Customer Reviews

Celtic Myth & Legend: From King Arthur and the Round Table to Gaelic Gods and the Giants They Battled... the Celebrated Comprehensive Treasu

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a classic, and is one of the best collections of Celtic myth on the market. Maybe _the_ best. Everyone who is a mythophile or a Celtophile should have a copy of this.

That said, it isn't perfect. Most of the flaws in it can be traced to the time in which it was written (1912). First, it stretches too far to compare everything to a Greek or Roman myth. To call the Dagda "Zeus" or Branwen "Aphrodite" is a little inaccurate, in my opinion, but I try to keep in mind the fact that he was presenting the Celtic myths to an audience obsessed with Greek myths. He even mentioned in his foreword that part of the reason for writing the book is because he was bored with poets' constant classical allusions, and wanted to give them a fresh well of legend on whicb to draw. So, in drawing parallels between Celtic and Greek myth, he was probably just trying to translate the Celtic myths into a format that his audience would understand.

The second, and more serious, gripe is Squire's anti-paganism. He buys into every rumor ever spread about Druidic human sacrifice. While at least one body has been found which was probably the victim of sacrifice, there is no evidence I've seen to indicate that the Celtic religion was the bloodbath it has sometimes been made out to be. Human sacrifice seems to have been present but very rare. Squire loves the Celts' stories, but tends to present the people themselves as bloodthirsty savages in dire need of Christianity to "civilize" them. Again, this may just be a product of Squire's times; he might have had to bash paganism just to get his book published in those days. Or the stories of widespread sacrifice may have been more commonly accepted as historical fact. I don't know. But if you can take his bias with a grain of salt, this is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Celtic myth.

Many of our roots run deep into Celtic Myth and Legend. The Tuatha de Dannan, their cycle of the Year and many of our holiday names are derived from the Celtic.

But how much does the average pagan know about the stories from whence these things came? How many know the story of Lugh, or the men of Ulster, or even who the Gods of the Britain's were? We may know a fragment here or a passage there, but many of the really good stories go untold.

Mr. Charles Squire has collected some of these stories from the old texts and put them in one place for us to read, without us having to sort through a myriad of books to get just the right ones.

I found his selection to be very deliberate in choosing the stories that epitomize Celtic Mythology. The stories of the Tuatha de Dannan are the foundation of the Celtic Traditions, and from these sprout the Fairy Trads as well. The story of the Kings of Tara are also a good choice for it is part of Gaelic/Irish traditions.

I have always liked the stories of King Cormac and Finn mac Coul. Balor and his daughter, Gwen and Gwyddneu, Manawyddan and the early stories of King Arthur all evoke pictures of heroes and heroines.

If you do not have a collection of Celtic Myths and Legends, then pick this one up. The selection of stories is excellent and gives a good overall picture of the wonderful stories from the Celts. If you already have a book or two, as I do, then supplement your collection with this one. Each of the books I have contain stories that are similar, but there are always the different ones that can not be found elsewhere.

If you're looking for an 'accounting' of Celtic Myths and Legends this is a great book with with a table of pronunciation, a great index for quick reference and an appendix of other recommended books. It is,however, very dry reading.

If you judge the book by the description on the back of the book:

"The romance of Celtic legend is unsurpassed, but many people have only a vague knowledge of the myths and legends of Britain's inhabitants. In this fascinating book, Charles Squire gives an astonishing account of the colourful Celtic characters who are part of the heritage of Great Britain."

The words fascinating, astonishing and colourful all make promises that the book can't keep.

I think that Myths and Legends would be much more accesible to the common man if told by a master storyteller that can grab and hold your attention, this book comes across as an academic study.

This book is great for the beginning reader of celtic mythology. Although it is fairly heavy reading it covers many points (not always in great depth) that can then be followed up in other books.

A very useful purchase that is opened at least once a week in my household for reference reasons.

Although slightly outdated (the book was first publised in 1905), this book still provides a good overview of the major players in Irish and British mythology. The few flaws the book contains derive mainly from the author's need to show that every myth has parallels in other cultures (wittness the "Irish Illiad")

This approach does lead to some stretching, at least on the part of the reader; I, personally, lack the linguistic background to find the author's claim that Nimue and Vivian are both direct derrivations of Rhiannon obvious, and he offers no background or proof. However, he provides some wonderful insight into the sources of myths that still permeate our culture, and for that reason alone this book is worth reading.

Celtic Myth and Legend
Revised Edition
by Charles Squire

I'm not sure why, but as of late I've begun to feel "culture envy". Since Canada is such a young country it has very little history and even less in the way of traditions, that it hasn't borrowed from other cultures and countries.

It's kind of sad, too, that the best definitions of Canada actually come from beer commercials! My family, third or fourth generation Canadian, didn't talk about our roots - our ancestors at all, but I'm pretty sure that we came from the British Isles at one point. So I decided that a study of Celtic culture would be a good place to start in my "culture quest".

Unfortunately, I picked this book... This book was written almost a hundred years ago but that was not the problem. I found I had to struggle to finish it. The writing was very disjointed and cumbersome. It wasn't at all entertaining, as I think myths and legends should be. In fact, if myths weren't entertaining why would they be re-told and re-counted over the centuries?

The book boasts that it is "revised" with a forward by Sirona Knight. Unfortunately, the forward turned out to be the best part of the book! She claims here that Celts weren't actually blood thirsty people who made human sacrifices as is indicated in the body of the book. My personal opinion, however, is that we don't actually have a lot of hard facts about the Celts and it could have been either way.

I would not recommend this book.

CHARLES SQUIRES' CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND reminds us of a classic truth: the more we think we're dfferent from each other, the more we are the same. The book also reminds us that certain things about human nature don't change. Using a mix of scholarly research and the retelling of ancient Celtic myths, SQUIRE examines how ancient Celtic gods and magical beings expanded, contraced, grew, disappeared, and reappeared in popular culture from the time people arrived in the British Isles and France to the present. He suggests that with each wave of immigrents, Celts, Vikings, Germans, Romans, Christians, new beliefs mingled with old. New gods replaced old, but ancient ideas lingered. Looking at story themes, plots, characters, and icons, Squire shows how these thoughts have come down to us today. I liked this book for that reason. When I finished reading it, I felt connected to ancient people. I also felt connected to modern people because the stories embodied in myth are universal. CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND is also a book I can read on several levels. If I want to read some neat stories, I can pul it off the shelf. If I want a good of example of how scholars compare and contrast legends and draw conclusions about their origins, I can grab this volume. If I would like to simply be reminded of my humanity, I can thumb CHARLES SQUIRES' pages. My only complaint about CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND is that SQUIRE'S language can get heavy. He often goes on for pages describing comparisons and characters in minute detail. This is not an easy read. Still, CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND is a good reference book for the scholar, storyteller, or person who has more than idle curiosity about old tales.

We Druids do not have a "Bible" as such but good mythology collections are a good source of similar reference detailing the various gods and semi-god/heroes of our pantheon. Squire's book is possible the oldest of these collections currently in print, dating to 1905.

It's a wonderful collection covering the gamut of the Celtic experience from Irish to British and is well organized and planned. It's only faults lie in some of the suppositions of the author, but these are understandle considering he is working from scholarly sources which would now be over 100 years old. As such, skipping the first four chapters covering history and scholarly opinion of the time is advisable to the "novice" reader, so as not to get confused with the now dated opinions. But the rest of the book is a treasure and a worthy addition to anyone's mythology collection.

I wonder why it is that Dover insists on resurrecting these centenarian "classics" that reek from the profoundest nadirs of Victorian/Edwardian writing. The material, while bursting at the seams from its completeness and thoroughness of research, is presented in a most unappetizing manner. The author must circumlocute almost forever until he gets down to brass tacks, and--when he finally embarks on the meat of some myth or other--you have to read hard between the lines to torture the actual story line out of the narrative. There's got to be a better way to bone up on the rudiments of Celtic myth, and I think I've found it: "Druids, Gods and Heroes" by Anne Ross, likewise e-available at Amazon. You'd do well to avoid Squire and books of that ilk. Dover tries so very hard to deliver quality stuff, and they very often do, but Squire is *not* a shining example of their success in that direction.