A Bit More About The Celts

      Understanding the lives of one's ancestors, and what they contributed to your own life, are several of the goals of genealogy. Who were they? Where did they live? How did they survive and past down that DNA stuff? Many, many other questions come to mind, but these past several post presents how the Celtic folks did a little of these activities. A few more Celtic books are listed in this post to give additional help to the ones who are of this Celtic descent. 

      Heroes of the dawn it is titled. Always liked stories about heroes growing up in my family. (John Paul Jones was one.) Anyway, Time Life editors put this book together written by Fergus Fleming, Shahrukh Husain, C. Scott Littleton, and Linda A. Malcor, 1996. Duncan Baird Publishers, London, published this text which centers on Celtic myths. Interesting thoughts about our Celtic ancestors.

      An atlas often comes in handy when you are trying to find out where you are going. This book by Angus Konstam gives exquisite examples of the history and art work of the early Celts. On the covers of both books (one above and this one) show the same figure which seems central to their content. [Gold medallion from Corel Stock Photo Library #356099] It is described in the first book as "A Celtic supernatural being holds aloft two humans in this panel from the outside of a silver plated cauldron found in a bog in Gundetrupp, Denmark."  Wow, how would you like your large kittles to boil things having this image carved on the side?

      Speaking of images, the following text gives this theme some thought.

      This book by E.T. Leeds, first published in 1933, gives 40 illustrations of Celtic art from the Bronze Age on down to 700 A.D. Several of the items were found in Denbighshire, Wales in the exact location of my own Celtic ancestors. (p. 5, a bronze hanging bowel) It seems we like to eat from the get go. The cover shown is that of Dover Publications, N.Y., 2002. It was originally published by Oxford University Press, London.

      The final reference is shown, again dealing only with Britain and Ireland.

            This book covers the years between 200 A.D. to 800 A.D. It is subtitled "The Myth of The Dark Ages". It is always good to shed some light on most subjects. It is written by Lloyd and Jennifer Laing and published by St. Martin's Press, N.Y., 1990.  They ask the reader to reconsider a number of traditional views about this period of time of Celtic history. The picture shows a detail of the base of the Ardagh Chalice, found 1868 in Ireland. [p. 45] Does not look like dark ages to me. Go Celtic Ancestors!