Chronicles of the Celts

by Iain Zaczek

Retellings of 15 traditional Irish, Welsh, and Breton tales, laced with color and black-and-white photographs of artifacts, landscapes, sunsets, and manuscripts. Includes a welcome bibliography of modern editions and a very inaccurate pronunciation guide. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical, Ireland, Mythology

159 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Tlaloc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written with an appreciable warmth that shows. Especially liked the interplay of advancing Christianity and dying paganism in some of the later stories, and the melancholic way with which it is treated.

[Historia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book slightly difficult to classify as it offers a rich mixture of legendary tales and historical background, as well as many well chosen photographs of museum relics and archaeological sites.
It is not an academic book for the student of literature, or the professor of archaeology, but an excellent work for someone like myself, an amateur enthusiast who wants to drink in the essence of the Celtic culture, with its big bold characters such as Cu Chulainn.

[Jennifer Sigman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should have been called "Chronicles of the Irish, with a couple bits from the Welsh and two completely Christianized tales from Brittony, and nothing from anywhere else".

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is an easily approachable read for those with a burgeoning interest in the Celts.

[VampAmber · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I absolutely loved the stories as they were in this book, I really wish I could've read the real versions, the ones that existed before Christianity changed everything to be theirs. I bet they were so much better, before everything got fixed just by praying. You can tell some of them weren't modified as much as others, but I still bet they were better before. It really is too bad that history (and ancient literature) is (re)written by the winners. So many things we could've known, if people didn't get rid of everything from their predecessors, once they gained control... But anyway, this book was still so amazingly interesting. Even if a majority of the names were next to impossible to pronounce without a firm understanding of Celtic languages (something that I don't possess). Makes me want to look even more into Celtic history, especially since my great-grandmother came from Ireland. Some of this stuff might be in that 1/8 Irish blood in my system. ^_^

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 Please see my review at Celtic Scholar's Reviews and Opinions

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick summation of legends from the Tain, the Mabinogion, and other Celtic myth. It does dispense with a lot of the flowery prose, though.

[Megan]

Chronicles of the Celts by Iain Zaczek (1997)