Customer Reviews

Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations from the Gaelic

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For those interested in Gaelic literature, this collection of hymns and incantations is invaluable. The material contained includes a blend of pagan and Christian imagery and spirituality, and reflects the Gaelic oral tradition. The celtic knots and motifs are wonderful adjuncts to the text.

Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912) made this collection of 'old lore' over a period of 44 years in the second half of the 19th century. Without Mr Carmichael's efforts, it is possible that some, at least, of this material would have been lost forever.

Recommended to those who are interested in Gaelic literature as well as to those with a specific interest in the hymns and incantations.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This is an enormous and enormously diverse compilation of short and not so short prayers from a somewhat hidden part of our western tradition.

If your looking for texts that haven't been to set to music so often as, for instance, the ave maria, look here.

If your looking for a spell to ward off the evil eye, you can probably find that as well : )

If looking for a part of our cultural heritage not regularly reported in cultural histories, look here.

These English translations of Gaelic texts make a whole other world available to the linguistically challenged, like me. : )

Though Pagans may be put off by some of the Christian overlay in this book, it is an essential compendium of traditional Gaelic prayers, charms and incantations. You may need to go to the Library to find the Gaelic versions, but it is well worth your time.

Unlike most prayer books, this is more like a collection of folk prayers or common prayers and rituals of the people. The rituals may seem odd to us because we don't have a sense of living in a world where spirits (good and bad) are close by. These prayers reflect a people who've been shaped by a Christian vision of the world, but still retain some of their pre-Christian sensibilities about the world around them. Many of the prayers are absolutely stunning and stirring. Some of the prayers serve to sacralize the simple everyday tasks of living like sweeping a room, stoking a fire and so on. Overall, this books of prayers has deeply enriched my personal prayers and reflections.

Beautiful, haunting, and luminous. Anyone who loves Gaelic or Celtic culture and literature should check this out. The weaving of Christian and Pagan imagery is a marvel.

As was seen with Japan the centuries of a State Religion couldn't eradicted the central Faith Truths. The Scottish love of the Mother Of God and Our Lord are embedded in the Scottish Traditions.

I wasn't expecting this to be strictly Scots information. I think I was looking for more ancient stuff, and this turns out to be modern remnants. On the whole, I should have checked it out from the library instead. The footnotes are the most fascinating reading of the lot.

Collected over a hundred years ago by an excise man, I was interested to read this as a witness to Celtic spirituality. However the amount of invocation of the Virgin Mary and prayers to saints leads me to think it is more to do with Roman Catholic spirituality. It is an interesting compilation of a now mainly lost oral tradition but one is not alone in questioning the historical bias of the author. Presbyterianism was not the malevolent influence on music and dance in the Hebrides which he makes it out to be. Read Donald MacLeods more contemporary assessment for a very different view. I confess this is the one book among my reviews which I did not manage to read to the end.