The Celts

by Nora Kershaw Chadwick and Nora Chadwick

Book Overview

A history of Celtic culture in Britain from its origins to its transformation under the Romans and Saxons. The book describes the rise and spread of the Celts and their arrival in the British Isles... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014013607X
• ISBN13: 9780140136074
• Release Date: August 1991
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

The real stuff from a credible author

Nora Chawick (1891-1972) spent most of her life studying Celtic (or, modern conveyance, "Keltic") history. She wrote many books and articles on the topic and also delivered numerous lectures on the subject at renowned univesities throughout Great Britain. For a work of non-fiction, this is a very fluid read. The subject is compelling and, here, Chadwick has given us a full account of pretty much all that is known of this fascinating culture of people. The Celts essentially displaced and or assimilated into the indigenous culture(s) of Ireland. They originated in Europe and their eventual migration(s) to the Emerald Isle is still, to a large degree, a subject of endless study. Chadwick yields this essential history in terms and text that we can all follow. She punctuates her account with numerous bits of Celt trivia, such as: "...human sacrifice among the Celts, although of great ritual significance, may have been practised [Eng. sp.] more commonly at times of communal danger or stress, rather than as part of regular ritual observance." Other interesting tidbits are more generally about Ireland and the today's Irish people who ultimately emanated from their ancient ancestors: "Irish ballads, unlike those of the rest of Europe, are hardly ever related in the third person... (the influence of "speech poems"). My 1997 college thesis, for which the university awarded me a second-place spot for "Thesis of the Year," focused upon the Celts. I relied heavily upon Chadwick as one of about 40 sources for that monograph and her coherence and credibility helped me greatly to see that voluminous project though to its successful conclusion. Anyone can read this book and come away with both an enhanced knowledge of a little-understood culture and a general gratification for having read a brilliantly competent work of non-fiction.

Not a bad book to start with

There are a lot of good things about this book. It also has some flaws. For example the presentation and organization of the book could have been better. All of the same I consider it a good introduction. Chadwick and Cunliffe are two of the greatest living authors of Celtic history today and this book it certainly is head and shoulders above many of the books on the Celts out today that are full of misinformation and tall tales. Recommended to the beginner.

A great culture assassinated by the Legions

Nora Chadwick gives us in this book an essential vision of what the Celts were. A great civilization, extremely advanced in crafts and arts, with a fully developed mythology of gods who were the masters of these crafts and arts. She gives us all the details she can find on this civilization : their level of development and any kind of metal work and the rich social order that went along with it. Dynamic agriculture, rich arts, a lot of commerce, great crafts and a religion that was based on those social values. Just for this reason, this book is essential. She should have insisted on the Celts' great underdevelopment as for warfare when confronted to the Romans. They were all warriors but were not able to fight against a professional army. They were individuals fighting to defend their own communities not mercenaries fighting to conquer and to loot. Some more recent research has been done on the Gauls and has revealed how those warriors were preparing for war. They were trying to build some unity through rites that made them share their most intimate feelings and fluids. A lot of research has also been done on the position of women showing that they were the doctors of this civilization, and hence were not reduced to a secondary and minimized status. They were full members of their society. This civilization was not mizogynistic, or phallocratic and certainly not homophobic. Their religion was also a set of rites that made all members of the society equal. Unluckily, the Romans, and even the Mediterraneans (Phenicians, Greeks and Romans) conquered them first through some commerce and then through military force. They destroyed this civilization and reduced it to slavery. And that was only the beginning. Christianisation was performed ruthlessly and all the culture, the arts, the mythology were destroyed by being forced into Christian rules. It is emblematic to see how the first christianisation of these people was destroyed later on to stick to the new Roman augustinian ideas, which meant a second deprivation of their culture by purifying the first Christian faith they had adopted of all the remnants or recollections of previous Celtic heritage. Some will say history cannot be repaired. Sure. But we must note that our Western civilization lost a tremendous amount of inspiration and human depth by this brutal colonialization. The Celts were dedicated to human and visionary values that we have lost. The Celts were dedicated to a real cult of nature and total respect for it. We are presently reinventing this respect for the natural environment. But we have to do this because the Mediterraneans destroyed it some twenty centirues ago. What a waste of time ! What a waste of energy ! Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

Fantastic Overview of Celtic History

This is an excellent single-volume book on the Celts. It provides a great overview from prehistory on. I have enjoyed it so much I'm on my third reading. This new addition should add even more readers to it's admirers.