The Celts: Second Edition by Nora Chadwick (PDF)

Description

Although there is no written record of their prehistoric culture, the Celtic people left behind much archaeological and anthropological evidence of a way of life that was highly evolved. Here a Celtic scholar takes us beyond Stonehenge in a new edition of a classic work about one of history’s most intriguing and influential cultures. 3 maps.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I’ve owned a hard copy of this book for decades. Every so often I go back to read it, just to remind myself of the basics of Celtic history and culture. There are lovely maps also.Now if only they’d convert her “Celtic Britain” book into Kindle format. I’d get that one too.

⭐A scholarly work for scholars only. An intimate knowledge of European history, European geology, European topography, European countries, past and present, European place names, Latin and European languages, and European mythology is required. Some interesting information about Celtic culture and lifestyles, but not hardly worth the time. Sorry, wish I were smarter.

⭐thanks!

⭐All good!

⭐Nora Chadwick gives us in this book an essential vision of what the Celts were. A great civilization, extremely advanced in crafts and arts, with a fully developed mythology of gods who were the masters of these crafts and arts. She gives us all the details she can find on this civilization : their level of development and any kind of metal work and the rich social order that went along with it. Dynamic agriculture, rich arts, a lot of commerce, great crafts and a religion that was based on those social values. Just for this reason, this book is essential. She should have insisted on the Celts’ great underdevelopment as for warfare when confronted to the Romans. They were all warriors but were not able to fight against a professional army. They were individuals fighting to defend their own communities not mercenaries fighting to conquer and to loot. Some more recent research has been done on the Gauls and has revealed how those warriors were preparing for war. They were trying to build some unity through rites that made them share their most intimate feelings and fluids. A lot of research has also been done on the position of women showing that they were the doctors of this civilization, and hence were not reduced to a secondary and minimized status. They were full members of their society. This civilization was not mizogynistic, or phallocratic and certainly not homophobic. Their religion was also a set of rites that made all members of the society equal. Unluckily, the Romans, and even the Mediterraneans (Phenicians, Greeks and Romans) conquered them first through some commerce and then through military force. They destroyed this civilization and reduced it to slavery. And that was only the beginning. Christianisation was performed ruthlessly and all the culture, the arts, the mythology were destroyed by being forced into Christian rules. It is emblematic to see how the first christianisation of these people was destroyed later on to stick to the new Roman augustinian ideas, which meant a second deprivation of their culture by purifying the first Christian faith they had adopted of all the remnants or recollections of previous Celtic heritage. Some will say history cannot be repaired. Sure. But we must note that our Western civilization lost a tremendous amount of inspiration and human depth by this brutal colonialization. The Celts were dedicated to human and visionary values that we have lost. The Celts were dedicated to a real cult of nature and total respect for it. We are presently reinventing this respect for the natural environment. But we have to do this because the Mediterraneans destroyed it some twenty centirues ago. What a waste of time ! What a waste of energy ! Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

⭐Nora Chawick (1891-1972) spent most of her life studying Celtic (or, modern conveyance, “Keltic”) history. She wrote many books and articles on the topic and also delivered numerous lectures on the subject at renowned univesities throughout Great Britain.For a work of non-fiction, this is a very fluid read. The subject is compelling and, here, Chadwick has given us a full account of pretty much all that is known of this fascinating culture of people. The Celts essentially displaced and or assimilated into the indigenous culture(s) of Ireland. They originated in Europe and their eventual migration(s) to the Emerald Isle is still, to a large degree, a subject of endless study.Chadwick yields this essential history in terms and text that we can all follow. She punctuates her account with numerous bits of Celt trivia, such as: “…human sacrifice among the Celts, although of great ritual significance, may have been practised [Eng. sp.] more commonly at times of communal danger or stress, rather than as part of regular ritual observance.”Other interesting tidbits are more generally about Ireland and the today’s Irish people who ultimately emanated from their ancient ancestors: “Irish ballads, unlike those of the rest of Europe, are hardly ever related in the third person… (the influence of “speech poems”).My 1997 college thesis, for which the university awarded me a second-place spot for “Thesis of the Year,” focused upon the Celts. I relied heavily upon Chadwick as one of about 40 sources for that monograph and her coherence and credibility helped me greatly to see that voluminous project though to its successful conclusion.Anyone can read this book and come away with both an enhanced knowledge of a little-understood culture and a general gratification for having read a brilliantly competent work of non-fiction.

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