The Celtic Sacred Wild Boar

The Boar (male wild pig), is the Celtic totemic/zoomorphic animal par excellence. Representations of the Boar are known from the Hallstadt culture (c 1100 BCE) onwards and are found on Celtic coins from the La Tène period (c 500 BCE) onwards. The nature of the boar in Celtic belief is dual. It is both the principles of hospitality and feasting as well as the skills of hunting and war. It is likely that amongst the forests of northern Europe the boar would have been amongst the most agressive creatures and this aspect of the boar became revered by the Celts. The boar came to represent the strength of the warror with the boar's erect hackles standing for the agressive 'warrior' nature of the boar. Thus in all depictions of the boar, from the Icenian coin, top row, right, to the almost life-size sculpture from Neuvy-en-Sullias, France (bottom row, left) to the depiction of a captured Celtic boar standard on the arch of Narbonne (bottom row, right) the boar's hackles are erect.

The carnyx, a long handled boar-headed trumpet (bottom image), was the Celtic war trumpet and Celtic warriors would frequently adorn themselves with boar-shaped crests and many Iron Age boar sculptures were probably originally helmet fitments. The boar is also depicted with the northern deity Veteris/Vitiris and probably represents the warrior aspect of this deity. On the Gundestrup cauldron a horseman depicted in a military procession wears a helm adorned with a bear crest. The hunter aspect of the Boar is shown in a sculpture from the Ardennes forest, (previously attributed to Arduinna which shows a young woman, bearing a knife riding side-saddle upon the back of a boar. The Romano–-Celtic bronze of a dying boar found at Mountham Court in Sussex may represent a hunting cult. There is also the 3^rd century CE bronze found at Balzars, Lichtenstein that depicts hunters or warriors with a bear and stag. There is also the famous stone carving from Euffigneix (Haute-Marne) that depicts a betorced deity with a boar, hackles raised, striding along his torso. We also have the Orci (literally 'people of the boar') tribe of northern Britain.

The beantlered god, Cernunnos is shown attended by a boar on the Gundestrup cauldron, as well as on a relief at Nuites-Saint-Georges (Haute–Marne). The archaeological association of Wild Boar with feasting is particularly strong and Iron Age burials in both Britain and Gaul attest to a funerary feast including pork as one of the main constituents. Pork also forms the basis for otherworldly feasts (as attested by insular literature) and the best cut of the meat was described as the ‘champion's portion’. Indeed, in the Irish tale of the Feast of Bricriu the heroes squabbled over the best portion of the meat and certain chieftain burials also included a joint of pork, presumably the ‘chieftain's portion’.

In Celtic culture we also have some evidence for the practice of ritual ℈boar sacrifice’. At the shrine of Gournay-sur-Aronde in the Oise, young pigs were butchered and consumed on site and the same mix of pork and lamb/mutton also appears at the British sacred site of Hayling Island. At Sopron in Hungary the sacral nature of the boar is made more explicit by the burial of a complete boar who'se packed into a stone-lined grave. In later ages a young boar was buried at Chelmsford and in a Romano–Celtic temple in Norfolk the four main supporting pillars of the inner sanctum (or cella) each had a pit containing procine and avine bones (both these cases may be foundation offerings). Also, the ritual shaft found at Ashill in Norfolk was discovered to contain sacred deposits of antlers, pots and boar tusks.

In later Irish and Welsh mythologies the boar also has pride of place in a number of the mythological tales. In the Irish tales the hermit, Marbán had a pet white boar, the hero Diarmaid had a foster brother in boar form whom he hunts and by whom he finally meets his death. Tuan mac Cairill, sole survivor of the Partholons, is transformed into a boar (as well as other beasts). Then we have the great boars: Orc Triath was the otherworldly boar in Irish Tradition, Torc Triath was the kind of the boars in the Lebor Gabhála (Book of Invasions) and Torc Forbartach is a boar who figures in a number of the Fenian tales. There is also another Torc Forbartach who slays Diarmait Ua Duibne (titular hero of the 'Pursuit of Diarmait and Gráinne').

In the Cymric tradition the most famous boar is the Twrch Trwyth the otherworldy boar of the Mabinogi of Culhwch ac Olwen (who is actually a transformed evil king) [cf Torc Triath above, the Twrch Trwyth's cognate]. The same tale also has Ysgithrwyn Pen Beidd (White Tusk, Chief Boar) who must be slain for his tusk. In the Mabinogi of Manawyddan mab Llŷr, a gleaming white boar is used to lure Pryderi into an enclosure from which he cannot escape. In the fourth branch of the Mabinogi, Gwydion and Gilfaethwy are punished by Math by being transformed in to a series of animals. In one of these transformations Gwydion is transformed into a boar and Gilfaethwy into a sow so that they may beget a son, Hychddwn Hir (Noble Swine, the Tall).

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