Re: Alex knows, but she keeps lurking
Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on May 03, 2000 at 14:11:00:
In Reply to: Re: Alex knows, but she keeps lurking posted by Jeremy Rowntree on May 03, 2000 at 12:36:24:
It's very, very similar to a Carolingian triskelion.
Sometimes the triskels are solar symbols, sometimes they symbolize the
trinity, neo-Druids have all sorts of meanings tacked onto them. I
sort of like the Isle of Man version .... the three running legs,
meaning "whatever way it's thrown, it always lands on it's feet".
I'd swear, from digging in old stuff, that the Norse/Celtic serpanty
twiddly things like the triskellion, are related to old Chinese bronze
mirrors and ornament with their elongated intertwining dragons; and
some of the knotwork seems directly related to Islamic silver
engraving and manuscript ornamentation. Fortunately, I'm not the only
one who's noticed this, and it does seem that the Norse and Celts did
a fair amount of trading and marauding around, enough to bring back
some goodies. So ... in an indirect way, the Celt dragons may be
cousins of Chinese dragons.
