What do you think?
Rate this book
Celts
"They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses... They embalm the heads... [and]... display them with pride to strangers." - Diodorus Siculus Before the Vikings, before the Anglo-Saxons, before the Roman Empire, the Celts dominated central and western Europe. Today we might think of the Celts only inhabiting parts of the far west of Europe - Ireland, Great Britain, France and Spain - but these were the extremities in which their culture lasted longest. In fact, they had originated in Central Europe and settled as far afield as present day Turkey, Poland and Italy. From their emergence as an Iron Age people around 800 BC to the early centuries AD, Celts reveals the truth behind the stories of naked warriors, ritual beheadings, druids, magic and accusations of human sacrifice. The book examines the different tribes, the Hallstatt and La Tene periods, as well as Celtic survival in western Europe, the Gallic Wars, military life, spiritual life, slavery, sexuality and Celtic art. Celts is an expertly written account of a people who have long captured the popular imagination.
224 pages, Paperback
Published March 14, 2023
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
August 18, 2026
NB This volume has gained a new subtitle – and possibly a new ISBN – 9781838866969 – since last coming out, in 2023. It is the same, and was originally copyright 2013 according to this printing.
Don't come here for legends of green men, the magical inhabitants of longbarrows or the builders of henges. This is very much the history and supposed life of the Celts, and at times is a really woolly one. The first chapter sets up their rise, with differing ethics from different civilisations of them, but after that things have a tendency to fall apart. We see how good rulers wouldn't order punitive taxes, but if the farmers were happy and felt safe they wouldn't mind paying their dues. Wow, unique. Charismatic leaders who knew not to be too dictatorial might be better than their inferior models. Shocking. "Without sufficient food, Celtic society would have collapsed" – hold the front page.
After that come very different chapters, however – yet ones peppered with provisos, caveats and admissions this is not firmly known of. We get a look at their life and law, through what seems known of Irish and Welsh Celts. Said life brings them on to their belief systems, after which we have a really quite convoluted look at Irish legend – Lugh versus the Fomorians, etc etc. A chapter on military matters is proof this is quite the repetitive volume – we've had discussions about them fighting naked long before this, and don't need it a second time.
Further historical sections round things up, proving this is definitely to be shelved in the history section and not the arcane cultures. A lot of the history, too, is, by necessity, woven into the Roman, as they were the chief enemy or replacing folks a lot of the time and they were the historians.
So yes, buy this knowing that to be the case and it isn't too bad – again, for a book that's been out multiple times and yet still defined by woolliness, repetitiveness and basic statement relevant to any peoples you care to mention (the quote about lack of food as needed in a book about the Incans as about Celts). But the myth is Irish myth, and not distinctly Celtic, a lot of this focuses on western Celts and not those still in Eastern Europe, and many interested readers will hope for more about the culture, the significance and meanings of what we think of as 'Celtic'.
The fact a lot of that is not actually Celtic, and we cannot be provided with what does not exist (the precise meaning of this, that and the other), might indicate a negative review is unnecessarily harsh; I still thought to find something better than this. Two and a half stars.
Don't come here for legends of green men, the magical inhabitants of longbarrows or the builders of henges. This is very much the history and supposed life of the Celts, and at times is a really woolly one. The first chapter sets up their rise, with differing ethics from different civilisations of them, but after that things have a tendency to fall apart. We see how good rulers wouldn't order punitive taxes, but if the farmers were happy and felt safe they wouldn't mind paying their dues. Wow, unique. Charismatic leaders who knew not to be too dictatorial might be better than their inferior models. Shocking. "Without sufficient food, Celtic society would have collapsed" – hold the front page.
After that come very different chapters, however – yet ones peppered with provisos, caveats and admissions this is not firmly known of. We get a look at their life and law, through what seems known of Irish and Welsh Celts. Said life brings them on to their belief systems, after which we have a really quite convoluted look at Irish legend – Lugh versus the Fomorians, etc etc. A chapter on military matters is proof this is quite the repetitive volume – we've had discussions about them fighting naked long before this, and don't need it a second time.
Further historical sections round things up, proving this is definitely to be shelved in the history section and not the arcane cultures. A lot of the history, too, is, by necessity, woven into the Roman, as they were the chief enemy or replacing folks a lot of the time and they were the historians.
So yes, buy this knowing that to be the case and it isn't too bad – again, for a book that's been out multiple times and yet still defined by woolliness, repetitiveness and basic statement relevant to any peoples you care to mention (the quote about lack of food as needed in a book about the Incans as about Celts). But the myth is Irish myth, and not distinctly Celtic, a lot of this focuses on western Celts and not those still in Eastern Europe, and many interested readers will hope for more about the culture, the significance and meanings of what we think of as 'Celtic'.
The fact a lot of that is not actually Celtic, and we cannot be provided with what does not exist (the precise meaning of this, that and the other), might indicate a negative review is unnecessarily harsh; I still thought to find something better than this. Two and a half stars.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review