The Celtic Realms

by Myles Dillon, Nora Kershaw Chadwick

In their masterly survey of the history and culture of the Celtic peoples, Dillon and Chadwick cover the whole period from the Celts' pre-historic origins to the Norman invasion of Britain. Though few really understand Celtic art, the authors demonstrate the peculiar genius of the Celts in their religion, literature, and visual arts.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Mythology, Spirituality, Historical

355 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Myles Dillon (11 May 1900 — 18 June 1972) was an Irish historian, philologist and celticist.

Myles Dillon was born in Dublin; he was one of six children of John Dillon and his wife Elizabeth Mathew; James Matthew Dillon, the leader of Fine Gael, was his younger brother.

Myles Dillon graduated from University College Dublin, than travelled to Germany and France, where he studied in deep Old Irish and Celtic philology under Joseph Vendryes and Rudolf Thurneysen. Dillon taught Sanskrit and comparative philology in Trinity College, Dublin (1928–1930) and University College, Dublin (1930–1937). In 1937 moved to USA, where he taught Irish in the University of Madison (his son John M. Dillon was born in Madison), in 1946-1947 taught in Chicago. On his return to Ireland worked in the School of Celtic Studies in Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies; was the director of the School from 1960 till 1968, edited Celtica. Volume 11 of Celtica is dedicated to his memory.

Myles Dillon is the author of a number of important scholarly books, handbooks and translations from Old Irish. Among his most notable works are The Cycles of the Kings (1946), Early Irish literature (1948), The Celtic realms (1967, with Nora Kershaw Chadwick). M. Dillon published a modern translation and commentary of The Book of Rights (Old Irish: Lebor na cert, 1962). He also translated Dieux et héros des Celtes by Marie-Louise Sjoestedt into English, thus making the book available for a wider scholarly audience. The monograph Celts and Aryans, published posthumously by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study reflects Dillon's interest in the traces of the shared heritage in the Indian and Irish cultures deriving from Proto-Indo-European society based on a period of research Dillon spent in Simla, India.

[edit] BibliographyThe Cycles of the Kings. OUP, 1946; rep. Four Courts Press 1994)
Early Irish Literature. Chicago, 1948; rep. 1969; rep. Four Courts Press 1994
Early Irish Society, Dublin 1954 (editor)
Irish Sagas. 1959, reps. 1968, 1985, 1996
The Book of Rights. Dublin, 1962
The Celtic Realms (with Nora Chadwick),1967
Celts and Aryans. Simla 1975
[edit] ReferencesBreathnach D., Ní Murchú M. 1882—1982. Beathaisnéis a ceathair. (Dublin): An Clóchmar, 1995. P. 28-30.
J. Fischer and J. Dillon (eds.), The Correspondence of Myles Dillon, 1922—1925: Irish German Relations and Celtic Studies, Dublin: Four Courts Press 1998
Robert Welch, Bruce Stewart, The Oxford companion to Irish literature, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 149.

Reviews

[Philip of Macedon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick back story first. I became obsessed with Celtic culture and mythology about 15 years ago and bought this book. I never read it. Over the following years I bought more books on the topic and in the following years I started buying some books on the Arthurian legends. These also remained unread. Recently I began building a massive reading list of the Arthurian cycle, looking forward to finally reading those unread things on my shelves, and I hunted down the missing books that are critical for exploring this massive body of medieval heroic literature.

In my research I discovered that Arthur’s origins lie not in British literature but in Celtic myth, specifically that from Wales. As I dug deeper into the subject I learned that to really have a proper Arthurian Cycle reading list, I would need to include many of the works of Celtic mythology I had never read, some of which I already owned and many that I didn’t. I decided I had might as well throw in all the other Celtic sagas and myths, most of which have nothing to do with the Arthurian stuff, to do a really thorough job. In the last few months I have sought out and found most of what I need to fully explore the Arthurian legends, and have also expanded my collection of Celtic works.

Before setting out on what I expect to be an amazing journey of reading, I thought it made sense to finally read this history of the Celtic people, to set the tone, and to better inform me on the cultures and regions and ideas. It has prepared me in ways I hadn’t anticipated, and was the perfect way to begin this epic quest.

The Celtic Realms is a focused but vast history of the Celtic people constructed through archaeology, language, literature, art, ancient records, quality scholarship by the Celtic people themselves, and generations of historians. The authors show that Celtic history is still unraveling and questions are still being answered, new questions are arising, new discoveries are being made.

The authors cover the prehistoric origins of the Celts in Europe around 2000 BC and follow a more or less uninterrupted path of migration and settling and brilliant tribal, intellectual, and cultural activity until the time of the Norman Conquest in the Middle Ages. By the time the Celts arrive in the British Isles they are a group of diverse and distinct but semi-unified tribes, identified by certain artistic, cultural, literary, religious, physical, and behavioral qualities, ‘marked by extremes of luxury and asceticism, of exultation and despair, by lack of discipline and of the gift for organizing secular affairs, by delight in natural beauty and in tales of mystery and imagination, by an artistic sense that prefers decoration and pattern to mere representation.’

All facets of Celtic culture and history are put under the magnifying glass, here: their social institutions, their tribal organizations, the geography of their world, the complex genealogies of significant historical figures and families, their kingdoms and religions and wars, their literature and art, and in the case of the Irish, their resilience against Roman influence, or in the case of the Welsh, their long preservation of Celtic traditions.

Early on some remarkable comparisons are drawn between Celtic Druids and customs and the Indian Brahmins and religion. Later we see intriguing parallels in law, religion, even marriage. Surprisingly, some aspects of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary in Sanskrit and old Irish resemble one another. These are fascinating similarities that don’t have an explanation, but they remind me that ‘Indo-European’ is a term that has more than just linguistic significance.

Many ancient writers are cited in their descriptions of the Celtic people or their customs. Herodotus, Plutarch, Caesar, Procopius, Posidonius, Lucan, and Bede, as well as a dozen others give us some of the earliest and most detailed descriptions of the Celts and their cultures. Roman depictions show the Celts as warlike and fearsome, given that all Roman encounters with the Celts were warlike in nature. But other writers depicted a greater array of traits and a richer quality to the people and their accomplishments.

Politics and war and threats of invasion drove many important decisions in the Celtic kingdoms, some resulting in alliances, the unifications of kingdoms and tribes, other times resulting in extensive conflict. In the 9th century Viking activity began to have a great effect on Celtic kingdoms and their priorities, as well as their military fashions. The Vikings destroyed Irish art and many of their intellectual accomplishments in the pillaging of the monasteries, but these encounters, in time, also connected Ireland with the political world of greater Europe.

There is an interesting theory mentioned in the book, not originally proposed by the authors but by another historian, that the Pict fleet around north Scotland prevented earlier Viking raids, and prevented any attacks from those waters. The Picts were dominant and fierce and known for their warriors. The Frisians policed these waters in 7th and 8th centuries, restricting movement of the Pictish fleet to only northern seas, until Charles Martel in 734 weakened them, and Charlemagne later subjugated them, leaving the southern seas to the Vikings, whose conquests began only a few decades later. If Martel hadn’t weakened the Frisians, it is posited, the Frisians would have offered strong opposition to the Vikings. It is decided that the reason the Vikings never came from the northern waters around Scotland was because of the Pictish fleet.

After Roman power diminishes in Europe, Romans withdraw from Britain and leave Celtic princes to rule. The absence of Roman power leaves the lands open to invasion by others: Teutonic people, Picts, the Irish. There is a consolidation of political integrity among the British, and soon there grow kingdoms in the lands surrounding Britain, like those of the Irish tribes — Dal Riata, Dal Fiatach, and Dal nAraidi.

There are years of conflict between the tribes of the Picts and the Irish until the Picts join the kingdom of Dal Riata, a dominant Irish power, to form the kingdom of Scotland. Generally, the principal Celtic realms are Ireland and Wales, so these receive most of the attention. But their neighbors, the Isle of Man, Scotland, Cornwall, and Brittany each become a relevant area of discussion.

A prominent focal point of the book is the early Irish and Welsh societies of the Middle Ages, the intellectual development of both, informed by a deep dive into many primary sources. Oral traditions of poetry and sagas in Ireland and Wales are a recurring feature, exalting the northern ancestry, traditions, history, and literature of the people. Of great interest to me, due to my reason for reading the book at this time, the authors take a very close look at many old works of Celtic literature, poetry, and history: the Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Mabinogion, the Book of Taliesin, the Black Book of Carmarthen, the Book of Aneirin, Nennius’ Historia Brittonum, as well as various annals and chronicles.

Heroic Age Irish Sagas and the associated historiography/pseudohistory are given a thorough treatment, with the full and proper context considered. The authors discuss how reliable some of it may be, where it may contain political bias or propaganda, what it reveals about Irish culture and society. Later they analyze the Welsh development of a similar Heroic Age. Welsh’s heroic age literature celebrated their traditions and may have been responsible for their king Merfyn rallying the support of their followers and the wider population.

The Gaulish Celts of Central Europe did not leave behind any trace of their mythology and very little of their religion, due to Roman conquest. Irish celts, however, remained untouched by Roman influence for a long time and produced a highly developed oral and literary tradition for their mythology and heathen traditions which were preserved intact. Gaulish Celtic Religion was connected with springs, rivers, lakes, forests, sanctuaries in nature, holding these things as sacred and inviolable. Many gods live underground in burial mounds for the dead. Some of these gods are linked to rebirth. The Irish traditions kept these alive, orally at first, and centuries later when the highly educated Irish learned writing, these things were represented in the literature.

A sizable portion of the book is given to detailed summaries and analyses and historical and cultural implications of the old literature of the Celts, starting with Irish origin myths from the Book of Invasions. We are told of the arrival of Tuatha De Danann, their defeat of the Fir Bolg at the first battle of Moytura, their alliance with the Fomoiri, the undersea phantoms who they then go to war with and chase into the sea in the second battle of Moytura.

Fantastic myths like this are given lavish attention and time. The four main groups of gods are illustrated, and the authors share the myth of Midir and Etain, a story of rebirth, with the many existences and lives of Etain, born into many forms through the generations. For a period Irish women were seen as the vehicles by which the dead were reborn from generation to generation. This tale has parallels to the story of the shape shifting god of the sea, Manannan Mac Lir, spiritual father of the seventh century king Mongan, and is also associated with rebirth. The authors give a wonderful overview and summary of many sagas and myths, while exploring their relationship to Celtic history.

A broad and yet saga-like history of Christianity in Ireland and Wales and Isle of Man is laid out. It includes the cults of St. Patrick and their traditions and the mysterious early days of the new religion in Ireland. Of great importance to this subject is St. Columba, whose statesmanship and intellectual integrity led to the peaceful creation of the kingdom of Scotland and the head of the Celtic Church. And there is St. Columbanus too, who fought for the survival of the Irish church and preserved its traditions.

There are the conflicts between Roman and Celtic churches, we watch the rise of the church of Columba and its decline and the rise of the church of Patrick, the various cults of religious figures, the sagas that told these amazing histories, we learn of the Easter controversy, and the heathen practices that were integrated into Christian church. We get an in depth examination of Celtic Christian literature, works from the poet Sedulius, stories of voyages or ‘Immrama’ largely borrowed from Irish heathen literary traditions, and the Brendan legend, a supernatural epic into otherworldly lands. In addition there are also ‘echtrai’ or adventures, and ‘baile’, or visions. These, in a sense, made up a sort of spiritual trilogy of literary conventions.

There is a truly enlightening foray into the early Celtic languages and the fascinating linguistics and construction of these languages, even going into the ogham language and its alphabet, as well as the Pictish symbol stones.

In the Irish and Welsh languages there are similarities to Gothic/Germanic languages, such as in loan words and some forms of structure, treatment of consonants and vowels and sentence composition. This makes sense because of the geography of Celtic origins. There are greater similarities to the language of the Italic tribes. Morphology of nouns and verbs shows some of the greatest similarities, showing Irish and Latin share a common past. These analyses reveal a wealth of insight into Celtic history and heritage, and their associations with other cultures. This part goes hard into the discussion of language, some of it over my head but clear enough to make sense of, at least non-explicitly.

We get a close look at medieval Welsh and Irish poetry, some translations from the Book of Taliesin, the Black book of Carmarthen, Y Gododdin, the Irish sagas, and some folkloric poetry. We are introduced to the Arthurian traditions and see the evolution of these countries’ poetry, their forms and structures and rhyme schemes and alliteration, and we can see the development of greater sophistication over the years. There is a surprising relation to Latin poetry that I would not have imagined in the Celtic works. There is Welsh poetry offering lamentations for fallen warriors or songs of battle, and Irish poetry offering praise of kings or the love of nature. For all the poetry shared, the original Irish or Welsh is printed alongside.

As if this isn’t enough of a grand tour of the literature of these Celtic lands, the authors then take us into the otherworldly, regaling us with many of the amazing tales of the Irish cycles: mythological, Ulster, Fennian, and the cycle of the kings. They then do the same for many Welsh tales and poems, such as those in the Mabinogion.

Keen insights are shared into Celtic art, what makes it distinct from all others, what possible influences came into it from abroad, its fixation on nature and animals, showing an intense awareness of environment in these pre-scientific times. The Celts are said to be among the first and most significant ‘Barbarian’ people to contribute to European art in Roman times, maintaining its unique character long after the Roman domination of Europe. This is deeply imaginative and fantastical, not representational and realistic, highly ornamented like the poetry, and made with intense attention and vision.

Last but not least I want to comment on the over 100 photographs printed in the book, covering everything from ancient Celtic ruins and monuments and burial sites, to artifacts and illuminated manuscripts and sculpture and Pictish symbol stones. These visuals provide a new dimension to many of the topics discussed at such masterful length in the book. It’s just a shame they are all black and white, since the book was first published in the 60s.

This is a thorough and excellent history, and a beautiful, passionate, and highly informed immersion into the culture of the ancient and medieval Celts.

[Anna C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made the unfortunate mistake of assuming this was a book one actually reads... "The Celtic Realms" is definitely one of those fat reference volumes that will collect dust at the bottom of the bookshelf.

You'll hang onto it for a few years, on the off-chance that you might someday need to verify exactly how many Roman forts are in Britain (in case your family member/significant other one day ends up on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" and uses the phone-a-friend option) but in reality, you will look at the nice photos of the Celtic crosses and then forget you ever owned it.

Look, I'm fine with inaccessible language, I really am. But this is a Barnes and Noble special edition. People are supposed to read this. Why does it sound like a doctoral thesis by the middle of page one?

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually quite fascinating, if a little dry. I discovered so much about the Celts and how much our modern culture is influenced by the Celts. I also never knew just how much land the Celts traversed to get to Ireland and England. I knew the Celts settled in France, but not that they were from Bohemia and, judging by their language, even further east.

[April Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

What ages would I recommend it too? – Thirteen and up.

Length? – A week plus.

Characters? – Non.

Setting? – The Celtic Realms

Written approximately? – 2003.

Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Confused.

Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? Yes. With so many unusual names, there need to be maps depicting where these places are. I can't figure out how to pronounce them, or figure out where they are in relation to each other.

Another major issues, is time passage. For pages, it'll go on that "x" is the way to do things. Then suddenly, talking abut the same things, only "y" is the way to do them. It's as if the time passage headings were lost. So, perhaps one set of pages depicts 21100 ASD, and the jump to 300 AD is not clear to the reader.

Short storyline: Unsure.

Notes for the reader: You need maps, a dictionary, and more to comprehend this history resource. Best to study it while very young, when such things are easy to remember.

[Maya · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a book I would recommend to anyone. Only read it if you want to know how not to write a history book. Thought this book is written by authors who at the time were the foremost authorities on the subject I am very much disappointed in their writing. I will write a fuller review when I finish reading the book

[Joe Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good history, but not too lively a writer.

[Joesph Hernandez]

Well so far it is an interesting read, about a culture that had many influences in our modern world, yet not as reconized as maybe they should be!!