SOURCE: "Celtic Myth," in Comparative Mythology, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, pp. 166-88.

In the following excerpt, Puhvel compares early Celtic mythology—from Julius Caesar's writings on the gods of Gaul, to Ireland's mythic history and the stories of the Ulster and Fenian Cycles—with the mythologies of other Indo-European cultures.

"The Dead prevailed in testimony over the Living, since preference was given to the written word." This denunciation of the dead letter as against vivifying live speech occurs in an Irish tale about the falsification of the inscribed name on a famous sword, a forgery that impressed the judges more than the rightful owner's oral testimony. It is a late reflex of the well-known druidic aversion to writing mentioned by Caesar in De bello Gallico, a priestly attitude not unlike that of the Vedic brahmins. Both cultures had early access to writing (India from age-old contacts with...