Of Recommended Reading List - The Short Version

I realized that while I did a post on resources for the Irish language and another on online resources for Irish mythology I hadn't actually done a recommended reading list. I'm planning at some point to actually do a more comprehensive one but I decided to do a short one for now.

History:

Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC – AD 1000 by Barry Cunliffe: this is a great introduction to the history of Europe. Just be aware that Cunliffe sneaks in his "Celtic from the West" hypothesis.  It is not very obvious but it is there.

Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and Its Peoples, 8000 BC – AD 1500 by Barry Cunliffe: another great introduction from Cunliffe this time about the Atlantic zone. This book is where he first discusses his "Celtic from the West" hypothesis, but you'll miss it if you blink.

Historical Atlas of the Celtic World by John Haywood and Barry Cunliffe: keep this or a more recent edition very close, you never know when you might need it.

The Atlantic Iron Age by Jon Henderson: The scope of study for this book is the Late Bronze Age (1200 – 600 BCE) to the end of the first millennium BCE with an emphasis on the seventh century BCE to the end of the first millennium BCE. The areas covered are Armorica, south-west England, Wales, Ireland, and Atlantic Scotland. Also a passing reference to south-western France and western Iberia.

Pagan Celtic Ireland by Barry Raftery

Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts by Peter Harbison

The Origin of the Irish by J.P. Mallory: One of the best books I've read so far on the Origins of the Irish.

Culture:

Cattle Lords and Clansmen: Social Structure of Early Ireland by Nerys Thomas Paterson.

Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (Five Volume Set) by John Koch [Expensive but worth having]

Mythology:

Myths and Legends of the Celts by James MacKillop

The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopedia of Myth, Legend and Romance by Dáithí Ó hÓgáin

Of Online Mythology Resources

So this has come up on a few of my groups, and I thought since I did one on Irish Language resources I would do one for online resources to reliable sites to Celtic mythology.

Celtic Digital Initiative: (from their website) The aim of the Celtic Digital Initiative (CDI) is to make scarce resources available in an electronic format to students and scholars, both within UCC and beyond.

Mary Jones: (From their website) This is an attempt to collect as many possible early and medieval texts produced in the "Celtic" countries, or on Celtic themes (hence the inclusion of Continental Arthurian works). Some works are actually links off-site; others are provided here at the CLC. 

Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT):  (From their website) To bring the wealth of Irish literary and historical culture (in Irish, Latin, Anglo-Norman French, and English) to the Internet in a rigorously scholarly and user-friendly project for the widest possible range of readers and researchers. CELT (the Corpus of Electronic Texts) caters for academic scholars, teachers, students, and the general public, all over the world. 

A Corpus of Ancient Written References to the Druids: Note I am only recommending this page of the website as I have not read the rest of it. (From the website) First of all, these are primary sources, not secondary sources. In other words, these ancient records are to a large extent the basis of our knowledge about the Druids. This means that by becoming familiar with them and understanding them, one can gain a more direct and firmer familiarity with the subject matter than by merely consulting modern works, which are, after all, derived from them. Often one can demonstrate by referring to them that a statement regarding the Druids in a modern work is false or unwarranted. On the other hand, this also means that these sources are not critical or scientific works - the Greeks, Romans and Church Fathers who authored them were not impartial and usually did not have good information about the Druids. Therefore, not everything they wrote about them was necessarily true. These are texts to be analyzed, not simply believed at face value. This is an important point, so I will say it again in bold: These are texts to be analyzed, not simply believed at face value.

Sacred Texts: I don't think this site needs an introduction.

Alexei Kondratiev's Celtic Story Telling: A series of six Youtube videos, where Alexei talks about Celtic Story telling.

Complete Cattle Raid of Cooley: This is the Cattle Raid of Cooley, in both Irish and English next to each other.

Book Review: Abair Leat! Cúrsa ranga do mhúinteoirí Gaeilge (Leibhéal 1, Cuid 1)

I'm always interested in finding a way to improve my learning of Irish Gaelic so when I fine something new on Litríocht or Amazon on learning Irish Gaelic I usually order it.  I should have looked closer before ordering this book.  I was just too dang excited to see something new, and ordered it right away before reading the description.  The website says "A class-course, with accompanying CD for teachers who wish to teach Irish to complete beginners"  I still didn't think much of the _for teachers_ part until it arrived.  It is literally lesson plans for teachers.

I still had hope though because I do know Irish Gaelic and I could read a lot of what was written in Irish enough to make sense of what the sentences were discussing. The commentary on the lessons aside, the lessons themselves were good.  The recordings were in Ulster Irish though and so were the words in the book.  An experienced teacher could probably fit the lessons to any dialect and use the pictures and lesson plans to set up their class.

I'm not an Irish teacher but I think this is a great book with a good lesson plan for any of my irish teacher friends.  I would definitely recommend they at least check this out.  Here is a link to where I bought it from: Abáir Leat!

Of Methodology

A few people who have visited my blog and read the page I had up on it (Reconstructionism and Unverified Personal Gnosis) sent me emails saying "yes, but HOW?" among other things. So I thought I would use this post to answer some of their questions. **Now remember, this is MY approach. It doesn't mean that it is the ONLY approach.** Now that that is out of the way let us get started.

It seems to me from all the emails I got that a lot of people are still unsure what reconstructionism is. So I'm going to tell you what it means to me. To me it means piecing together what we know about the Pagan religion of the Irish from around 1000 BCE (to be on the safe side) until the Early Christian period. This is done by looking at the material remains of the people (archaeology), at what the classical world had to say about them, their mythology, and their folklore. It is very important also to look at their worldview so an understanding of their culture and society is very important (anthropology and sociology). Putting all these sources together then bringing that knowledge into the modern world, this to me is reconstructionism.

Unverified personal gnosis is already defined in the page above, but I'll reiterate, it is the idea that someones spiritual insights or intuitions may be valid for them with out them being generalized to other people's experiences. However, even this has to have certain rules governing them that are mentioned in the page above.

Now there is one question that a few have asked and which I want to answer here. What do you do when something is not mentioned in history, mythology, or folklore, for example, how to perform rituals. This is where comparative studies come in for me.

The Celtic languages are part of a larger family tree which is the Indo-European family tree. Within this family there are similarities in some cultural and religious aspects, and within this family there are groups that we do know the ritualistic behavior of. People like the Indians (Hindus to be exact), the ancient Greeks and the Romans. We can use comparative studies to fill in the blanks. Again keeping in mind the same rules that are applied to UPG, because this would certainly fit under that heading.

I hope I have cleared up a few things for the people that asked and please keep your questions coming.

Location:Zarga Al-Yamama,Kuwait

Of Language Study

I have always taken the view that if you want to understand the worldview, and therefore the culture of a country or people, you need to learn their language.  "Language is also immensely important on an ideological level because it can fundamentally alter a person's view of the world, or at least how to express that view." (1) And this happens to be the reason I am a forever student of the Irish language.  It is part of my spiritual regime since it helps me be close to my deities, and the Irish worldview.  

I have a myriad of self teaching books, CDs, and yes even tapes (aha, I'm OLD).  Over the years I've tried different methods to help me retain the knowledge I've gained studying the language, now I'm going to pass on some of the great places I've learned it, or some of the sites I've used to help me keep it in mind.

Of course nothing beats a conversation with an Irish speaker, or at least a teacher who can teach you face to face, but that is not always possible. 

Books:

1. Progress in Irish: A Graded Course for Beginners.  This is one of the most famous books for learners of Irish.  It is tiny and compact but it makes for a good start.  It deals mostly with vocabulary and small sentences and builds on that, with exercises.  It keeps grammar to minimum and in some cases it is quite absent.  You can find the answer key to the exercises in the book here (Progress in Irish Answer Key) See Philo-Celtic Society below for mp3 files of the vocabulary and sentences in this book.

2. Buntús Cainte: The First Steps in Spoken Irish.  This is another famous set of books (there are three parts to this series) It comes with CDs so that you can listen to a native speaker say the words.  Again there is no grammar here and it depends on conversation to teach you the language.  

3. Learning Irish.  A book that comes with CDs for pronunciation.  It does have some grammar like the Progress in Irish book, but again it mainly depends on the CDs and the exercises to help you get to where you are going.

4. Tús Maith.  This is a course specifically aimed at the adult learner, it is a series of three binders with exercises, and CDs.  It depends on conversations mostly with almost no grammar, but it does have a lot of trivial information on the Irish culture and different sites in Ireland. You can find it on Litríocht.

5. Complete Irish: A Teach Yourself Guide. This book comes with CDs and it uses real live situations to teach you Irish.

6. Collins Easy Learning Irish Grammar.  This is a great book to use if you are studying alone or as part of a course.  Very easy to use. 

7. Irish Grammar: A Basic Handbook.  This is the book that most courses will recommend when it comes to grammar.  

8. Essential Irish Grammar.  This is best used with the book Complete Irish: A Teach Yourself Guide

9. Briathra Na Gaeilge: Regular and Irregular Verbs.  A tiny booklet but gives you a very hand guide to Irish Verbs

10. Leabhar Mór Briathra Na Gaeilge: The Great Irish Verb Book.  A great resource for Irish Verbs and an expansion on the above.  It also gives the verbs from the stand point of all the dialects and Standard Irish. 

11. Collins Easy Learning Irish Verbs.  It  is the ideal resource for independent study or as part of a course. It includes over 100 full verb tables and a comprehensive index of more than 3000 verbs.

12. Collins Easy Learning Irish Dictionary. Everyone needs a good one!

Websites:

1. The Philo-Celtic Society.  These people have classes that run all year long online using yahoo groups.  They use Progress in Irish and Buntús Cainte.  

2. An Foclóir Beag.  This is a great place to check your verb conjugation.

3. Gramadach na Gaeilge.  This is a great site for grammar study.

4. Abair.  This is a great site to put in words that you don't know how to say and it will synthesize the phonetics for you and provide you with a recording.

5. StudyBlue.  This is a site I use to make flashcards and then quiz myself on Irish Vocabulary.

I hope these things help you the way they help me everyday.  Have fun!

Works cited:

(1) Henderson, Jon C. The Atlantic Iron Age: Settlement and Identity in the First Millennium BCE.  Routledge: New York.  2007 p.90