The Celtic and Germanic Study Group – BRATHAIR – is a project open to the participation all of those who are interested in the study of the Celtic and Germanic cultural production. It is an open project, because it intends to enlarge its realizations and the number of its collaborators, covering many areas and academic institutions without setting boundaries, declaring only its intent: it occupies itself with the Celtic and Germanic cultures through the study of several sources, from the Greek and Roman literary to archaeological sources, dedicating itself, however, in a special way, to investigate the continuity and the repercussions of these cultures in medieval times. Actually, the group (Adriana Zierer, Adriene Baron Tacla, Álvaro A. Bragança Júnior, Arlete Mota, Assunção Medeiros, Daniele Gallindo G. e Souza, João Lupi, Johnni Langer, Luciana Campos and Moisés R. Tôrres) was born inside the Brazilian Association of Medieval Studies – ABREM (1999 Meeting in Rio de Janeiro and 2000 Study Cycle in Maringá) and intends to maintain with ABREM an informal but institutional relationship.

The first objective or intention of BRATHAIR is the mutual collaboration among scholars through contact, mutual stimulation, interchange of bibliography and communications of research findings – in this sense, in BRATHAIR we are all pupils and teachers of one another. The second objective is a wider understanding of medieval culture – literature, Philology, arts, popular and noble habits, religion – searching for their Celtic and Germanic origins. As a necessary consequence of this, the third objective is to take to a ever more diversified public the perception of the proto- and pre-Historic fundaments of Western Civilization, being aware of the importance of the Celtic and Germanic legacy, and basing ourselves in the understanding that the more we know and respect our ancient origins, the more we know about ourselves and the more responsible we are for our future. During Roman Expansion, the Germanic overcame the Celts in Central Europe, but in Late Antiquity, in almost all Western Europe, their union was widespread, in such a way that many Celtic traditions came to us through the Germanic: that is the reason why BRATHAIR dedicates itself initially with the study of these two cultures.

However, in the sense mentioned before, of the deepening of our roots as a civilization, the Group’s project will only be complete when it widens its areas of interest or creates other projects for the study of other European proto- and pre-Historic populations, especially the Slavic populations.