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The Rise of the Celts
In this classic ethnological study, a noted French scholar, perhaps the foremost authority of his day on the Celts, traces the origins, history and influence of this far-flung group of Indo-European peoples. Beginning with the earliest archaeological and linguistic evidence, he tracks the migration of Celtic peoples into Europe and as far west as the British Isles. Drawing on years of research and study, Professor Hubert offers exceptionally thorough treatment of Celtic languages and what their relationship to Indo-European, Germanic, Italic, and other language families can tell us about the origins and migrations of the Celts; he also provides expert, detailed discussions of archaeological evidence from the La Tène and other cultures in the form of weapons, armor, pottery, and decorative ornament. Finally, he presents extensive, meticulously researched chapters on the expansion of the Celts in the British Isles and on the Continent during the Bronze Age and the Hallstatt Period. Enhanced with more than 140 line illustrations, 4 halftones, and 12 maps, this work is indispensable for serious students of Celtic or European history, but it will also be welcomed by any reader interested in this extraordinary group of peoples and the profound influence Celts exerted on Western culture.
- GenresHistory
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 15, 2022
Translated by M R Dobie (1938 edition). The editor is C.K. Ogden. M.A.. The edition I found on GR is not quite the same.
Henri Hubert was principally an archaeologist, but his knowledge and expertise included a wide and intensely detailed range of history, linguistics, anthropology, literature and art (here, La Tène). I bought this first edition (a translation from the French) for £20, a few years ago, and I see that the same edition in a similar (very good) condition is now selling for £85.93.
The main part of the work was done in 1914, but the war interrupted. Hubert’s subject here is the origin and movements of the different Celtic peoples, including early separations and unifications, the former including an early separation between Goidels and Brythons, and the latter evidenced in the archaeology and art as later movements of peoples occurred. Hubert places faith in classical sources, but has reservations about Caesar’s De Bello Gallico in Caesar’s merging of the habitations and customs of Picts with Celts.
Pytheas, who lived in the fourth century BC, knew that “the Celts had arrived on the coasts of the western seas before 600 BC, and Britain by 300 BC”. In 335 BC Alexander the Great received the representatives of the Danubian peoples (including Celts established on the Ionic Gulf).
“Alexander received them amicably. This was the occasion on which he asked them, at a feast, what they feared most in the world. “That the sky should fall on our heads,” is their alleged reply. (Strabo). I thought immediately of the rhyme, “Chicken Licken” where the said fowl is worried about the very thing – and doesn’t it come up in Asterix the Gaul, somewhere?!
There is so much information in all the areas mentioned above that the best thing for me to do is mention a couple of quotations indicating conclusions or concessions. In the foreward, Henri Berr presents this rather sweeping judgement:
“We sometimes hear of a Celtic Empire and also of a Ligurian Empire and an Indo-European Empire. In all three cases, like Hubert, I consider the term improper. There can be no empire without political unity, central power, domination intended and carried into effect. Unity of racial character and unity of civilisation do not necessarily imply the existence of an empire. And it was because they could not create one by themselves that the Celts rallied, without much resistance, to the imperial idea which animated Rome in her conquests.” (My emphasis).
A controversial declaration, for me, just after I finished “Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle”! This from Henri Berr. He might be referring to the Continental Celts and the Gauls at this point (except Asterix, of course!) rather than the Brythonic or Goidelic Celts in Britain and Ireland. Here’s how Henri Hubert concludes his work, which was intended to be followed by an another volume, reaching the later Celtic civilisation.
“Polybius, an accurate and well-informed historian, wrote about 150 BC: “One meets nothing but Celts from Narbo (possibly Narbonne) and its neighbourhood to the Pyrenees.” At all events, when Hannibal, sixty years before, in 218 BC, passed through Roussillon and Languedoc on his way to the Alps, with an army largely composed of Celts, it seems that he met nothing but Gauls.”
Lots of black-and-white illustrations of La Tène and other art, including a beautiful photograph of The Gundestrup Cauldron, enhance this book. According to a note by Marcel Mauss, Hubert’s statements were justified by later historians. I just wish he’d lived to write the sequel.
Henri Hubert was principally an archaeologist, but his knowledge and expertise included a wide and intensely detailed range of history, linguistics, anthropology, literature and art (here, La Tène). I bought this first edition (a translation from the French) for £20, a few years ago, and I see that the same edition in a similar (very good) condition is now selling for £85.93.
The main part of the work was done in 1914, but the war interrupted. Hubert’s subject here is the origin and movements of the different Celtic peoples, including early separations and unifications, the former including an early separation between Goidels and Brythons, and the latter evidenced in the archaeology and art as later movements of peoples occurred. Hubert places faith in classical sources, but has reservations about Caesar’s De Bello Gallico in Caesar’s merging of the habitations and customs of Picts with Celts.
Pytheas, who lived in the fourth century BC, knew that “the Celts had arrived on the coasts of the western seas before 600 BC, and Britain by 300 BC”. In 335 BC Alexander the Great received the representatives of the Danubian peoples (including Celts established on the Ionic Gulf).
“Alexander received them amicably. This was the occasion on which he asked them, at a feast, what they feared most in the world. “That the sky should fall on our heads,” is their alleged reply. (Strabo). I thought immediately of the rhyme, “Chicken Licken” where the said fowl is worried about the very thing – and doesn’t it come up in Asterix the Gaul, somewhere?!
There is so much information in all the areas mentioned above that the best thing for me to do is mention a couple of quotations indicating conclusions or concessions. In the foreward, Henri Berr presents this rather sweeping judgement:
“We sometimes hear of a Celtic Empire and also of a Ligurian Empire and an Indo-European Empire. In all three cases, like Hubert, I consider the term improper. There can be no empire without political unity, central power, domination intended and carried into effect. Unity of racial character and unity of civilisation do not necessarily imply the existence of an empire. And it was because they could not create one by themselves that the Celts rallied, without much resistance, to the imperial idea which animated Rome in her conquests.” (My emphasis).
A controversial declaration, for me, just after I finished “Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle”! This from Henri Berr. He might be referring to the Continental Celts and the Gauls at this point (except Asterix, of course!) rather than the Brythonic or Goidelic Celts in Britain and Ireland. Here’s how Henri Hubert concludes his work, which was intended to be followed by an another volume, reaching the later Celtic civilisation.
“Polybius, an accurate and well-informed historian, wrote about 150 BC: “One meets nothing but Celts from Narbo (possibly Narbonne) and its neighbourhood to the Pyrenees.” At all events, when Hannibal, sixty years before, in 218 BC, passed through Roussillon and Languedoc on his way to the Alps, with an army largely composed of Celts, it seems that he met nothing but Gauls.”
Lots of black-and-white illustrations of La Tène and other art, including a beautiful photograph of The Gundestrup Cauldron, enhance this book. According to a note by Marcel Mauss, Hubert’s statements were justified by later historians. I just wish he’d lived to write the sequel.
September 3, 2015
I'm reviewing two books at the same time, this one and The Greatness and Decline of the Celts at Celtic Scholar's reviews and Opinions
November 21, 2014
super good
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews