The Celtic Realms: The History and the Culture of the Celtic Peoples from Pre-History to the Norman Invasion

This book is a scholarly account of the history and culture of the Celts, from the earliest archeological evidence in the iron-age Hallstatt culture circa 800 BCE, To the Norman invasion of Britain under William the Conqueror in 1066. The authors discuss the mysterious origins of the Celts using place-names as a guiding demographic to trace their principle routes of migration and their established settlements. The book then goes on further to discuss the formation, structure and the bodies of independent Celtic kingdoms, of Gaul, Britain, Wales, Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall and the Isle of Man. Of particular interest is the changing and reforming political and social change which occurred in Britain following the withdrawal of Roman governance C. 4-500 CE. The fifth chapter on Irish secular institutions gives an interesting account of a Gaelic society, its inherited laws, the class based structure, customs and dress, festivals, and the organization of time. All of this is done in comparison with the Welsh system, but interestingly draws many parallels with Indo-European culture, particularly the Vedic and Hindu codes of law. The 6th chapter outlines the structure and organization of the early modern Celtic kingdoms, providing information on the Pictish tribes and the Dal Riata, Irish incursions and influence in Scotland, the development of the Celtic Welsh and their relations with the Saxons, and overall the influence of the Viking and Nordic raids and settlements throughout the Western Gaelic communities. This period history spans from the 5-6th CE to the late 9th, leading up to the invasion of the Normans at Hastings in 1066. The remaining chapters examine Celtic culture from the perspective of literature, myths, language, religion and art. I chose this book because I wanted a broad but academic and scholarly account of Celtic history, its formation, structure, people and culture. This volume fulfills all of those criteria, but it was certainly not a `casual' read, indeed it took me several weeks to digest and may properly be used as a reference and source of information rather than leisurely perusal. Both authors are renowned and respected academics, Myles Dillon having been the senior professor at the Dublin Institute, and professor of Celtic studies at Wisconsin, Chicago, and Edinburgh universities. Nora Chadwick is a veteran lecturer at Cambridge University and Newham and Girton Colleges. Celtic Realms is written with an absolutely serious attention to detail, woven together and cross-referenced in the true tradition of Celtic knot-work, and is perhaps the result of several years dedicated study and research. It belongs in the library of any reader with more than a passing interest in Celtic history, and itself provides a student with valuable resources. What I enjoyed most about this book were the accounts of literature and arts, where the authors bring the voice and actions of the Celtic people to life. The study of any histo

Most of us are interested, to some extent, in history, and Celtic history captures the interest of a consistently increasing number of us. There's so much wonder, beautiful visual and literary art, and mystery to the ancient Celts. But amid the work published on the Celts, there is much that is superficial or based on inaccurate traditions (too often English traditions misinterpreting true Celtic realities). I've found some of the latter, as well as some much better sources, and this ranks as the best among them. The scholarly research that went into this book is very strongly apparent; it is as deep as it needs to be. But it is surprisingly accessible as well. The writers know how to speak good, understandable language rather than Academese. Also present is a large amount of actual material. Many similar volumes only present the ideas and conclusions of the writers, while not bothering to provide the reader with much source material. Here, though, you'll find some excellent pictures, fine paraphrases of many Celtic stories, and even a good selection of actual Celtic words, poetry and inscription in the original language, as well as translation. Other writers give us precious few actual Old Welsh and Old Irish words, but these authors realize that most of us will never have easy access to the old texts. All in all, as a lay reader, if you want intelligent research which gives you a fair amount of familiarity with important ancient mechanisms like art, language and poetry styles, with a fine record of the important points of history, you'll be hard-pressed to find it in a more accessible form. I'd number this among my ten most important books.

I've had a few people recommend this book to me over the years, and finally sat down to read it when a friend brought it in to work for me. I went out and bought my own copy the next day.This is an excellent book and is surprisingly current, especially considering that it was first published nearly 40 years ago. Chadwick and Dillon were definitely ahead of their time. I may have been reluctant in the past to crack this book open due to the vast amount of chaff that I have tried to digest from several of their contemporaries.This book covers most of the topics in Celtica - prehistory, history, culture, language, kingdoms - with a heavy focus on the Celtic literature. Some great insights, definitely a useable research work. Doesn't say a whole lot about the Druids, but match this up with Ellis' "Celtic Empire", "The Celts" and "The Druids"; Gregory's "Complete Irish Mythology"; Guest's "The Mabinogion"; and Hutton's "Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles",and you have an excellent all-round introduction to the Celts in general and to the Druids in particular.

This Dillon and Chadwick masterwork was first printed in 1967 and still stands as a significant work. Some writers of books on the Celts that have been printed over the past twenty years would have benefited if they had consulted this book. Its discussions of the origins of the Celts are fair-minded and the authors do not rush the reader to conclusions that cannot be with our present state of knowledge and were somewhat ahead of their time in pushing back the origins of the Celtic period further than what is usually presented in other works. For the beginner it is not always an easy read but it is still approachable and the determined beginner would do well in reading this book as their first introduction to the history of the Celts. The author's use of the Celtic bardic texts is commendable for they introduce the information they contain yet minimize them as far as being a reliable source of fact and history. Explored are accounts of the Celts by the Classical world as well as a discussion of the first traces of the Celtic language. Social and religious aspects of the early Celts are also touched on. Most of the book concentrates on the historical Celts of the British Isles. Their study of the religion, art and literature of the Celts of the British Isles is masterful. A good companion to this book is Barry Cunliffe's "The Ancient Celts."