Category Archives: Celtic Scholar’s Reviews and Opinions

Archaeology and Celtic Myth: An Exploration

Author: John Waddell
Publisher: Four Courts Press
Published: 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84682-494-4
Pages: 203 including index and bibliography.
Synopsis: In this book, author John Waddell contends that elements of pre-Christian Celtic myth preserved in medieval Irish literature shed light on older traditions and beliefs not just in Ireland but elsewhere in Europe as well. Waddell mainly focuses on aspects of the mythology associated with four well-known Irish archaeological landscapes: Newgrange and the Boyne Valley, the royal sites of Rathcroghan in County Roscommon, Navan in County Armagh, and Tara in County Meath. Their mythological associations permit the pursuit of the archaeological implications of several mythic themes, namely sacral kingship, a sovereignty goddess, solar cosmology, and the perception of an Otherworld.
Review:

The Gaelic Finn Tradition

**This review was first published in the peer-reviewed Celtic Reconstructionist magazine Air n-Aithesc, for more of the same and some awesome articles too please check out the Air n-Aithesc Website
Editors: Sharon J. Arbuthnot and Geraldine Parsons
Publisher: Four Courts Press
Published: 2012
ISBN: 978-1-84682-277-3
Pages: 238 including index
Synopsis: Stories of Finn mac Cumaill and his fían (warband) constitute the most enduring popular branch of Gaelic literature. These thirteen essays, the first English-language collection on the subject to be published in over twenty years, offer new insights into diverse aspects of the tradition. (Taken from the back of the book)

Review:

Early Christian Ireland

Author: T.M. Charles-Edwards

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000, 2004, digitally 2007

ISBN: 9780521037167

Pages: 707 including Appendix, Glossary, Bibliography and Index

Synopsis:

This is the first fully-documented history of Ireland and the Irish from Saint Patrick to the Vikings. Other books cover either a longer period (up to the Anglo-Norman conquests) or do not indicate in detail the evidence on which they are based. The book opens with the Irish raids and settlements in Britain, and the conversion of Ireland to Christianity, and ends as Viking attacks on Ireland accelerated in the second quarter of the ninth century.

Review:

Book Review: Poetry and Prophecy

Author: N.K. Chadwick
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: First Published 1942, reprinted 1952, paperback copy 2011
ISBN: 978-1-107-68951-0
Pages: 110 with index
Synopsis:

Technologies of Enchantment

Authors: Duncan Garrow and Chris Gosden
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012
ISBN: 9780199548064
Pages: 376 including bibliography and index. Also includes black and white pictures and illustrations.
Synopsis:

The Makers of Scotland

Full Title: The Makers of Scotland: Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings
Author: Tim Clarkson
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
Published: 2011, This edition 2013
ISBN: 978-1-78027-1736
Pages: 255 pages including Further Reading, Appendices and Index

Synopsis: Continue reading…

The Cult of the Sacred Centre

Full title: The Cult of the Sacred Centre – Essays on Celtic Ideology
Author: Proinsias Mac Cana
Publisher: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Published: 2011
ISBN: 978-1-85500-219-7
Pages: 344

Synopsis: