Celtic culture, imagery and themes are found across every kind of entertainment media. Even with properties and brands based in Japan or India, the Celtic influence can be seen in all manner of places.
So what exactly does the world find so fascinating about the Celts, and has the global perception shifted at all in recent years?
The Most Popular Elements
Much like other cultures around the world, media has most often chosen to extract the legendary and mythological elements of the Celtic world, because they are referenced frequently in TV and films, and make it easier for people to associate with certain things.
Casinos and Gambling
The main chunk of these come from across the water in Ireland with the most prominent being the leprechaun. The majority of usage comes from the area of gambling such as casinos and slots.
For the latter, there are countless casino games out there featuring the little men in green, including the entire series around them. Plenty of players load up online casinos to play Rainbow Riches or any number of its sequels, and beyond that, entire casinos in Vegas have the Irish luck behind their designs.
Video Gaming
Outside of casinos, Irish mythology has become a more and more popular topic recently. Indy video game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was a deep dive into the mythology and relations between Celts and their Viking neighbours, and the massive fantasy series The Witcher takes huge elements of the mythology into its worldbuilding. In the latter, locations are directly drawn from ancient Celtic languages, although most gamers would just lump them together as drawing from Welsh thanks to how they look.
The biggest recent example though is probably in Smite, whether the Celtic pantheon of gods joins other pantheons to duke it out. In this case, though, how faithful these representations are to the original stories is very much up for debate.
The Effect on How the World Sees the Celts
It is well-known that Irish and Scottish cultures are the subject of a lot of stereotyping in the outside world, and many of those acting as custodians of traditions have concerns about some portrayals. For the most part, the biggest concerns have come from past times and projects such as the much-ridiculed history shown in Braveheart.
Pop culture is taking more care over the portrayal of historical cultures, it is generally agreed that things are becoming more positive. The above examples of Hellblade and The Witcher are felt to have done an excellent job of raising awareness of Celtic lore without dipping into old tropes, even though they lean into more fantastical elements than realistic ones.
For the moment and for the near future, these look set to be the most authentic representations, as TV, movies and other media being produced in the Celtic countries are focusing on modern stories rather than tradition. With that said, given the growing push for cultural recognition and the preservation of traditions in each nation, it may only be a matter of time before those past times start getting championed in home media again.
