very similar encounter with a watery beast in the form of the Loch Ness monster in AD 565. Another important monk who also trained and later served as bishop of Inis Cathaigh after the passing of Saint Senan was Saint Áedán who had been a disciple of Saint Senan on the island. In the Félire Óengusso, Saint Aidan is described as Aedán in grían geldae, Inse Medcoit which translates as "Áedán the brilliant sun of Inis Medcoit", Inis Medcoit being the old Irish for Lindisfarne, an Old Irish form of the Cumbric spelling of Ynys Medcant, which was the language of the Hen Ogledd.

Culdees in Scotland
In Scotland a sacred pagan site had existed on the Island of Iona also known as Innis na Druineach (Isle of the Druids) before Saint Columba settled on the island and established a small Culdee hermitage. Later a significant figure in the 9th century Culdee movement in Scotland was Diarmait of Iona. Diarmait took over the abbacy of Iona at time when it was plunged into the depths of turmoil and facing uncertain future during early 9th century with the abbey being continuously attacked and pillaged by Viking Raids, many of the relics of Columba were transferred to Abbey of Kells, an abbacy that was refounded by Diarmait of Iona's predecessor Cellach Cellach mac Congaile. Although Kells Abbey had actually already been founded centuries before by Columba around 550 AD on the permission of the High King Diarmait mac Cerbaill, in the space of only a decade of the abbey's initial establishment, the same High king on the advice of his Brehon, passed a damning judgement against Columba over the copying of a Saint Finnian's book, which sparked the beginning of a period of huge upheaval for the monk, he instigated a bloody rebellion against the king which resulted in many deaths. After a period of deep reflection, Columba travelled to Inishmurray and confessed his guilt to an aged hermit and his Anam Cara called St Molaise, who told him in order to seek penance, he advised the monk to permanently leave his homeland and attempt to convert as many pagan people to the Christian faith as the 300 lives he lost as result of the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne in 561. Not long after, Columba set sail to Dál Riata or Western Scotland and founded Iona Abbey in 563.

In the late 9th century many of the Columban relics of Iona during the Viking raids went to Dunkeld, possibly firstly via Kells. The Lia Fáil, once used by Columba to inaugurate Áedán mac Gabráin, the King of Dál Riata, he performed what was said to be the first ever Christian anointment of an Irish or British king. Áedán mac Gabráin was the first of a line of Scottish kings mentioned in The Prophecy of Berchán written by St Mobhi of Glasnevin. The stone of Destiny was later transferred in the 9th century due to the heavy Viking raids, from Iona to Dunkeld. The abbacy of Dunkeld had become for a short period the main seat of Power and Religion in Alba, the stone was later moved onto Atholl and finally to Scone Abbey. Scholars such as Thomas Owen Clancy credited Abbot Diarmait of Iona as being an instrumental figure in the spread of the Céli Dé church beyond Iona into the land of the Picts and Alba, the Céli Dé movement was seen as a reformed Post-Columban form of the Celtic Christian church. Diarmait of Iona had strong associations with the monastery of Tallaght, he is sometimes confused with a contemporary, disciple of Mael Ruain, a Culdee abbot called Diarmait mac Aeda Róin, of Castledermot, son of Áed Róin and a descendant of the Dál Fiatach mentioned in Unity of Mael Ruain.

Diarmait of Iona would have had the Old Gaelic title of Comarbae which was a special hereditary status initially applied to the Abbot of Iona in medieval Scotland. Generally an abbot considered to be a Comarba was regarded as Chief Bishop of the Kingdom and claimed certain rights and exemptions for themselves. The Abbots were in fact landowners and owned extensive lands known as Termonn, their tenants were afforded certain privileges based on the fact that the seating Abbot was of the same blood, a successor of the founding saint and a keeper of the relics of the founding Saint. The last Abbots of Iona to hold the title of Coarb was mostly likely Diarmait of Iona and his successor Indrechtach. The final Monks and the Columban Relics of Iona escaped to newly founded monasteries, the title of Coarb followed them onto these new monasteries such as Dunkeld. The position of Coarb was not necessary just confined to the abbots of Columba at Iona. It was applied to the Celtic Christian abbots related the principal saint in general, for example the Clan MacLea were the "Coarb of Saint Moluag" of Argyll. The Book of Armagh described St Patrick's, Comarba as being Torbach mac Gormáin. An Old Irish law tract exists on the relationship of the Celtic Christian church and early society called Córus Bésgnai which forms part of the Senchas Már.

The religious historian and antiquarian, Godfrey Higgins believed the Culdees were the last remains of the druids and that of the hereditary Abbot of Iona position of Coarb was related to the Phoenician tradition of the Corybantes, ancient people of the Cronus, like the priests of the Galli they worshipped Cybele, a goddess similar in many respects to Brigid, both representative of a Pagan Earth, Fetility and Mother Goddess. Corybantes were also associated with the Curetes or Kuretes, gods of the wild mountainside, inventors of the rustic arts of metalworking, shepherding, hunting and beekeeping. Many of the key abbeys and Priories in Scotland were founded and built on top of sites that were already Celtic Christian Culdee places of worship. A notable example is Culross Abbey, built on top of an ancient church already established by the Culdee of Saint Serf of St Serf's Inch. The name of Culross, comes from the Scottish Gaelic of ‘Cuileann Ros’ which relates to the Holly Tree, in plain English it translates as ‘Holly point. Many of the Culdee sites in both Ireland and Scotland may have been key Druidic places of worship in Pre Christian times, as indicated by the distinctive features or characteristics related the natural surrounding landscape in the Gaelic place names.

Iona Abbey
The founder of the Iona Abbey, Saint Columba, before traveling to Scotland, was under the care of Cruithnechán and he developed a deeply religious feeling which was to lead to such great results, and he received the name in Old Irish of Coluim-Cille meaning "Dove of the Cell", the word Cille meant an anchorite's cell, it only became associated with the broader meaning of "church" in a later form of Irish. According to the ancient Irish records in the Leabhar Breac, it was because he so often, he came from the cell in which he read his psalms to meet the children of the neighbourhood and the children would say: "Has our little Colum come today from the cell in Tir-Lughdech in Cinell Conaill?". While living at Iona, he also had his own wooden hermits cell located on the 'Tòrr an Aba' which translates to "the mound of the abbot". Coluim-Cille was later Latinised to Columba, the name is associated with broad categories of doves and pigeons, coincidently also in Hebrew the translation for dove is Iona which derives from the biblical god Yonah.

Dunkeld
Saint Columba was a descendant of the royal dynasty Cenél Conaill similarly to the Culdee abbot of Dunkeld. The builder of Dunkeld Cathedral itself was Constantín mac Fergusa, it replaced the much earlier church built by Columba. The cathedral is commemorated by the Martyrology of Tallaght, which stated it as one of the principal Céli Dé monasteries of the day. As a patron of the Céli Dé, he was a key reformer for the movement in Dunkeld perhaps a collaborator of Abbot Diarmait of Iona, in the Martyrology it describes him as Constantin Brito no mac Fergusa do Cruithnechaib, i.e., a Briton, son of Fergus, of the Picts. When the kings of Dalriada were absorbed into the new unified Kingdom of Alba, the Tanist Stone was for a short period moved to Dunkeld and then later onto Scone Abbey.

Moot Hill
The druidic mound of Moot Hill, was the location for the Scottish Culdee's to build Scone Abbey(later owned by the Augustinian canons), today the Scone Palace is built on the land were the monastery once stood. Moot hill was similar to the Hill of Tara in its prehistory importance, Moot hill or Statute hill was known as a Brehon hill, a judicial place of assembly in pre-Christian times, its name has also been connected to the historical village of Muthill, an important Culdee centre. The name Muthill translated in Scottish gaelic to Maothail which means soft ground, possibly related to the Maigh Rein. The Maigh Rein consisted of a race of ancient people called the Conmhaícne who were heavily associated with Sliabh an Iarainn. In Celtic mythology, It was said the Tuatha de Danann, first arrived in Ireland on 1 May (Bealtaine) through a Féth fíada or "in dark clouds" over the mountain of Sliabh an Iarainn.

Monymusk Priory
The earliest Christian missionaries to arrive in Monymusk in Aberdeenshire were the Culdees or 'Servants of God’, predating the Augustinians arrival and the building of Monymusk Priory. They were likely to be the followers of St. Ninian and his missionaries from Whithorn and into the land of the Picts. The name Monymusk derives from the Old Gaelic words "Muni or Muine muisc" which translates "noxious thicket or bush".The Culdee monks seem to have been an eremitical society of missionaries whose presence was felt in various parts of Europe and who objected to any form of conformity to a central ecclesiastical organisation. The Monymusk Reliquary is the most priceless surviving relic of the Celtic Church in Scotland. Originally it contained a bone of St. Columba, was venerated as a sacred relic and carried before the Scots army at Bannockburn. The earliest Culdee Prior of Monymusk, had the ancient Gaelic title of Máel Brigte or in the later Latinised translation of Bricius meaning "devotee of St. Brigit".

Fortingall
The village of Fortingall or in Gaelic Fartairchill, means "Escarpment Church", i.e., "church at the foot of an escarpment or steep slope". A Christian church was first founded in the village by Coeddi, bishop of Iona. In the grounds of the old church, there is what is estimated by some to be up to a 5000 years old yew tree, believed to be the oldest living tree in all of the British isles. Both the Gaelic pagan fire festivals of Samhain and Beltaine were celebrated at the nearby sacred mound of Càrn na Marbh, going back well before even the earliest Christian presence was established in the area.

Kingdom of the Rhinns
The Martyrology of Óengus gives details about the ancient Norse-Gael, Kingdom of the Rhinns also referred to as Na Renna or Kingdom of the isles, that once existed in the Western isles of Scotland and included other key locations along the Irish Sea. This kingdom includes the region of Galloway, a name that derives from the old Irish of ‘Gallgaidhel’, which means ‘foreigner (gall) living among the gaels (gaidhel)’, it referred to the population mix of Scandinavian and Gaelic ethnicity that inhabited Galloway in the Middle Ages. The Galloway area included a hammer-shaped peninsula in the extreme southwest of Wigtownshire in Scotland. The founding ruling dynasty of this Norse-Gael Kingdom was the powerful Uí Ímair or Dynasty of Ivar, founded by Ímar.

The 9th-century Félire Óengusso commoration of Saint Blane on the Isle of Bute, in which it described him as 'Blááni epscopi Cinn Garad i nGallgaedelaib', which translates as ‘Feast of Bláán, bishop of Kingarth in Gall-Ghàidheil', it seemed to suggest that at the time of Saint Blane in Kingarth and the Isle of Bute, the region was part of Na Renna and the Diocese of the Isles. The Norse-Gael, Kingdom of the Rhinns finally fell when the last king Magnus VI surrendered and conceded the Western Isles to the Kingdom of Scotland at the Treaty of Perth in 1266. Many of the kings of the Kingdom of the Isles are recorded in the Irish annals such as Annals of the Four Masters, Annals of Tigernach, Annals of Inisfallen and Senchus fer n-Alban.

Some of the first Norse settlers on Orkney, Faroe's and Iceland were said to be Norse–Gaels, referred to as Vestmenn. When Scandinavians first set foot on these islands they found a community of Culdee monks, referred to as papar. Numerous place names in Orkney are named of these same eremitic Gaelic monks such as Pabbay,"Island of the papar (Culdee)" or Pabay.

Culdees in Wales and Cornwall
Although the name ‘Culdee’ is rarely used to refer to the Celtic Saints in Wales and Cornwall, many of them began as hermits, passed on pre-Christian druidic beliefs and traditions into the new Christian age. They originally lived as anchorites and anchoresses, established isolated retreats in the wilderness such as bogs, forests, and small offshore isles, generally in locations and places that held a significance going back to Druidic times, later these sites became major Celtic Christian monasteries. The most famous of the “insular” hubs of monastic life were on Anglesey and Bardsey. The Celtic Christian Church in Wales remained independent of the Holy See up to the late Middle Ages, it resisted any Gregorian reforms that Canterbury and Saint Augustine tried in impose on the early Welsh Church.

Saint David
Before the writings of St David's cult by chronicler Rhygyfarch in the 11th century, St David already had a significant reputation not only in Wales, but across the Irish Sea. The earliest known reference to the Saint David was to be found in the Catalogue of Irish Saints(AD730) as one of three Welsh saints along with Saint Cadog and Saint Gildas described as the ‘holy men of Britain’. The earliest recording of his feast day of the 1st Marsh was written in both the Latin Martyrology of Tallaght and the Old Irish Martyrology of the Félire Óengusso, both most likely the work of the same author, and certainly of the community of the Céli Dé of Tallaght around 800 AD. As early as the 9th century, the Celtic Culdee monks at Tallaght monastery referred to Saint David's old hermitage as ‘Dauid Cille Muni’ meaning David's cell of the thicket, in old Irish ‘Muni’ or ‘Muine’ (modern Irish) which translates to thicket or bush grove, from which came the cognate and old Welsh translation of ‘Mynyw’ and the Latin of ‘Menevia’. The title of ‘Mynyw’ was as much attributed to the actual Saint as to the place, it moved with him through his life from his earliest hermitage. It has been suggested he spent his infancy, was educated and established his earliest ascetic community at a place called Henfynyw, which in a mutated form means the Old (Hen) bush (Mynyw). The bishop of Mynyw can be traced right back to the Pre-Roman times and the ancient Celtic people of the Demetae also known as the Déisi, a race that once populated much of the Kingdom of Dyfed. In the Welsh triads, it mentions Mynyw as being one of the locations of the three courts of King Arthur, the other two being Celliwig and Pen Rhionydd.

Officially the feast day of Saint David was first established around 10th century initially in the early writings of the Annales Cambriae and then formerly celebrated from the 12th century, when he was canonised by Pope Callixtus II in 1120. David was officially recognised at the Holy See by Pope Callixtus II in 1120, thanks to the work of Bernard (bishop of Menevia). The Cathedral of St Davids or Menevia, was Britain's smallest city and began life as a humble tiny hermit's cell situated beside the river Alun. The River Alun flows southwestwards to St Brides Bay, the bay's derives its name from the Welsh version of the name Saint Brigid called Sant Ffraid. Scholars such as Sabine Baring-Gould, had suggested contrary to the popular belief that the Welsh Brigid(Sant Ffraid) was distinct and not likely to be Brigit of Kildare. She was an Irish nun in legend that first landed from the sea on a floating piece turf at Glan Conwy, in North Wales. The Martyrology of Donegal described her as ‘Brigid of Cille Muine’, where she had her Monastic Cell, with a feast day of 12 November. To the North of the bay is St David's Head, which according to the Culhwch and Olwen, was the location where the mythical Wild boar of the Twrch Trwyth first landed after crossing the Irish sea from Ireland before setting out its eventful journey through south wales and on to Cornwall.

The Welsh Celtic Scholar John Rhys had discussed a region just in the vicinity of St Davids or Mynyw, referred to in the Welsh Chronicle and the Synod of Chester as ‘Moni Iudeorum’. Rhys says that some scholars suggest this word, Iudeorum or Judeorum, may relate to the "Jutes," a Germanic tribe in Northern Europe, but that he believes such a view incorrect. Instead, Rhys put forward the view that they were of Canaanite Phoenicians origins, distantly related to ancient people of Munster and the Milesians race who had invaded Ireland and brought with them the Ogham Alphabet. The Demetae similar to other Celtic Briton tribes such as the Dumnonia were possibly descendants to the Phoenicians and have a lineage traced back to Hispania. The lands of Dumnonia were sometimes associated with the mythical islands of the Cassiterides such as the island of Ictis.

Caldey Island
Caldey Island history stretches back to over 1500 years to when the first Celtic monastery was built there in the 5th century. The island was named Ynys Bŷr after Saint Pyr, the sixth century, Pyr is named as abbot of the monastery around the year 500 in the Life of St Samson, he replaced Samson of Dol, the son of Amon of Demetae and Anna of Gwent. Since the early 20th century it has been home to a group of Cistercian monks, who carried on the Celtic traditions that had existed. There is a Caldey Ogham Stone in St Illtyd's Church, part of the Old Priory on Caldey Island. The stone dates to 5th or 6th Century, and it contains inscriptions both in Latin and in the ancient Ogham script which originated in Ireland, has inscribed on it 'Magl Dubr' meaning ‘the tonsured servant of Dubricius’ made by St Samson Abbot of Caldey Island. The ogham stone would have belonged to the old Celtic Christian church that existed before the present chapel, it was dug up in the priory grounds in the 19th century.

Sant Ffraid (Saint Brigid) and the Celtic Saints of North Wales
Sant Ffraid (Brigit) of North Wales was believed to be an Irish nun in legend that first landed from the sea on a floating piece turf at Glan Conwy. She also has strong connections with the island Anglesey. She is the patroness saint of Trearddur bay which had a similar myth to Glan Conwy, that she was said to have arrived from Ireland on a floating piece of turf. The River Braint on the Menai Straits in Anglesey shares its name with the Saint but was actually named after her much earlier pre-Christian predecessor the pagan goddesses of Brigid. An ancient piece of Welsh bardic poetry called ‘Gofara Braint’ describes the river overflowing and bursting its banks after the killing one of the last kings of the Brigantes called Cadwallon ap Cadfan. It depicts the old Celtic tradition that the king was married to the land and the river flooding its banks represents the land goddess in deep mourning at the news of his passing. The poem possibly dates back to an old oral bardic tradition in Wales and found as part of ‘The folds of the bards’ in the Book of Taliesin. The Celtic scholar D. A. Binchy put forward the theory that the Welsh word ‘Brenin’, instead of meaning ‘king’ had originally meant ‘a consort of the tribal goddess Brigantia’. The rivers name ‘Afon Braint’ may also have originated from early Irish settlers who had colonised the North Wales during the Sub-Roman period. Celts tended to name their lakes and rivers after goddesses. The name of Llŷn Peninsula is thought to be of Irish origin. ‘Llŷn’ translates from the Old Irish word for a tribe of Irish called the Laigin, of which the province of Leinster also derives its name. Ptolemy called the peninsula Ganganorum Promontorium (English: Peninsula of the Gangani); the Gangani were a sea-mobile tribe of Irish Celts, with possibly strong connections with the Coriondi tribe associated with South Leinster. Writers such as Charles-Edwards, Waldman and Mason had suggested a Coriondi link with a Northern Celtic tribe of Ancient Britons called the Corionototae.

An important Celtic saint of Llŷn Peninsula called Saint Beuno was first registered as a Celtic Saint with a feast day 21 April in the ninth-century in both the Irish martyrologies of Tallaght and of Gorman. He established the monastery of Clynnog Fawr which translates into English to 'the place of the holly-trees', according to legend it was said on his death bed to have had visions of the ‘all the saints and druids’. St Beuno's well was traditionally used for the treatment of sick children, after bathing the treated child was carried to St Beuno's chapel and laid on rushes overnight on Beuno's tomb. Holy wells dedicated to Celtic saints or monasteries, in fact, would have once been connected with a Celtic goddess or female deity.

Bardsley Island seems likely to have been a seat of the Culdees, or Colidei, the first religious recluses of Great Britain, who sought Islands and desert places as hermitages, so they might in security worship the true God. The Convent at Bardsey (Enlli) was one of the most ancient religious Institutions in North Wales, established by the king of Llŷn Einion Frenin, who also founded a College on that Island, about the middle of the 9th Century. Dubricius, Archbishop of Caerleon, who had resigned in favour of St Davids, retired to Bardsey, where he died about the year 612, from which circumstance, it is evident that there must have been a religious establishment here prior to that period. Gerald of Wales writing in Speculum Ecclesiae about 1220, used the term “coelibes sive coli dei” translates as “celibate or to worship God” to refer to the hermit Celtic monks of both Enlli as well as for the monks of Beddgelert, Coli dei (Anglicised as Culdees) "is not Latin as Gerald assumes, in translating it as worshipers of God. It comes from the Old Irish of Céilí Dé, meaning "servants of God". In the old orchard next to the 13th century Christian monastery on the island was discovered in 1998 by Ian Sturrock what was later classed as ‘the rarest apple trees in the world’.

Historians such as John Koch, Eric P. Hamp and several others put forward the view that the broader regional name of Gwynedd was in fact linguistically related to the Old Irish word of "Féni", which was a word in ancient Ireland meaning a pure aboriginal people, similar to the word Goídel, it associates with a tribe that inhabit the woods and forests, a Freeholding (Féine) class of people and according to Lebor Gabála Érenn as the name ‘Féni’ suggests were distant descendants of the legendary figure of Fénius, alleged to be one of the mythical inventors of the tree alphabet called Ogham. In Primitive Irish the word ‘weidh-n-‘ meant "Forest People" or "Wild People", while in Proto-Indo-European a combination of gwyn (“white, fair”) and ‘weydh’ (“wood, wilderness”). The Welsh word for an Irishperson or Goidel was ‘Gwyddel’ which also has the double meaning in Welsh of "wild or barbarian". In Latin Gwynedd was called ‘Venedotia’ comes from the Brythonic of ‘Ueneda’ which means ‘Warrior Bands’, similar to the ‘Fianna’ who formed part of the Feni. Venedotia also possibly relates to the tribes of the Irish Venii and also to the British Venicones, an ancient Celtic tribe which once originated in what is today Fife, north of the Forth, a part of Scotland later associated with a strong tradition of providing the ancient legal office of "High Brithem" or in Latinised form of Justiciar of Scotia. The founding family of Earldom of Fife was Clan MacDuff, who were also the hereditary Abbots of the Culdee abbey at Abernethy, which features a Round tower, a typical landmark of many early Culdee monasteries. Scholars have suggested that 'Afarnach's hall' in the Old Welsh poem of the Pa gur was a reference to Abernethy mentioned as part of Arthurian legends, in the poem Arthur leads a band warriors against creatures of the otherworld similar to that depicted Fionn mac Cumhaill and the Fianna in Irish mythology. The earliest reference to the town of the Venicones tribe was by Ptolemy as being ‘Orrea’ situated at Carpow, located on the same lands of Abernethy, once owned by a king of the Picts, Nechtan, also close to Pickish hill fort of Clatchard Craig, now controversially partially destroyed. During Roman times it was recorded as ‘Horrea Classis’ in the Ravenna Cosmography, a military stores base for the Roman fleet. The Venii tribe were also connected with what Ptolemy referred to them as the Venicnii in Donegal, they were identified being part of the Irish Feni, more tan likely related to the Northern Uí Néill. The Kingdom of Gwynedd was founded by the Venicones who were part of the Kingdom of Manaw Gododdin, north of the Forth. Brythonic-speaking, Kingdom of Manaw Gododdin would later become part of Hen Ogledd, the name ‘Manaw’ derives from the Celtic sea god Manann or Manawydan as known in Welsh mythology. One of the earliest Kings of Gwynedd was the legendary High King known as Maelgwn which means in Middle Welsh name meaning 'Princely Hound or Warrior’, a great-grandson of Cunedda.

Professor Dáithí Ó hÓgáin seems to indicate that Niall of the Nine Hostages maybe a descendant of the Gaulish seafaring Celtic tribe of the Veneti. According to Professor Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, Niall's great ancestor was the legendary figure of Túathal Techtmar, possibly a name that comes from an earlier Gaulish god of Toutatis (“Ruler of the Tribe”). Túathal Techtmar was a leader of the northern branch of the Venii (tribes-men) in Ireland and notably lead the overthrow of the Laigin (Lance men) tribe at Tara around AD 300. The Venii tribe in Ireland only later formerly changed name to a class of people known as the ‘Irish Feni’, when Conn Cétchathach first established the Kingdom of Connacht and the Leath Cuinn, dividing of island North and South along the Esker Riada.

Saint Govan
Saint Govan was a hermit who lived in the side of coastal cliff near Bosherston, Pembrokeshire. St. Govan's Chapel is built into the side of a limestone cliff, walls constructed from limestone, and consists of two chambers, one in the front and one in the back. He was believed to have been a disciple of Ailbe, who lived in Solva further along Pembrokeshire coast. Govan had served as an abbot at Dairinis under Ailbe, and he was also a disciple of St Senan at the monastery of Inis Cathaigh. ‘Govan’ comes from the cumbric version of the original old Gaelic name for the saint was ‘Goban’ which means ‘a disciple of a blacksmith’, the origin of the name probably goes back to a legendary figure known as ‘Goban Saor’ associated with an ancient island (mound of dry land) on bog land called Derrynaflan which translates as ‘oak of the flanns’, a place which also served as a key Céli Dé monastery in Ireland. A number of Irish Saints share the name of Saint Goban, other forms of the name include Gowan, Gofan (Welsh), and Gobain.

In the Arthurian legends, one version of the death of Sir Gawain, a myth which is more attributed to Welsh folklore, was said to have been laid to rest under Saint Govan's Chapel, having retired to live out his days on the site as a hermit after his uncle Arthur's death.

Saint Modomnoc
The Félire Óengusso names the beekeeper at Saint Davids monastery as a disciple called Modomnoc, who is said in myth on Saint David's consent to have introduced the honeybee to Ireland on his return to the island from Wales. In Celtic mythology bees were seen as beings of great wisdom and as spiritual messengers between this world and the gods of spiritual realm. The Irish Pagan Goddess Brigid was said to have kept an apple orchard in the Otherworld, the bees of her hives carried their magical golden nectar into the living world, Brigid is strongly connected with an island close to Glastonbury tor called Brides mound. The old and Celtic name for Glastonbury was Avalon, which means the ‘island of the apple orchards’, it stems from the Welsh word for apple ‘afal’. The apple tree was represented by ‘Queirt’ in the Celtic Ogham alphabet, the fruit has a strong association with islands and the Otherworld in Celtic Mythology, such as Tír na nÓg. Honey was the key ingredient of mystical alcoholic beverage of mead, according to the Brehon laws it was used in the pagan inauguration process for kings, the name is associated the sovereignty goddesses of Medb also known as the "mead-woman" or "she who intoxicates".

Saint Máedóc(Aidan) of Ferns
There had been several Irish saints named Aidan but this one seems to have been one of the most important and is mentioned in the Welsh triads as one of the three close disciples of Saint David. Aidan, referred to in Old Irish as Mo-áed-óc which translates as my (Mo), dear little (óc or óg) and sandwiched in between the name Áed. The anglicised name of ‘Marmaduke’ derives from the old Irish of ‘Máel Maedoc’ meaning devotee of Maedoc. The word ‘Máel’ translates ‘devotee of’ and is also associated with the followers of a number important Christian religious figures such as Máel Coluim (Columba), Máel Brigte (Brigid) and Máel Ísu (Jesus). Saint Máedóc traveled to Wales to study under Saint David at Menevia in Pembrokeshire for several years. Welsh tradition maintains that Aidan succeeded Saint David as the abbot of Menevia and for that reason Wales later claimed jurisdiction over Ferns in Wexford because a Welsh abbot founded it. The shrine of Breac Maodhóg is a relic associated with Saint Maedoc.

He became the first Bishop of Ferns after King Brandub of the Uí Ceinnselaig, a royal dynasty of Leinster granted him lands in the area, before Aidan's appointment the parish previously came most likely under the jurisdiction or see of Saint Sletty of Fiach. The monastery of Saint Marys Abbey in Ferns was built by the king leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, who was a Gaelic king noted in Irish history for his shady dealings with the Normans and the Earldom of Pembroke which ultimately lead to the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. In Pre-Norman times, Ferns was once the ancient capital of Leinster and the seat of Diarmait Mac Murchada and his descendants. where he established a monastery.

A story about a stag was attributed and depicted in many artworks associated to both Aidan of Ferns and also to his namesake Aidan of Lindisfarne, about one day as he was sate reading in Connacht, a desperate stag took refuge with him in the hope of escaping pursuing hounds. Aidan miraculously by reciting his prayers made the stag invisible, and the hounds ran off. The story possibly relates to the myth that some early Celtic Saints developed a miraculous powers known as the spell of concealment which were special powers passed down from the Druid magic mist of a Pre-Christian era.

Saint Máedóc (Aidan) of Llawhadan
Saint Máedóc (Aidan) was also connected with the Welsh parish of Llanhuadain, the name translates as the "monastic enclosure (Llan) of St Aidan", the village is part of the broader community of Narberth, which was steeped in Welsh Pre-Christian history and mythology. Llanduadain and Robeston Wathen formed part of the ancient administrative area of Narberth Hundred. On one side of Narberth is Clynderwen, there is a bilingual Latin-Old Irish Ogham stone with the inscription Votecorigas written on it, who was a King of Dyfed in the early to mid-6th century.

The town of Narberth itself was connected to the Welsh Otherworld, its name stems from the ‘Gorsedd Arberth’ which translates as the Throne Mound, it was located near Pwyll's court, just south of the town and was seen in ancient Welsh myth as a key portal to the kingdom of the otherworld, the Welsh Gorsedd Arberth is a hill equivalent to the Sidh or a Teamhair in Irish mythology, a sacred inaugural and ancestral mound.

It was on the Gorsedd Arbeth near the court of Dyfed the legendary prince of Dyfed, would become Pwyll Pen Annwn (Pwyll Head of the Annwn) when he had his first meeting with the otherworldly woman Rhiannon and they gave birth to a son Pryderi fab Pwyll, born in Narberth. Pryderi became the ruler of the seven Cantref of Dyfed and he was part of the mythical figures of Llŷr in Welsh mythology. In the Mabinogi third branch, Manawydan son of Llŷr and Rhiannon take a walk to the throne of Arberth (Gorsedd Narberth) to look over the land from the top of the mound when a great mist of enchantment falls on them. When the mist lifts, the entire kingdom of Dyfed was deserted, everyone and everything had disappeared without trace. The stories of the Mabinogion originated out of a middle Welsh oral tradition passed down generations which were later transferred to written text.

Rhiannon has similarities with Queen Macha in Irish Mythology. She represents the fertility of the land in the form of a Celtic Sovereignty goddesses, granting her future husband sovereignty as king of the land through the act of marriage. She also had strong connections with horses similar to Queen Macha who also had her prize Liath Macha and Dub Sainglend ("grey of Macha"), who later features as one of the two Cú Chulainn chariot-horses in the tale of the Táin Bó Cúailnge.

Saint Illtud
In Wales, Saint Illtud was a very important Culdee figure in Celtic Christianity, he founded a monastery and college, a University of the Celtic Saints in Llantwit Major. The college known as Côr Tewdws is understood to have been founded c. 395, making it the earliest school, former or extant, in all of Great Britain. It has also been referred to as "the oldest college in the world". Other examples of Culdee hermitages are Saint Tudwal's Islands and Penmon abbey on the Isle of Anglesea, an island which has strong druidic history.

Saint Ailbe
The Martyrology of Tallaght lists the feast dates of five principal Pre-Patrician Christian Saints as being Abbán of Moyarny, Ailbe of Emly, Ciarán of Saigir, Declán of Ardmore and Ibar of Beggerin. All are said to be originally from Munster and also as being the earliest recorded Christian Saints that had existed in Ireland prior to the arrival of Saint Patrick. Most notable of the five is Ailbe of Emly, he is the patron saint of Munster and also known as St Eilfyw in Wales, where he founded a tiny community called St Elvis in Wales believed to have been one of the smallest parishes to be established in Britain, which is named after him, its just four miles north of the ancient city of St Davids. It's been suggested by certain scholars that it was Saint Ailbe who baptised Saint David 454 AD at Port Clais in Dyfed. In 2000 Terry Breverton, a lecturer at Cardiff University, while promoting his book, suggested that the rock star Elvis Presley's ancestral roots came from the Celtic prehistoric site of Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire and may have had links to a chapel at St Elvis.

Celtic Christianity in Cornwall
One of the earliest Celtic Christian Churches found in Britain is St Piran's Oratory and Old Church in Perranzabuloe, dating from the 6th century. A Cornish saint called Saint Madron was said to have been a disciple of Ciarán of Saigir, some scholars have suggested he may have been a Christianisation of the pre-Christian, pagan goddess of Modron, mother to Mabon.

Bride's Hill (Glastonbury)
At St Michael's Church Tower on Glastonbury Tor, there's a carved depiction of Saint Brigid milking a cow at the entrance to the tower, Brigit has strong connections with nearby ancient Hermitage settlement of Bride's Hill located on an island in the Avalon Marshes. The Glastonbury Tor hill itself is associated with the Welsh Otherworld in Pagan times going back possibly centuries before the Christian church was built on its peak.

A conflicting interpretation
The term Culdee has been improperly applied to the whole Celtic church, and a superior purity has been claimed for it. It has also been asserted, that the Kelts or Culdees were the forerunners of Protestantism. Protestant writers alleged that the Culdees had preserved Celtic Christianity, free from supposed Roman corruptions, in one remote corner of western Europe. This view was enshrined in Thomas Campbell's Reullura:

 * Peace to their shades. The pure Culdees
 * Were Albyn's earliest priests of God,
 * Ere yet an island of her seas
 * By foot of Saxon monk was trod.

However, Schaff maintains, "...this inference is not warranted. Ignorance is one thing, and rejection of an error from superior knowledge is quite another thing. ...There is not the least evidence that the Keltic church had a higher conception of Christian freedom, or of any positive distinctive principle of Protestantism..."

"Culdee" in fiction

 * In The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry there is a rack railway called the Culdee Fell Railway. One of the steam locomotives is named Culdee. In the Island of Sodor's fictional language of Sudric, 'Culdee' is said to translate as 'Companion of God', the mountain being named for the island's Patron Saint, Machan. The Rev. Awdry often used names from religion and the Anglican Church as placenames in his books. The island of Sodor where the series takes place, for example, is named after a Church of England Diocese, the Diocese of Sodor and Man.
 * Geoffrey Moorhouse's 'Sun Dancing', the fictional sections feature an account of a particular ascetic Culdee
 * Stephen Lawhead's novels Byzantium, Patrick, and the Celtic Crusades trilogy focus on the Cele De.
 * J.P. Moore's short story "Useful Visions" is set in a Culdee monastery.
 * A colony of Culdees in Iceland appears in H. Warner Munn's fantasy novel, Merlin's Ring.
 * Culdees are a prominent part of the story of the "Tile Cutters' Penny" by Caiseal Mor
 * In Proinsias Mac a' Bhaird's Tairngreacht, a modern sect of Céile Dé or 'Culdees' engage in a conspiracy against the Vatican.

title: Culdees


text:
MEG

MEG may refer to:

 * Mono-Ethylene glycol, an alternative name ethylene glycol, organic compound ethane-1,2-diol
 * Madras Engineer Group, regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army
 * Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline linking Africa and Europe
 * Magnetoencephalography, mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by currents in the brain
 * Malange Airport, by IATA code, airport in Malanje, Angola
 * Media General, by NYSE stock symbol, defunct American media company
 * Melody Garden stop, by MTR station code, a light rail stop in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong
 * Midland Examining Group, former exam board in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
 * Motionless electromagnetic generator, purported perpetual motion machine
 * The Mu to E Gamma experiment, a particle physics experiment in muon decay
 * Multiple exciton generation, a concept in quantum electronics
 * Musée d'ethnographie de Genève, an ethnographic museum in Geneva (Switzerland)
 * Museum Ethnographers Group, a collective of ethnographic researchers
 * Meg (singer), a living Japanese singer, songwriter and model
 * Meghalaya, a state in northeastern India (postal code MEG)

title: MEG


text:
Kassel (region)

Kassel is one of the three Regierungsbezirke of Hesse, Germany, located in the north of the state. It was created in 1866 when Prussia annexed the Electorate of Hesse, forming part of the new Province of Hesse-Nassau. It was enlarged following the incorporation of the former Free State of Waldeck in 1929. From 1944 to 1945 it formed its own province: Kurhessen. After World War II it became part of Greater Hesse within the American Occupation Zone, the precursor to the modern state of Hesse. In its modern form it consists of 138 municipalities.

Economy
The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was €45.4 billion in 2018, accounting for 1.4% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €34,200 or 113% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 96% of the EU average.

title: Kassel (region)


text:
Giessen (region)

Giessen (Gießen in German) is one of the three Regierungsbezirke of Hesse, Germany, located in the middle of the state. It was created on 1 January 1981 from the districts (Kreise) of Giessen, Lahn-Dill and Limburg-Weilburg and the Vogelsbergkreis, all formerly belonging to Darmstadt, and Marburg-Biedenkopf, formerly belonging to Kassel.

Economy
The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was €35.9 billion in 2018, accounting for 1.1% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €47,800 or 105% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 96% of the EU average.

title: Giessen (region)