The Celtic Poets: Songs and Tales from Early Ireland and Wales

by Patrick K. Ford (Translator)

A scholarly and reader-friendly collection of scattered material, mostly from the Welsh.

Genres: Poetry, Ireland

387 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Professor Patrick K. Ford has been Margaret Brooks Robinson Research Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures in Harvard University’s Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures since 2006. He was Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures and head of the same department between 1991 and 2005, and before that he served for a long period as a Professor of English at UCLA. He is a productive Celtic scholar and his translations have presented medieval Welsh and Irish literature to wide circles of readers.

His books and editions include: The Poetry of Llywarch Hen (1974), The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales (1977), Ystoria Taliesin (1991), The Celtic Poets (1999), Math uab Mathonwy (1999), and Manawydan uab Llyr (2000). He is also one of the co-authors of Sources and Analogues of Old British Poetry: II, Celtic and Germanic (with Bjork, Calder and Melia, 1983) and The Irish Literary Tradition (with J.E. Caerwyn Williams, 1991), as well as the editor of Celtic Folklore and Christianity (1983).

Reviews

[Othy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good collection of Celtic poems, though mostly from the Welsh. Ford's introduction to the book as well as to each poem are very good and informative, drawing from scholarship from the past one hundred years.

[Katharyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for HISTAM 276: Celtic Civilizations

[Sheri Fresonke Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great way to learn about the poetic, storytelling history and lifestyle of the bards.