by finnobreanan on Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:09 am
A couple of months ago I picked up a little book, The Celts: A History by Peter Berresford Ellis (I think it cost me a whopping $5.00 on sale), originally published in 2004, reprint of 2007. It is a nice easy read, filled with a lot of good information on Celtic Society and draws heavily on Irish sources. The author is obviously an authority, but the book doesn't have a single footnote for his sources. There's a good bibliography and it is indexed (always a plus for me). It would have been nice if the book would have been illustrated with the artifacts that the author discussess, but alas, they are nonexistant.The fifteen chapters cover: Origins; Literacy; Kings and Chieftans; Druids; Warriors; Women; Farmers; Physicians; Cosmology; Road Building; Artists and Craftsman; Architecture; Religion; Myth & Legend; and Early history. Not a bad little book for the price, but hardly the "End all, be all" of Celtic history.
Finn O'Breanan
Wood Kerne
"...The O'Brennans, a sept of thieves without any right or title, ... were a perpetual disturbance to the peace of the county,"