Celtic Books

This book is a fairly comprehensive overview of both the gear and the nature of warfare in Anglo Saxon England, and has everything going for it: beautiful full colour plates of artefacts, reproductions, and reenactors, well researched and informative sections on all types of gear, specific details on certain artefacts, and much more. It covers an awful lot of material for such a relatively small book (159 pages) and is an excellent value for the money spent.

Indeed, I recommend this as the first choice and starting point for any reenactor of the Anglo Saxon culture/period in need of military information. It is really that good. And even if you are more the Viking or Migration era type, there is still a good deal here to make it more than worth your while to purchase.

If you are trying to reenact a warrior persona, this book has all you need apart from clothing and other household items (and even some hints on clothing may be gleaned from the photos of reenactors featured in this book)

As a personal aside, this book is really among my favourites, for its wealth of information and excellent layout. I really can't find anything bad to say about it - this is really one of the best introductions to the subject, that covers everything in sufficient detail to be truly useful. Much better than any Osprey book you care to name!

This is a useful scholarly, yet approachable title to students of Iron Age agriculture as well as those interested in spiritual practice in pre-Roman Gaul and Britain. The discussion on domestic and hunted animals is the strength of the book, as the conclusions are drawn from archaeology. This title presents zooarchaeology in the UK as well as that from France. I was especially appreciative of this, as I do not speak (or read) French! Her book is an excellent compliment to the works of Peter J. Reynolds and the research at Butser Ancient Farm.

In describing a society that has left no written record of its ideas on animal myth and religion Greene relies on archaeology along with ethnography. Although Dark Age Irish legends can not be expected to be perfectly equivalent with the beliefs of Iron Age Britons and Gauls, they do provide a helpful guide.

All in all it's an excellent book.

This is a beautiful volume that is well illustrated. However the topic of how iron age people (especially the Celts) used artwork is no revelation to those of us who have kept current in modern Celt studies. That art objects for the Celts had multiple uses and lived multiple lives (the main thesis to this text) is nothing particularly new. Some of us are in touch with archeologists of active Celtic sites and when archeologists discover almost all of the bronze votive horses found have one broken leg and it is broken in a similar way you get the idea that this was a manipulation done with a purpose.
Many people who study the ancient Celts may find much in this book redundant. All the same a good book.

From the DJ back cover: "Who was King Arthur? Variously depicted as the boy who drew the sword from the stone, Celtic freedom fighter pitted against the invading Saxons, and refined and noble monarch married to the beautiful Queen Guenever [sic], he has for centuries inspired storytellers of Europe.

Graeme Fife traces the development of Arthurian literature from its emergence in the mist-filled valleys of the Celtic heartlands of Britain to the candle-lit-banqueting halls of the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine. He examines the great Arthurian themes of chivalry, courtly love, hunting, heraldry and pageantry, magic and the Holy Grail and argues convincingly that the rise of the romances was inextricably linked to the development of the Christian Crusading movement. Ever present is the immortal figure of Arthur himself, once and future king.

Just thought you should know something about the book you are thinking about buying.
Actually a very interesting book.

It has been a while since a team from the Atlantic Division has won the NBA title, but this volume of the "Above the Rim: The NBA Library" series explains to young fans that some of these teams have enjoyed glory days in the past. In "Atlantic Division" Jim Gigliotti looks at the history of the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, and Washington Wizards, focusing not only on championship teams but star players and great coaches. Gigliotti provides a nice balance between the past and the present for each team, so that young fans who follow Allen Iverson learn about Wilt Chamberlain as well. If there is a weakness in this book compared to the others it is that the role players on championship teams are not mentioned as often.

Of course these volumes will quickly become outdated: Tracy McGrady is already on his way out of Orlando and who knows what other trades will happen before and during the draft this week, but the history lessons here make up for being behind the headlines. "Atlantic Division" is illustrated with photographs of superstar NBA players, with both black & white shots of the likes of Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, and Dr. J along with color shots of Larry Bird, Jason Kidd, Shaquille O'Neal, and Elvin Hayes. The back of this book includes all time team records, as well as the career leaders in points and rebounds for each franchise, and members of the Naismith Memorial National Basketball Hall of Fame from each team. There is also a Glossary of terms from "armory" to "stymied," along with a Time Line of the history of the division, Books and Web sites for additional information about the Atlantic Division and the NBA, and an Index.

No body of ancient literature has suffered such an undue general oversight as that of Ireland. A handful of translations are available in Penguin editions, a few scattered remains crop up elsewhere. But nothing satisfactory has yet reached the public outside Ireland. This book is one notable exception, if you can find it that is.

But limited availability is its only fault. Otherwise it is splendid. The Auraicept Na N-eces was the textbook of the old filid class, the poets and scholars of ancient Ireland. The unique and particularly important aspect of this book is in its primacy. It is the first book in Europe to pay reverence to a vernacular (non-Latin) language. Dante follows with his "De Vulgari Eloquentia" only centuries later. And yet the Auraicept doesn't just praise, it describes. This may also be the first comparative study of languages in all of Europe.

The writer or writers of the Auraicept begin with a fantastic claim, that 72 elders purposefuly set about one day to create the Irish language. They chose its elements from the best parts of the diverse languages that disseminated after the fall of Babel Tower. A loose narrative moves through progressively more intriguing discussions, including a comparison of Irish and Latin, a how-to of Old Irish poetry, and a description of Ireland's native writing system, Ogam.

What makes this edition emminently worthwhile, however, is Calder's perfect treatment. The whole Irish text is given with facing page translation. This text is cushioned on one end by a useful introduction, and on the other by extensive notes, a glossary, and an index. Finally, the binding is sharp and sturdy.

This book is a treasure trove to readers of a dozen interests. To name just a few uses: Umberto Eco has noticed this book's influence, direct or indirect on Joyce's language-building program; The connection to the above-mentioned "De Vulgari Eloquentia" essay begs for comparison. Dante probably knew no Irish, but he might have caught a scent of the vernacular revolution distantly from the Irish who were evidently its first combatants.

Lovers of the languages and worlds of Tolkien, who must have encountered this book in his Celtic studies, will find here a book that seems to belong in some magical library in Middle Earth. But despite the vein of the fantastic, the Old Irish language-lore closely reflects Tolkien's own, very real, invention of Quenya and Sindarin. Some of the parallels are shocking.

Pick your reason for enjoying it, this book will not fail to supply choices. If you have even a spark of interest in Irish literature, the Irish language, or anything Irish (or Medieval!) at all, then hunt this book here or wherever you can.

If you love Celtic decoration, and would like small designs to incorporate into your work this is a perfect book. The designs are small, but still large enough to work with and are wonderful to embroider. They can also be used for other crafts such as woodburning. The designs are varied with usually more than one size of a design style, and each transfer (in most cases) can be used more than once. The only drawbacks I see are the fact that the design cannot be washed out so, if you are embroidering it you need to be sure to cover all the lines, and because there are several designs on a page they must be cut out to work with which in most cases leaves you with a tiny piece of paper to work with. Making it difficult to pin it down and to iron. But it is a wonderful book of designs and the pluses far outweigh those two negatives. Dover tends to publish some wonderful transfer books at extremely reasonable prices and this book truly fits in both catagories.

Children may be familiar with the popular Usborne "Irish for Beginners" pictorial guide; Davies offers a similar compendium of pictures and words that can be used by adults as well, with many more entries. As a visual learner who finds it valuable to match images to print in my own struggles with mastery of Irish, this sort of guide I find an excellent supplement to the usual Irish dictionaries and grammars. Attractively colored in the Usborne style, this can also be enjoyed by families using Irish. I wish such books were larger and easier to lay flat open, but this remains an affordable and handy aid that I'd recommend.

Provides a good overview of Welsh including grammatical guides and a brief history of the area. Language courses are very practical and efficiently done... unlike some other language books, you don't have to wade through silly, extraneous dialogues about non-native students learning the language. The dialogues get right to the salient linguistic points. Excellent!