Pagan Celtic Britain

by Anne Ross

Although some aspects of pre-Roman and pre-Christian beliefs remain shrouded in mystery, the author of this comprehensive, profusely illustrated volume contends that neither the Roman invasion of Britain nor the coming of Christianity eliminated pagan religious practice. Dr. Anne Ross writes from wide experience of living in Celtic-speaking communities where she has traced vernacular tradition. She employs archaeological and anthropoligical evidence, as well as folklore, to provide broad insight into the early Celtic world.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Paganism, Mythology, British Literature, Archaeology

580 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Dr. Anne Ross was a Celtic scholar and folklorist. She spoke Gaelic and Welsh as well as being a scholar of Anglo Saxon, Old norse and Medieval English. After studying for her Phd. in Edinburgh she became a research fellow to Southampton University and a writer for the British Museum. She lived with her husband Richard and their children Richard and Berenice in Wales.

Reviews

[Kimberly]

Picked up a very old, dog-eared, spine-broken copy of this at a used book store the week before Christmas. I had never heard of this book, or Ross, and was very happy to find this book. I picked it up immediately and bought it for a couple of bucks. I am enjoying it immensely and learning a lot. I had no idea the "Celts" equal the Gauls and the Galatians as well. I was worried that the book's scholarship was out-of-date, but I've done some additional research and it looks like the scholarship has held up over the years. At least as far as I've gotten, which is about 50 pages into it.

WHY does GoodReads not have a status for "I will never finish reading this book"??? We all have those books that we KNOW we will NEVER finish, right? Well, anyway, I will never finish this book. It was interesting, especially the information noted above about the Galations --> Gauls --> Celts. And I found the archaeological record showing religious sites being located close to wells and water springs. In _Listening to the Heartbeat of God_, Rev. J. Philip Newell noted this continuity between pagan Celtic religios rites and Celtic Christian beliefs.

[Simone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used this for my bachelor thesis. I decided to put it on my "read" list, even if I mainly focused on chapters 1-3 & 5 and sort of only looked through the other chapters. It was really good and very useful. Ross is extremely thorough, always arguing her case with lots of examples. Great book about the scarce knowledge we have of the Celtic religion.

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please check out my review on my blog:

Pagan Celtic Britain

[Shirley Revill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read.

[Michael Wylde · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1967 and revised in 1992, the book is out of date, but there is much information I have not seen in more recent works, especially on animal associations in paganism, so still worth a read for those interested.

[Erin Zelnio · Rating 4 out of 5]

At 51 years old, this book is just a bit outdated when it comes to some of the conclusions drawn. However, the exhaustive catalog of sculpture, statuary and other archaeological finds, married with the literary research, keeps this on the To Read pile for anyone interested in the Celts.

[Anne Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic of Celtic scholarship. A must-have for anyone with an interest in this area.

[Elizabeth McGee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed through a lot of this. It's really more of a reference book than, like, a history. There are some factoids and myths/legends scattered throughout, but most of the text describes various artifacts that fall into certain archetype categories. I was hoping for more of a narrative, but I suppose at the time this was written (and still today?) there just isn't enough definitive history to tell. That's okay, I still enjoyed it and learned a bunch.

[Paul Tubb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book written by someone who's career was cut tragically short.

[Pam Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't wanna give away spoilers, but I'll just say this..there's much more commonality between Judaism and Indo-European Paganism than most people would assume.

As Rabbi Jill Hammer said, "paganism has always been part of Judaism. The rabbis in the Talmud are worried about idolatrous objects, but they do magical spells. They’re involved in the same things they would consider pagan if other people did them."