Don’t be put off by the size of this list…I’m not saying you should read every book on it, or that by not reading them, ‘you won’t be CR enough’. This is intended to be a list of suggestions for those who want to do some more in-depth reading, and not every book will appeal to every person. If you haven’t already, see The Quick And Dirty ‘Where Do I Start?’ Book List for some lighter reading and a bit of blurb on what each book is about so you can decide on where is best to invest time and/or money first… Books that can be difficult to get hold of are marked †, and these are probably best obtained through academic libraries. Your local university should be able to order them for you through inter-library loan if they don’t carry them (and you should be able to become a member of the library even if you’re not a student. Usually there’s a joining fee involved, but some university’s allow a free visit or two before you have to pay). Books that aren't on the list are probably not listed because a) I'm not familiar with them or b) I didn't like them enough to list them...It's probably also worth noting that while a book might have made it to the list, that doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't have its problems. Sometimes books have a lot to offer but can be fundamentally flawed or outdated, and the antiquarian books that are listed are a case in point. These books can contain a mine of information but they also often contain outdated ideas of 'primitives' and 'noble savages', Aryan theory and so on, along with often self-conscious assurances to the reader that of course all this is silly superstition and they wouldn't possible suggest that there's anything to all this...they're just passing it on in the interests of anthropology. So some reading around of these things is required. Some of the books I've read recently have been reviewed, so you can see what I thought of them, and the sort of things you might find in them, but of course, these are just my opinions and you might agree or disagree. Key:
* Highly recommended
† Hard to find
� Older/antiquarian books General The Celts - Nora Chadwick �
The Ancient Celts - Barry Cunliffe *
The Celtic World - Barry Cunliffe
Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe - H R Ellis Davidson
The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe - Hilda Ellis Davidson
Lady With a Mead Cup - Michael J Enright
The Sutton Hoo Sceptre and the Roots of Celtic Kingship Theory - Michael J Enright
Celtic Goddesses - Miranda Green
Gods of the Celts - Miranda Green
Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend - Miranda Green
Animals in Celtic Life and Myth - Miranda Green (review)
Seeing the Wood for the Trees - Miranda Green (review)
Britain and the Celtic Iron Age - Simon James and Valerie Rigby (review)
The World of the Celts - Simon James *
Celtic Mythology - Proinsias Mac Cana
Celtic Mythology - J A MacCulloch
The Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology - James MacKillop �
The Celts: A History From Earliest Times to the Present - Bernhard Maier (review)
The Celts - Sabatino Moscati †
Celtic Consciousness - Robert O'Driscoll (Ed)
The Celts and the Classical World - H D Rankin
Pagan Celtic Britain - Anne Ross *
The Pagan Celts - Anne Ross
Introduction to the Celtic Languages - Paul Russell
The British Celts and their Gods under Rome - G Webster (review)
Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians: Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe - Peter Wells Scottish Legend and Literature The Life of Saint Columba - Adomnán
The Triumph Tree - Thomas Owen Clancy
Iona: The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery - Thomas Owen Clancy and Gilbert Markus
Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend - Donald Alexander MacKenzie * Scottish Folklore and Practices
Healing Threads - Mary Beith *
Scottish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave - Margaret Bennett *
The Gaelic Otherworld - John Gregorson Campbell, edited by Ronald Black *
Ortha Nan Gaidheal: Carmina Gadelica in English and Gaelic - Alexander Carmichael *
Highland Folk Ways - I F Grant *
Power of Raven, Wisdom of Serpent - Noragh Jones
Scottish Customs - Sheila Livingstone (review)
Scottish Festivals - Sheila Livingstone (review)
Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs - James M McInlay (review)
Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk-Life - Donald A MacKenzie (review)
The Silver Bough (four volumes) - F Marian McNeill *
Hallowe'en: It's Origins, Rites and Ceremonies in the Scottish Tradition - F Marian McNeill (review)
The Scots Kitchen - F Marian McNeill
The Scottish Cellar - F Marian McNeill (review)
Folk Lore or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland Within This Century - James Napier * (review)
A Tour of Scotland - Thomas Pennant
Scottish Witchcraft Lore - A Polson (review)
The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands - Anne Ross
The Secret Commonwealth and the Fairy Belief Complex - Brian Walsh (review)
The Twelve Winds of the Ancient Gaelic World - Jean L Wright-Popescul (review) Scottish History and Archaeology Spes Scotorum: Hope of Scots: Saint Columba, Iona and Scotland - Thomas Owen Clancy and Dauvit Broun (Eds)
Saints and Sea Kings - Ewan Campbell * (review)
Picts, Gaels and Scots - Sally M Foster *
Sacrifice and Settlement - Richard Hingley * (review)
The Picts and the Scots - Lloyd and Jennifer Laing
Scotland: A New History - Michael Lynch *
A Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World - Michael Newton *
Scottish Place-Names - W F H Nicolaisen (review)
Perceptions of the Picts: From Eumenius to John Buchan - Anna Ritchie
The Archaeology of Scotland - Graham and Anna Ritchie
The Celtic Place-Names of Scotland - W J Watson (review) Irish Myth and Legend King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings - John Carey
Lebar Gabala: Recension I - John Carey
The Irish National Origin Legend: Synthetic Pseudohistory - John Carey †
The Great Queens - Rosalind Clark †
The Counsels of Cormac - Thomas Cleary
Ancient Irish Tales - Cross and Slover
Mythic Ireland - Michael Dames (review)
Early Irish Literature - Myles Dillon
Cycle of the Kings - Myles Dillon
A Woman's Words: Emer and Female Speech in the Ulster Cycle - Joanne Findon (review)
The Irish Tradition - R Flower
Early Irish Myths and Sagas - Jeffrey Gantz *
The History of the Kings of Britain - Geoffrey of Monmouth
Sweeney Astray - Seamus Heaney
A Celtic Miscellany - Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson
The Táin - Thomas Kinsella *
The Celtic Heroic Age - John T Koch and John Carey (Eds)
The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger - Patricia Lysaght
The Learned Tales of Medieval Ireland - Proinsias Mac Cana
The Festival of Lughnasa: A Study of the Survival of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning of Harvest - Máire MacNeill * (review)
The Waves of Manannán: A Study of the Literary Representations of Mannanán mac Lir from Immram Brain (c700) to Finnegans Wake (1939) - Charles MacQuarrie †
Aspects of the Táin - J P Mallory (Ed) †
Pagan Past and Christian Present in Early Irish Literature - Kim McCone * †
Ancient Irish Poetry - Kuno Meyer
The Wisdom of the Outlaw - Joseph Falaky Nagy
Conversing With Angels and Ancients - Joseph Falaky Nagy
Early Medieval Ireland: 400-1200 - D Ó Cróinín
The Book of the Cailleach - Gearáid Ó Crualaoich
Cormac's Glossary, ed. Whitley Stokes - John O’ Donovan
The Rites of Brigid: Goddess and Saint - Seán Ó Duinn *
The Silva Gadelica - Standish O'Grady
Celtic Heritage - Alwyn and Brinley Rees *
Understanding the Universe in Seventh-century Ireland - Marina Smyth
Gods and Heroes of the Celts - Marie-Louise Sjoestedt (trans Myles Dillon) *
Three Irish Glossaries: Cormac’s Glossary Codex A, O’Davoren’s Glossary and a Glossary to the Calendar of Oingus the Culdee with a Preface and Index - Whitley Stokes �
The Irish Literary Tradition - J E Caerwyn Williams and P Ford Irish Folklore and Practices The Year in Ireland - Kevin Danaher *
In Ireland Long Ago - Kevin Danaher
Irish Folk Ways - E Estyn Evans * (review)
Passing the Time in Ballymenone - Henry Glassie
Irish Folktales - Henry Glassie
The Book of the Cailleach - Gearáid Ó Crualaoich
The Festival of Lughnasa: A Study of the Survival of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning of Harvest - Máire MacNeill * (review) Irish History and Archaeology
Armagh and the Royal Centres in Early Medieval Ireland: Monuments, Cosmology and the Past - NB Aitchison (review)
Irish Kings and High-kings - John Francis Byrne
Pre-Christian Ireland - Peter Harbison
Early Irish Kingship and Succession - Bart Jaski †
A Guide to Early Irish Law - Fergus Kelly * †
Early Irish Farming - Fergus Kelly † (review)
A Guide to Ogam - Damian McManus
Early Ireland - Michael J O' Kelly
Early Irish History and Mythology - Thomas F O’ Rahilly
Cattle Lords & Clansmen - Nerys Patterson *
Sex and Marriage in Ancient Ireland - Patrick C Power (review)
Pagan Celtic Ireland - Barry Raftery * Gaul The Celtic Gauls: Gods, Rites and Sanctuaries - Jean-Louis Brunaux † Isle of Man Manx Calendar Customs - Cyril I Paton Celtic Reconstructionism Kindling the Celtic Spirit - Mara Freeman
The Apple Branch - Alexei Kondratiev
A Circle of Stones - Erynn Rowan Laurie
Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom - Erynn Rowan Laurie
The CR FAQ Online articles Samhain is not the Celtic New Year [?] - Caer Australis
War Goddess: The Morrígan and her Germano-Celtic Counterparts - Angelique Gulermovich Epstein
Gods in the Hood - Angelique Gulermovich Epstein
The Second Battle of Mag Tuired - Elizabeth Gray
"Hi, My Name’s Fox"?: An Alternative Explication of "Lindow Man's" Fox Fur Armband and Its Relevance to the Question of Human Sacrifice Among the Celts - Leslie Ellen Jones
The ‘Mast’ of Macha - Catherine Mowat
Orality in Medieval Irish Narrative: An Overview - Joseph Falaky Nagy
The Poetic Brehon Lawyers - Katharine Simms Older/Antiquarian online books
See also: Scottish Books and Articles about Scotland Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland Volume 3
CELT - Electronic texts
Celtic Religion in pre-Christian Times - Edward Anwyl
Boswell's Life of Johnson - James Boswell
A Critical Examination of Dr MacCulloch's Work on the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland - James Brown, John MacCulloch
Auraicept na n-Éces: The Scholars Primer - George Calder (Ed)
Popular Tales of the West Highlands - J F Campbell
Carmina Gadelica: Volume 1 - Alexander Carmichael *
Carmina Gadelica: Volume 2 - Alexander Carmichael *
The Golden Bough - James Frazer
Observations on a Tour Through the Scottish Highlands - T Garnett
Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland - Anne Grant
Notes on the Folklore of North-East Scotland - Walter Gregor
Travels in Scotland, by an Unusual Route, with a Trip to the Orkneys and Hebrides - James Hall
Survivals of Belief Among the Celts - George Henderson
The Ancient Irish Goddess of War - W M Hennessy
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland - Samuel Johnson
A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland - P W Joyce
The History of Ireland - Geoffrey Keating
Celtic Mythology and Religion - Alexander MacBain
The Religion of the Ancient Celts - J A MacCulloch
Highland Superstitions - Alexander MacGregor
Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend - Donald Alexander MacKenzie *
Elves and Heroes - Donald A MacKenzie
Description of the Western Isles of Scotland: Called Hybrides - Donald Monro
Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character - E B Ramsay
Celtic Myths and Legends - T W Rolleston
Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx - John Rhys
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border - Walter Scott
Celtic Myth and Legend - Charles Squire
Lectures on the mountains; or, The Highlands and Highlanders as they were and as they are - William Grant Stewart
A critical history of the Celtic religion and learning: containing an account of the Druids … with the history of Abaris, the Hyperborian, priest of the sun; to which is added, an abstract of the life of the author - John Toland
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - W Y Evans Wentz *
|