The Big Book List

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The Big Book List

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…It's also worth searching on Google Books to see if any titles you might be interested in have previews available, even if they're not accessible in their entirety once they fall out of copyright.

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 Sometimes books have a lot to offer but can be fundamentally flawed or outdated, and the antiquarian books that are listed are a case in point. These books can contain a mine of information but they also often contain outdated ideas of 'primitives' and 'noble savages', Aryan theory and so on, along with often self-conscious assurances to the reader that of course all this is silly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

Celtic Religion in pre-Christian Times - Edward Anwyl ^
Gaelic names of plants (Scottish and Irish) Collected and arranged in scientific order, with notes on their etymology, their uses, plant superstitions, etc., among the Celts, with copious Gaelic, English and scientific indices - John Cameron ^
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
The Golden Bough - James Frazer ^
Celtic Goddesses - Miranda Green
Gods of the Celts - Miranda Green (review)
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)
Symbols and Image in Celtic Religious Art - Miranda Green (review)
Survivals of Belief Among the Celts - George Henderson ^
Britain and the Celtic Iron Age - Simon James and Valerie Rigby (review)
The World of the Celts - Simon James *
Celtic Culture - John T Koch
Celtic Mythology and Religion - Alexander MacBain ^
Celtic Mythology - Proinsias Mac Cana
Celtic Mythology - J A MacCulloch
The Religion of the Ancient Celts - 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
The Hibbert Lectures: Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic Heathendom - Sir John Rhys ^
Celtic Myths and Legends - T W Rolleston ^
Pagan Celtic Britain - Anne Ross *
The Pagan Celts - Anne Ross
Introduction to the Celtic Languages - Paul Russell
Celtic Myth and Legend - Charles Squire ^
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 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
Popular Tales of the West Highlands - J F Campbell ^
The Triumph Tree - Thomas Owen Clancy
Iona: The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery - Thomas Owen Clancy and Gilbert Markus
Elves and Heroes - Donald A MacKenzie ^
Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend - Donald Alexander MacKenzie * ^
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border - Walter Scott ^

Scottish Folklore and Practices

Healing Threads - Mary Beith *
Scottish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave - Margaret Bennett *
Scottish Charms and Amulets - Geo F Black ^
County Folklore Volume Three: Orkney and Shetland Islands - G F Black ^
The Gaelic Otherworld - John Gregorson Campbell, edited by Ronald Black *
Boswell's Life of Johnson - James Boswell ^
Ortha Nan Gaidheal: Carmina Gadelica in English and Gaelic - Alexander Carmichael * ^
Carmina Gadelica: Volume 1 - Alexander Carmichael * ^
Carmina Gadelica: Volume 2 - Alexander Carmichael * ^
Highland Heritage - Barbara Fairweather (review)
Gaelic Names of Beast (Mammalia), Fishes, Insects, Reptiles, Etc - Alexander Robert Forbes ^
Observations on a Tour Through the Scottish Highlands - T Garnett ^
Highland Folk Ways - I F Grant *
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 ^
Scottish Fairy Belief - Lizanne Henderson and Edward J. Cowan (review)
Fantastical Imaginations: The Supernatural in Scottish History and Culture - Lizanne Henderson (Ed.) (review)
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland - Samuel Johnson ^
Power of Raven, Wisdom of Serpent - Noragh Jones
Scottish Customs - Sheila Livingstone (review)
Scottish Festivals - Sheila Livingstone (review)
Highland Superstitions - Alexander MacGregor ^
The Misty Isle of Sky: Its Scenery, Its People, Its Story - J A MacCulloch ^
Gaelic Incantations, Charms and Blessings of the Hebrides - William MacKenzie ^
Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk-Life - Donald A MacKenzie * ^ (review)
Evil Eye in the Western Isles - R Maclagan ^
Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs - James M McInlay (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)
A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland - Martin Martin ^ *
Curiosities of Art and Nature: The New Annotated and Illustrated Edition of Martin Martin's Classic 'A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland' * - Martin Martin (M Robson, Ed.)
Seanchas ìle/Islay's Folklore Project - foreword by Donald Meek (review)
Description of the Western Isles of Scotland: Called Hybrides - Donald Monro ^
Folk Lore or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland Within This Century - James Napier * ^ (review)
A Tour of Scotland - Thomas Pennant ^
Easter Ross - A Polson ^
Gairloch - A Polson ^
Scottish Witchcraft Lore - A Polson ^ (review)
Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character - E B Ramsay ^
The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands - Anne Ross
County Folklore Volume Seven: Fife with some notes on Clackmannan and Kinross-shire - John Ewart Simpkin ^
Shetland Folklore - John Spence ^
Lectures on the mountains; or, The Highlands and Highlanders as they were and as they are - William Grant Stewart ^
Highland Smugglers, Second Sight and Superstitions - Francis Thompson (review)
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

Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness
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

Auraicept na n-Éces: The Scholars Primer - George Calder (Ed) ^
King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings - John Carey
Lebar Gabala: Recension I - John Carey
The Irish National Origin Legend: Synthetic Pseudohistory - John Carey †
Studies in Irish Literature and History - James Carney
The Great Queens - Rosalind Clark † (review)
The Counsels of Cormac - Thomas Cleary
Ancient Irish Tales - Cross and Slover
Mythic Ireland - Michael Dames (review)
Early Irish Literature - Myles Dillon
Irish Sagas - 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 - Robin Flower
Early Irish Myths and Sagas - Jeffrey Gantz *
The History of the Kings of Britain - Geoffrey of Monmouth
War Goddess: The Morrígan and her Germano-Celtic Counterparts - Angelique Gulermovich Epstein
Sweeney Astray - Seamus Heaney
The Ancient Irish Goddess of War - W M Hennessy ^ *
A Celtic Miscellany - Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson
The Oldest Irish Tradition: A window on the Iron Age - Kenneth Jackson
The Irish Mind - J Kearney (ed)
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 (review)
Aspects of the Táin - J P Mallory (Ed) †
The Learned Tales of Medieval Ireland - Proinsias MacCana
Pagan Past and Christian Present in Early Irish Literature - Kim McCone * †
Aspects of the Táin - J P Mallory (ed)
Ulidia - J P Mallory (ed)
Ancient Irish Poetry - Kuno Meyer
The Wisdom of the Outlaw - Joseph Falaky Nagy
Conversing With Angels and Ancients - Joseph Falaky Nagy
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

Ulster Folklore - Elizabeth Andrews ^
The Year in Ireland - Kevin Danaher *
In Ireland Long Ago - Kevin Danaher
Irish Customs and Beliefs - Kevin Danaher
Irish Folk Ways - E Estyn Evans * (review)
Passing the Time in Ballymenone - Henry Glassie
Irish Folktales - Henry Glassie
Glimpses of My Life in Aran - B N Hedderman ^
The Sacred Trees of Ireland - A. T. Lucas (review)
The Book of the Cailleach - Gearáid Ó Crualaoich
Irish Folk Custom and Belief - Séan Ó Súillebháin * (review)
Irish Wake Amusements - Séan Ó Súilleabháin (review)
The Festival of Lughnasa: A Study of the Survival of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning of Harvest - Máire MacNeill * (review)
Irish Folkore - Brid Mahon (review)
Irish Superstitions - Sir William Wilde ^
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - W Y Evans Wentz * ^
Traces of the Elder Faith in Ireland, Volume One - William Wood-Martin ^
Traces of the Elder Faith in Ireland, Volume Two - William Wood-Martin ^

Irish History and Archaeology

Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland Volume 3 ^
Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland Volume 1 ^
Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland Volume 4 ^
Anicent Laws and Institutes of Ireland Volume 5 ^
Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland Volume 6 ^
Armagh and the Royal Centres in Early Medieval Ireland: Monuments, Cosmology and the Past - NB Aitchison (review)
A Critical Examination of Dr MacCulloch's Work on the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland - James Brown, John MacCulloch ^
Irish Kings and High-kings - John Francis Byrne
Pre-Christian Ireland - Peter Harbison
Early Irish Kingship and Succession - Bart Jaski †
A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland - P W Joyce ^
The History of Ireland - Geoffrey Keating ^
A Guide to Early Irish Law - Fergus Kelly * †
Early Irish Farming - Fergus Kelly † (review)
Phases of Irish History - Eoin Mac Neill
A Guide to Ogam - Damian McManus
Ireland before the Normans - D Ó Corráin
Early Medieval Ireland: 400-1200 - D Ó Cróinín
A New History of Ireland Volume 1: Prehistoric and Early Ireland - D Ó Cróinín (Ed)
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 † *
Gods, Temples and Ritual Practices: The Transformation of Religious Ideas and Values in Roman Gaul - Ton Derks
Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman Empire - M Henig and A King
The Celtic Inscriptions of Cisalpine Gaul - Sir John Rhys ^
The Celtic Inscriptions of Gaul: Additions and Corrections - Sir John Rhys ^
Religious Acculturation and Assimilation in Belgic Gaul and Aquitania from the Roman Conquest until the End of the Second Century CE - Alasdair Watson

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
Talking about the Elephant - edited by Lupa (review)
The CR FAQ - various authors

Online articles

Samhain is not the Celtic New Year [?] - Caer Australis
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