Celtic

The Celtic nations are generally held to be Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Cornwall, and Brittany. The Spanish regions of Galicia, Cantabria, Asturias are sometimes also included. Books in this category may be set in the Celtic regions of the world, or among emigrants from these regions. They may also include Fantasy works based on Celtic culture or mythology,

Celtic Books

Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwaters, #1)

The Táin: From the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cúailnge

Celtic Myths and Legends (Celtic, Irish)

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe

The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

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Lists

Early Irish Myths and Sagas by Anonymous

An Irish Folklore Treasury by John Creedon

Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by John O'Donovan

A Celtic Miscellany by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson

Irish Mythology Source Texts

10 books — 2 voters

The Land of the Green Man by Carolyne Larrington

The Darkest Part of the Woods by Ramsey Campbell

The Green Man

52 books — 13 voters

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

Celtic Fantasy and Science Fiction

99 books — 91 voters

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David W. Anthony

480 books — 172 voters

Books with Druids

96 books — 23 voters

Terry Jones' Medieval Lives by Terry Jones

Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede

Medieval Gower Stories by Ann Marie Thomas

Best Books on Early Medieval History, Art, Literature and Archaeology

214 books — 17 voters

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Quotes Tagged “Celtic”

“ The Celtic Sufi, Sonnet Oh, you take the fancy road, I'll take the lowly road, and I'll be in heartland, while you charge your phone, where me and my true heart never ever part ways, where me and my backbone, never bend in dismay, where me and my scruples never give in to convenience, where me and my fervent dream succumb to no pride of the dead, if you alight from your high horse, with a gleaming heart I wait for thee, join me one day for a cup of tea, on the bonnie loch of liberty. ...more ”
― Abhijit Naskar, Brit Actually: Nursery Rhymes of Reparations

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“ Where is the graveyard of dead gods? What lingering mourner waters their mounds? There was a time when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus. But where in all the world is there a man who worships Jupiter today? And who of Huitzilopochtli? In one year - and it is no more than five hundred years ago - 50,000 youths and maidens were slain in sacrifice to him. Today, if he is remembered at all, it is only by some vagrant Where is the graveyard of dead gods? What lingering mourner waters their mounds? There was a time when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus. But where in all the world is there a man who worships Jupiter today? And who of Huitzilopochtli? In one year - and it is no more than five hundred years ago - 50,000 youths and maidens were slain in sacrifice to him. Today, if he is remembered at all, it is only by some vagrant savage in the depths of the Mexican forest. Huitzilopochtli, like many other gods, had no human father; his mother was a virtuous widow; he was born of an apparently innocent flirtation that she carried out with the sun. When he frowned, his father, the sun, stood still. When he roared with rage, earthquakes engulfed whole cities. When he thirsted he was watered with 10,000 gallons of human blood. But today Huitzilopochtli is as magnificently forgotten as Allen G. Thurman. Once the peer of Allah, Buddha and Wotan, he is now the peer of Richmond P. Hobson, Alton B. Parker, Adelina Patti, General Weyler and Tom Sharkey. Speaking of Huitzilopochtli recalls his brother Tezcatlipoca. Tezcatlipoca was almost as powerful; he consumed 25,000 virgins a year. Lead me to his tomb: I would weep, and hang a couronne des perles. But who knows where it is? Or where the grave of Quetzalcoatl is? Or Xiuhtecuhtli? Or Centeotl, that sweet one? Or Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love? Of Mictlan? Or Xipe? Or all the host of Tzitzimitl? Where are their bones? Where is the willow on which they hung their harps? In what forlorn and unheard-of Hell do they await their resurrection morn? Who enjoys their residuary estates? Or that of Dis, whom Caesar found to be the chief god of the Celts? Of that of Tarves, the bull? Or that of Moccos, the pig? Or that of Epona, the mare? Or that of Mullo, the celestial jackass? There was a time when the Irish revered all these gods, but today even the drunkest Irishman laughs at them. But they have company in oblivion: the Hell of dead gods is as crowded as the Presbyterian Hell for babies. Damona is there, and Esus, and Drunemeton, and Silvana, and Dervones, and Adsullata, and Deva, and Bellisima, and Uxellimus, and Borvo, and Grannos, and Mogons. All mighty gods in their day, worshipped by millions, full of demands and impositions, able to bind and loose - all gods of the first class. Men labored for generations to build vast temples to them - temples with stones as large as hay-wagons. The business of interpreting their whims occupied thousands of priests, bishops, archbishops. To doubt them was to die, usually at the stake. Armies took to the field to defend them against infidels; villages were burned, women and children butchered, cattle were driven off. Yet in the end they all withered and died, and today there is none so poor to do them reverence. What has become of Sutekh, once the high god of the whole Nile Valley? What has become of: Resheph Anath Ashtoreth El Nergal Nebo Ninib Melek Ahijah Isis Ptah Anubis Baal Astarte Hadad Addu Shalem Dagon Sharaab Yau Amon-Re Osiris Sebek Molech? All there were gods of the highest eminence. Many of them are mentioned with fear and trembling in the Old Testament. They ranked, five or six thousand years ago, with Yahweh Himself; the worst of them stood far higher than Thor. Yet they have all gone down the chute, and with them the following: Bilé Ler Arianrhod Morrigu Govannon Gunfled Sokk-mimi Nemetona Dagda Robigus Pluto Ops Meditrina Vesta You may think I spoof. That I invent the names. I do not. Ask the rector to lend you any good treatise on comparative religion: You will find them all listed. They were gods of the highest standing and dignity-gods of civilized peoples-worshiped and believed in by millions. All were omnipotent, omniscient and immortal. And all are dead. ...more ”
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy

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