Celtic Myths, Celtic Legends

by R.J. Stewart, Courtney Davis (Illustrator)

This book gathers together a range of tales from Ireland, Wales, Brittany and England. Each one is representative of the Celtic tradition of story telling and legend, showing both the beauty and savagery within the stories as well as their spirituality and sensuous qualities.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, History, Paganism, Classics, Spirituality, Arthurian

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Robert John Stewart (Bob Stewart) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father came from a Gaelic speaking family originally from the Western Highlands. His mother was Welsh, from a Welsh speaking family from the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, with a tradition of singing and playing the Welsh triple-harp. He is known today as a composer, author, and teacher, with 40 books in publication, translated into many languages worldwide. He is widely experienced in theater, film, and television, and is a skilled performer and presenter.

Reviews

[Overbooked ✎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was partly disappointed by this book, the legends and myths were interesting (some are better than others), but the language was a challenge, especially the poems in ballad style. A glossary at the back would have been of help. I might look for another book on the subject later on.

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read through this pretty quickly and some tales were boring. I was disappointed that there was no correct pronunciation in parenthesis of the Gaelic words as with other Celtic legends book I've read.

[Wayward Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's always been something about the Celtic culture, mythology and the very atmosphere that'd appear in the air whenever the conversation turned to this subject, something that always found a way to fascinate me. The myths and legends in this book are sometimes beautiful, other times cruel, but they never fail to draw you in and hold your attention. I really regretted not knowing the exact pronunciation of the mentioned names and places, but I couldn't find an audio book anywhere. Still, this interesting and enchanting book proved to be the perfect bed time read.

[Gwyndyllyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was interesting and fun. Not as deep as many of R.J. Stewart's books in that it gives the stories (which is important) but is not really a map to inner experiences.

[Dawn Henri · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it

[Guera25 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The archaic, convoluted prose was tedious, and I had no interest in the author's own interpretations of a few of the tales, but it was an interesting, if superficial, overview of Celtic mythology.

[sticks_r0cks_mud · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out promising but I actually really couldn't get past the fact that the author just either anglicised all the Irish names or just decided not to put fada's in, even though the characters in the story from Brittany got the grammar correct in their names. I thought I would be able to look past it but to be honest i couldn't and I shouldn't have to.

[Tiamat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. Just awful. The choice of legends is very strange, and their order is even stranger. Why am I supposed to read the story about Cuchulain’s wife and the birds before the story of how he has married her? How does it make sense?
The translation is boring even though the author tried to flourish it with unnecessary and clearly his own remarks. The beauty of Irish myths is in their simplicity, in their unique expressions, not in retelling them like the stories about your friends and relatives. And I was appalled at the author’s own verse about Macha – the book’s title is Celtic Myths, Celtic Legends, not the poetry of some guy.
The second star is only for the nice edition with illustrations.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Traditional Celtic folklore combined with line-drawings detailing noteworthy locations and artifacts that illuminate the tales. Also includes Celtic style illustarions of many of the tales.

[Anna Smithberger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this simply for my Tam Lin paper, but it wasn't particularly special and I ended up not using it.