A Brief History of the Celts

In an outstanding brief overview, Ellis provides a corrective to that portrayal. We learn the Celts have Indo-European roots reaching into deep time. We also learn all those centuries allowed the Celts to achieve high cultural attainments in society, urban development and the arts. Oh, yes. They also successfully defeated nearly every force sent against them. Only a long war of attrition plus a few renegade leaders turned defectors ultimately led to Rome's overrunning them. Which didn't destroy their culture. It took the Christians to achieve that.

In describing Celtic society, Ellis frequently reminds us that these "first Europeans" had no written records. In large part, this lack was due to the prohibition of religious matters being set down in writing. Their leading intellectual class, the Druids, who had a far larger role than chanting in oak forests, maintained a detailed oral tradition. Not until the Christians came among them were any of their legends committed to parchment, and those, in Ellis' words were "bowdlerised" versions, designed to transform Celtic historical and mythical figures into the Christian mythology.

Ellis guides us through the metaphysical and concrete aspects of Celtic life. Gods proliferated, with countless local deities, but some which appear to be common across their areas of occupation. The Celts had a strong sense of the human soul, which they knew resided in the head, not in the stomach of Greek philosophy. The Christian Trinity, not "officially" promulgated until Nicea, may have originated with ideas derived through a Celtic bishop a century before the "Creed". Kings and warriors played their roles, but the Celts had a highly talented artisan class. While swords were significantly superior for their time, they also produced superb jewellry and other artefacts. Their technology, going far beyond weaponry, included a strong use of glass and enamelling techniques. They built strong houses and castles, expanding some sites into major urban centres. While the libel against them has persisted, so have many of their ideas, words and deities. As Ellis has attempted to do with this book, a better balance needs to be struck. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]


Celts forever!!!   June 14, 2004
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

This book was the first book on Celts I've come across and read. It is a good introduction into the topic for somebody who has a very little previous knowledge of the Celtic culture and history - easy to read, with basic illustrations and suggested further reading.

However, a word of warning. From the very beginning it becomes obvious that the author is a convinced Celtic partisan and, in my opinion, he tries rather too hard. The Celts were (and are?) the best - their social organization, their art, their crafts, their literature, their treatment of women, their wagons, their roads, their ships, their saddles, their arms, their medicine, their porrige, their pants - you tell, they had it in the the best possible way. Greek and Romans were just poor mucky puppies in the times of the great Celtic civilization and happily picked up their leftovers (including the language), but later the Romans did have their revenge so that those nasty Roman historians distorted the truth and presented the Celts as scruffy unshaved barbarians. This is the gist of the book. I've got an impression that it was written by some mysteriously survived descendant of Dumnorix who'd rather die than surrender to Rome. Well, this last Celtic gladiator does entertain you - and this book is not supposed to serve as a scholarly reference anyway. Just don't take Ellis' interpretations of Greek and Roman authors too seriously (for he IS subjective, no joking here). And yes, don't believe him when he calls Cornelius Nepos "a Celtic historian writing in Latin" - honestly, THIS is too much!