h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Celtic Knotwork - A981911
Author: Pimms - U219930

The one thing I think this really needs is a picture of a knotwork panel.

I haven't time to give this a detailed going over at the moment, but I'll try later. One thing I notice is that you use the word "Pictish". I thought that this referred to the Picts, who were a non-Celtic people who lived in Scotland. There were never any Picts in Ireland, as far as I know. Perhaps you are using Pictish in a different sense here.

Whoops.

No you're quite right. I mixed up the Pictish stones mentioned at Groam house museum with the diagrams from stone crosses (which are both in Ireland and Scotland) in my reference books. Scrub the word Pictish.

OK, I've read through it. Good work!

The footnote on George Bain looks a bit odd "George Bain has examples of his work", when Bain died in 1968. Perhaps you should say "Examples of George Bain's work are on display..."

You might like to mention the ceremonial gold cups (Ardagh Chalice and Derrynaflan Chalice) which have outstanding examples of knotwork done in gold. These are both on display in the National Museum in Dublin.

I didn't want to get too involved in giving examples (because of course you can go on and on), but I did overlook the jewellery and other metalwork. I thought the link to O'Briens page would give some useful images. I wasn't able to find an appropriate link to Derrynaflan Chalice (which I hadn't heard of before I must admit)

Have I used too many footnotes? Do I need more sub-headings?

The Derrynaflan Chalice was a huge story in Ireland. It was found something like 20 or 15 years ago. It is equal in quality to the Ardagh chalice. The guy who found it approached the National Museum and was led to believe that he would be allowed to keep it, so he invested something like a million pounds in restoring it. He was going to put it on display and charge admission. Then the National Museum said that he wasn't entitled to it and they were going to take it. The man then sued them for the million pounds (and rightly so!). The chalice is now in the museum along with the Ardagh one, the Tara brooch and all that other stuff.

Always the way with artefacts that though.


Considering my engagement ring has a celtic knot design I was automatically drawn to this article. I'll see if I can dig up any other stuff on the Scottish or Ulster side of the story.