I got this book by Christiane Eluere when I decided I wanted to read up on the historical side of the Celtic world some years ago - we're Pagan and we lean towards the Celtic pantheon and culture more than any other, although others (Germanic, Scandinavian, Slavic) are important to us as well.It's basically a quick overview of the history of the Celts. It's beautifully printed, on heavier-than-usual paper, I suppose to accommodate all the beautiful photos that are integral part of the book. These photos are one of things I liked most about reading this - they're mostly of various unearthed objects attributed to the Celts and are very interesting to look at. I enjoyed the reading part less - it's a complicated historical period, what with all the tribes and battles, and I found that I didn't have enough knowledge to understand everything. They could have done with more maps of where things were taking place and more basic explanations about who was around back then.
The book includes a section of excerpts from primary sources, such as Julius Ceasar's The Gallic Wars, and this is the section I found most fascinating. I'll definitely have to plan some of these older materials into my reading.
Challenges: 888 Challenge, Non-Fiction Five Challenge
2 comments:
This looks really cool, Joanna! I always find myself picking up ones like this about Egypt or the ancient Middle East.
Lezlie
I've had to put a ban on buying such things until I read the ones I have - nothing on the Celts, on gods/goddesses of any pantheon, on mysteries of the world (like Atlantis) etc. Seriously, I don't even want to count how many I already own and haven't read - and trust me to start with the shortest one of them all and the one with lots of photos! :-)
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