Scant records remain of the ancient Celtic religion, beyond some 11th- and 12th-century written material from the Irish Celts and the great Welsh document Mabinongion. This classic study by a distinguished scholar, first published in 1911, builds not only upon the valuable hints supplied by the surviving texts but also upon the still-extant folk customs derived from the rituals of the old cults. A masterly and extremely readable survey, it offers a reconstruction of the essentials of Celtic paganism. The Celt is portrayed as a seeker after God who links himself by strong ties to the unseen, eagerly attempting to conquer the unknown by religious rite and magic art.
The Celts were one of the most important population groups to spread across the ancient European continent. From 800BC to 1050AD their story is one of expanding power and influence followed by contraction and near extinction. Drawing on all possible sources of evidence, from archaeological remains of ancient Greece and Rome to surviving cultural influences, Daithi O hOgain outlines the history of the people known as Celts.
Named by the Greeks as Celts, the nomads who after the Ice Age set out from the steppes of Russia, and perhaps from as far afield as Persia, towards what is now Europe, could not possibly have known the impact they and their descendants would have on the world.
For the Celts, a rural people whose survival depended solely upon their environment, natural phenomena, the elements, and animals, especially, merited their extreme respect. The Celts made both wild and domesticated species the focus of elaborate rituals as well as the basis of profound religious beliefs. Animals in Celtic Life and Myth examines the intimate relationship between humans and animals, in a society in which animals were special and central to all aspects of life.
Interest in things Celtic has grown in the last generation, with an increasingly political aspect, for example in the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and the enhanced status granted to the Welsh language. The claims of the Celtic nations often stem from medieval and earlier events, many of which are poorly documented.
