A Celtic Miscellany

by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson

Book Overview

Including works from Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Breton and Manx, this Celtic Miscellany offers a rich blend of poetry and prose from the eighth to the nineteenth century, and provides a unique insight into the minds and literature of the Celtic people. It is a literature dominated by a deep sense of wonder, wild inventiveness and a profound sense of the uncanny, in which the natural world and the power of the individual spirit...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014139885X
• ISBN13: 9780141398853
• Release Date: March 2015
• Publisher: Penguin UK
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Enjoying all the stories

I love to read the stories of a culture and learn the history of the culture. This book is a treasure trove of Celtic stories.

A fine little book

An excellent little collection of Welsh and Irish poetry, including satire, elegies, romance, nature, and Celtic magic, as well a host of traditional ancient fairy tales and ballads. A fine little book, highly recommended.

A wonderful selection, beautifully translated!

Despite the recent 'boom' in Celtic literature, there are not that many anthologies around, which present the whole palette, as it were, of the Celtic mind, feeling and imagination. In this respect, Kenneth Jackson's anthology remains one of the best. When he died in 1991, his obituary notice in The Times declared him 'a master of all four of the major Celtic languages' - an accolade not many could claim. In fact, the material here has been drawn from six Celtic sources - Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish and Manx (the variety of Celtic spoken in the Isle of Mann). Hence, this anthology enables you to savour the taste of Celtic literature, from an unusual number of sources. While all translations have their limitations, Jackson had an uncanny way of reproducing the alliteration and feel of Celtic. In this book, we find Hero tales, epics, reflections on nature, love, delightful epigrams, Celtic magic poems, descriptive sketches,humour & satire, Bardic Poetry, Elegies, religious reflections etc. - a rich collage indeed. The main text comprises 305 pages, but reading it is more akin to perusing a Celtic library, for that is effectively what Jackson had to do, to procure this rich diversity of sources. The text includes a map of Ireland and Wales, in case you want to locate places mentioned in the text. Extensive notes have been appended to the text - with a pronouncing index. Not everyone will want to get their tongue round that, but the beauty of this text is that you can dip into the material without worrying unduly about such matters, savouring the imagery for its own sake. It is hard task to select passages for review, for the whole book deserves to be savoured. I may prejudice the reader's mind with my choices. Epics are too long to quote, but you'll hear of Cu Chulainn and all the rest. At random, how about this from the section titled 'Nature': (34) To the Sun Greeting to you, sun of the seasons, as you travel the skies on high, with your strong steps on the wing of the heights; you are the happy mother of the stars. You sink down in the perilous ocean without harm and without hurt, you rise up on the quiet wave like a young queen in flower. Scottish Gaelic; traditional folk prayer. - or how about these beautiful lines, from the end of 'The Wish of Manchan of Liath' (Religion. 223.) " This the housekeeping I would undertake, I would choose it without concealing; fragrant fresh leeks, hens, speckled salmon, bees. " How about this sweet epigram (93) 'Her Light Step' "There's my darling merry star, flower of the parish of Llangeinwen; beneath her foot the grass no more bends than does a rock beneath a bird's foot." Welsh. Traditional verse. Another charming epigram (84, The Snowfall). White flour, earth flesh, a cold fleece on the mountain, small snow of the chill black day; snow like platter

this is a wonderful collection

This is a terrific and pretty comprehensive collection of Celtic poetry and prose. Everything is nicely indexed according to what style of writing it is, and what the subject is, in the table of contents. Under each poem or whathaveyou is a description of where the work comes from, when it dates from, and who (if it is known) wrote the work. You'll find Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Scots-Gaelic, and Irish works of art here. I know I've often been dissapointed before to buy a book on "Celtic" poetry to find out it was only on Irish works. To top it all off there is a huge list of end-notes. These explain all those obscure references you'll find in old poetry. Don't know where Aberffraw is, but its in your favorite poem? Flip to the back and find out. I'm very pleased with this book. I can use it for my classes, simply by looking up a topic and browsing over the many selected works. And I also read it for pleasure, I find the section on humorous works especially enjoyable.

A great collection

This has been one of my two or three very favorite books since it came out. I read from it almost every day. I think that anyone interested in poetry or literature or just in the human spirit should have it by their sides. It is a wonderful selection, beautifully translated. It brings out the two things I like best about Celtic literature: the intense, immediate sensitivity to nature, and the extreme importance given to individual men and women (as opposed to the great big abstractions, symbols, word games, etc., in so much of literature). The Celts seem to have remembered, more often than most people, that individual human beings matter.

Useful and enjoyable

I've had this book for over ten years and find new things to appreciate that I'd skipped over in the past. I've used some of the shorter poems and englyn for caligraphy and needlework, and on my website. I also feel that to understand a people, it is necessary to read the literature, and this book offers a good selection.