Customer Reviews

Kingdoms of the Celts: A History and Guide

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The most comprehensive history of the Celts I've seen yet. Even as a college major in Medieval History, I found much about the amazing Celts that I had never heard before. Well documented and scholarly without being a bore. Fascinating reading for anyone who thinks he knows the Celts.

I found this to be an excellently researched book. I always enjoy John King's work on subjects Celtic. I find it ironic that someone who is a self-styled "iron age archeologist" to be so ignorant of their subject. No one is exactly sure when or where the Celtic people came from. The earliest evidence goes back as far as 1200 BC. Most begin counting the Celts as a people and a distinct culture from the Hallstatt era where we have evidence of trade in salt from 1000 BC. One could even go so far as to say that Celtic culture still exists. If you asked those fighting for Scottish or Irish independence and their own Parliaments they would give you a good argument for it. The Celts could hardly be said to have gone unnoticed for centuries. From the medieval period on the British did their damnedest to practice wholesale genocide and oppression of the Celtic people of the former countries of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall and the Islands.

Yes, the Celtic people adapted to those who invaded their homelands from the Romans to the Saxons to the Christian missionaries. However, they usually left just as big an imprint on those who conquered. The Christian monks of the Medieval period have recorded for eternity the beliefs and myths of the Celtic people. The tales of King Arthur and many modern folktales have Celtic roots.

For an iron age culture the Celtic people have had enormous impact on us, their descendants, even to this day. Mr. King's book is a tribute to the undying spirit of the Celtic people. It is a must read for those interested in the beliefs and practices of the Celts and their legacy to us. They have shaped our modern ideas and ideals more than we might realize.

Books like this merely perpetuate the popular misconception of the Celts as a timless society that kept the same culture and traditions throughout 1,500 years of contact and conquest by foreign cultures.

The mythologies of Chuchulain and Arthur have very little to do with the pre-Roman Iron Age Europeans. King has done the same thing as many other authors who are pandering to an interest in all things 'Celtic': he created a false link between many different societies that only serves to conceal the reality of the Celts.

This is far more useful to someone studying the Dark Ages, Early Christian Ireland, and the early Middle Ages than to the investigation of the Celts (who lived from approximately 500 BC to the Roman invasions - they did not just get moved into increasingly marginal areas and thrive unnoticed for centuries!!).

As an Iron Age archaeologist, I find the misinformation that's rehashed in popular books on the Celts to be appalling in their lack of true historical and anthropological perspective. 'Kingdoms of the Celts' has done nothing to dispell this trend.

As the name of the book would suggest, the kings and clans of the Celts, ancient, medieval, and modern, are the primary focus of this book. It first examines the origins and definitions of the Celts, before moving on to a history of both the Ancient Gauls and Galatians, and the more recent Celtic civilizations of the British Isles. It also devotes chapters to famous Celtic rulers like Vercingetorix, Vortigern, Boudica, Cartimandua, King Arthur, and a variety of Irish heroes. Also has a useful appendix on the major Scottish clans.