Product Description

This is the fourth edition of an invaluable collection of literary sources, all in translation, for Celtic Europe and early Ireland and Wales. The selections are divided into three sections: the first is classical authors on the ancient Celts-a huge selection including both the well-known - Herodotos, Plato, Aristotle, Livy, Diogenes Laertius, and Cicero-and the obscure -Pseudo-Scymnus, Lampridius, Vopsicus, Clement of Alexandria and Ptolemy I. The second is early Irish and Hiberno-Latin sources including early Irish dynastic poetry and numerous tales from the Ulster cycle; and the third consists of Brittonic sources, mostly Welsh. This edition includes three new early Irish tales, translated by Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha: The Birth of Áed Sláine; Fingal Rónáin, and the Story of Mis and Dubh Rois.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #585769 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 488 pages

About the Author
John Koch is Senior Fellow at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies, and Project Leader of The Celtic Languages and Cultural Identity Project.

Customer Reviews

Good literal translations, many source texts in one central place
"The Celtic Heroic Age" is billed as an introductory text for Celtic studies, but I would be nervous about that without more of an understanding of the world in which it's set. It's a series of translations of Celtic texts and references to them in Classical lore. In almost all cases, it's just English, though some of the shrine inscriptions have the original tongues side by side. The translations are very prosaic, as far as I can tell. They convey the information just fine, but for poetic resonance, Kinsella eats them for breakfast. The focus here seems to be on rendering the text as literally as possible, not in telling a good story. That's fine by me -- the book is intended as a reference, and it's often extremely useful to have a minimally interpreted version.

Reading the Classical sources, it helps *immensely* to have an understanding of the biases and agendas of the Classical world, and to have read some of the archaeological references. It helps you separate historical fact from Roman propaganda. The text does not do this for you; it's your job to figure out that Caesar was trying to conquer Gaul, and that these missives were his newsletters to home. There's no background on what the Greeks thought of barbaroi in general, or what qualities they esteemed before they condemned people in entirely unflattering terms. Knowing these things will help set the texts in perspective.

I enjoyed rereading new (to me) translations of many familiar stories. I still have a hard time wading through all the repetitive descriptions of each warrior's clothes, chariot, leg hair, etc., but it's at least less dull now that I catch some of the allusions and intended associations/meanings each time through. I would recommend this book as a reference to Celtic geeks -- it is damn handy to have so many source texts in one place. It's predominantly Irish texts, so it's most useful to insular Celtic folks, but there are Welsh texts and a scattering of Continental inscriptions and references in there too.

An invaluable resource for students of Celtic history
I studied under Prof. Koch in college and was among the "guinea pig" group who used the first printing of this book in class. I wisely kept the book after I graduated, and it has come in very handy for personal research and reference when arguing minutiae of Celtic history with other dilettantes. There is a wealth of uncommon and obscure information in the book, all free of editorialization and personal biases or opinions by the editors.

Readers looking for books to curl up with, be warned: this isn't a straight narrative, but consists instead of fragments and annotations from primary and secondary sources dating back 2,000 years, from the first encounters with the people from mainland Europe whom the Greeks called "Keltoi" to Medieval stories about the Cornish King Arthur and his knights.

An Interesting Read
Although I don't have any formal academic background in Celtic Studies, I found this book to be very approachable. It gives easy-to-follow translations of the original text alongside fascinating insights on ancient Britain and Ireland. For the hobbyist it can be hard to find books on Celtic lore which both are readable and have substance -- this does both nicely.