This update contains underlines I haven't already put in an update, probably from page 162 onwards. Some of my comments in the review below may not be fair, since the shotgun organization went everywhere, often, while seldom hitting me.1) Ellis, following the line of thought of one book he cites several times, spends a lot of time matching Sanskrit writings and practices with ancient Irish ones. This is most intriguing to me when he suggests that the intellectual castes and the leadership position of the Druids are based on the intellectual hierarchy in the Hindu Vedas. -- Words in the Vedic laws of Manu are very similar (in written form) to the Celtic Brehon laws. -- "Hindus and Celts worshipped sacred rivers and made votive offerings there." The Vedic myth of the mother goddess Danu may have become "Danuvius ... the first great Celtic sacred river", or more simply, the Danube. -- "Celts have been painted as warlike, flamboyant, given to excess in alcohol and food and hardly more than high-spirited children." -- "Only the Greeks, with the exception of those Greeks in Roman employment, tended to be unbiased commentators on the Celtic world."-- "The earliest Celtic inscriptions occur in the Etruscan alphabet...none have so far been interpreted."-- In the Christian era, "Irish took its place as Europe's third oldest literary language, after Greek and Latin"-- [Benignus wrote] that "Patrick, in his missionary zeal, burnt 180 books of the Druids"-- "Irish Christian sources are all fairly clear that books existed in Ireland before the coming of Christianity"-- "The oldest surviving medical books in Irish date from the early 14th century and constitute the largest collection of medical manuscript literature, prior to 1800, in any one language."-- West was the direction of the Celtic Otherworld. "The phrase 'To go west' was a euphemism for death in English.-- Only one Celtic area has never matched the princely burials of the Continent, and that is Ireland.-- The Romans ritually slaughtered up to 50 Celtic leaders at a time to celebrate various Roman triumphs. Ellis uses this as an example that Romans were as equally prone to human sacrifice as the Celts.-- Caractus, the over-king of southern Britian, was taken by the Romans and somehow saved his family's life with his eloquence.-- The two houses of the Ui Neill dynasty -- for now, a Prince in Portugal and a Marques in Spain -- can trace their lines back to Nial of the Nine Hostages, from AD 379-405.-- "Many of the early Celtic (Christian) saints where Druids or children of Druids. The new religion became "the Celtic Church"-- "Generally, the Celts were not interested in central authority and discipline...In modern times these attibutes are seen as laudable. In ancient times, they were the reason for the downfall of the Celtic peoples."I've been browsing 3 books about the Celts, wildly different and some blending quite favourably into the imaginary. Dozens of underlines later in this particular bad compromise between fete and encyclopedia, I am slightly indifferent to its factual basis and utterly bored finding or reviewing what worked. To be honest, modern Ireland often has men who are more encyclopedic than colourful, which may explain why the oral tradition didn't produce a memorable history by the time the Christian era arrived. That's admitting, by Ellis's estimates, that some 2/3 of the ancient literature has never even been translated.Ellis made one really strange organizational decision, probably predicated on his need to show that Celts were highly cultured, not the crazed warriors of Roman history, which appears to be the main pre-Christian history available. Ellis put the detailed history of Celtic wars, kings, and tribes at the end of the book. Then, possibly because the Romans were the ones finishing the stories, he stops short, absolutely every single time, of completing the stories, always as the really interesting details are starting.The chapters preceding this have no similar sense of order. Tribes and eras hundreds of years apart are lumped together as "Celtic" if Ellis wants to show that they were good at one time or another at, say, farming. It may also be a mistake to dwell almost entirely on the pre-Christian era. Christianity seems to have defined modern Celts almost as much as the Byzantine Orthodox era made the modern Greeks, not that I am asking for a treatment of theological questions in any way, just accomplishments once the Celts started writing down their own histories.There really are some excellent and intriguing quotes, so I'll put them here soon, so none of us has to carry the whole book.
Historians who talked about the Celts can be fit into three categories. The first category includes the Classical writers who wrote to demonize them, and the writers who wrote to show how unsophisticated they are. The second category includes the people who wrote to show what a great society they were and how misunderstood they were and those include both modern and classical writers. And the third and final category is the writers who were somewhat unbiased and these are very few. The author of this book falls in the second category. Peter Ellis set out in his book to tell us the story of the origins of the Celts and their ancient history. Also to show a thematic survey of the Celtic culture, way of life, and what they left behind. On the first count he didn’t do such a good job but on the second he did an amazing job, but not without bias.Though the book has its problems it also has its good points which out way the problems. It gives details that a lot of other writers ignore, or just don’t feel interested in writing about. Keeping the biases of the author aside and reading the book critically you will be able to get a lot of information out of it that give a whole different image to the Ancient Celts.
What do You think about The Celts: A History (2015)?
This book does what it promises: gives a brief overview of all aspects of Celtic life. It combines information from multiple discliplines: archeology, history, linguistics, to give you as broad a view as possible. Sometimes it's a bit too detailed for the casual reader, but a good and complete overview from someone who obviously knows what he's talking about. The only thing that baffles me is the last chapter, entitled 'Early Celtic History'. In part it's a rehash of earlier chapters, in part it's new information that rightly should have been in earlier chapters. Why wasn't this the first chapter, after which the book delves deeper into the different subjects in subsequent chapters?
—Martine
A very enjoyable read.Ellis presents a great deal of information in a short book without being overwhelming. Pleasantly packaged in a manner that is neither too dry or lacking in dignity.There is a lot to chew on that I had not considered. The sheer scope of the celtic world is simply amazing (while most of us only think in terms of insular celts and Asterix).My only misgivings about the information in the book is that the author gives SO much credit, and SO much defense to the celtic side of issues that I (as a pro-celtic leaner) am made suspicious by the very evident pro-celtic bias that it makes me want to take EVERYTHING in the book with a grain of salt. I was put a little in mind of Ensign Chekov "Inwented in Russia".Still a eye opening little book that will wind up multicolored with highlighter.
—Chrissy
I really enjoyed this book. I found the information to be delightful because I have an Irish/Scottish and English background. The information about the Equality and Spirituality of this society fascinated me.
—Katrina
