The Celts
By Nora Chadwick

I'm interested in Iron Age and "Dark Age" history, especially British, and this means the Celts in particular. It's frustrating however because of the sparse source material. I read Ian Stewart's The Celts a few weeks ago and this rekindled an interest in reading a bit more; with this in mind, I picked up Nora Chadwick's The Celts second-hand.

Chadwick's book is quite different to Stewart's. His is fairly heavy going, with a lot of information in it and quite densely packed. More importantly, it is a "modern" history: that is, how, and by who, the "Celts" were (re)discovered and researched after the Renaissance. It contains little ancient history. It is a detailed, good overview of this modern history.

In contrast, Chadwick's The Celts was published in 1970 and is much more concise. Although it might be a little out of date in places, it is a well written and useful introduction to the ancient history of the Celts: their origins and movement through Europe, the language and culture, social conditions and religion, and also art and literature. It covers a period from the first millenium BC to medieval times. I enjoyed reading this book much more, even though it could be a little repetitive in places, especially when discussing Celtic Art. Art, literature and myth came last in the book, with a greater concentration on the Irish side, of which more writing has been preserved.

I thought the last chapter about literature was well done. She summarised the stories in a few paragraphs and related them to each other (and those of other nations e.g. Irish and Welsh). On the page, myth and folklore can sometimes be a slightly repetitive read, losing the liveliness of an oral or pictorial recitation, but she managed to describe them in an interesting way. I saw some criticism of this book (Amazon I think) regarding it as "by a scholar for scholars". I would disagree about that: for anyone with an interest and a little experience reading a popular history book, this is still a fine introduction. On that score, it is better than Stewart's book.

I've now picked up John Collis's The Celts. I read it a few years ago but am now flicking through it once again.