The Celtic World is a detailed and comprehensive study of the Celts from the first evidence of them in the archaeological and historical record to the early post-Roman period. The strength of this volume lies in its breadth - it looks at archaeology, language, literature, towns, warfare, rural life, art, religion and myth, trade and industry, political organisations, society and technology. The Celtic World draws together material from all over pagan Celtic Europe and includes contributions from British, European and American scholars. Much of the material is new research which is previously unpublished.
The book addresses some important issues - Who were the ancient Celts? Can we speak of them as the first Europeans? In what form does the Celtic identity exist today and how does this relate to the ancient Celts?
For anyone interested in the Celts, and for students and academics alike, The Celtic World will be a valuable resource and a fascinating read.

A detailed and comprehensive study of the Celts from the first evidence of them in the archaeological and historical record to the early post-Roman period. This volume looks at archaeology, language, literature, towns, warfare, rural life, art, religion and myth, trade and industry, political organizations, society and technology. It draws together material from all over pagan Celtic Europe and includes contributions from British, European and American scholars. The book addresses some important issues - Who were the ancient Celts? Can we speak of them as the first Europeans? In what form does the Celtic identity exist today and how does this relate to the ancient Celts?

The Concept of the Goddess explores the function and nature of goddesses and their cults in many cultures, including:
* Celtic
* Roman
* Norse
* Caucasian
* Japanese traditions.
The contributors explore the reasons for the existence of so many goddesses in the mythology of patriarchal societies and show that goddesses have also assumed more masculine roles, with war, hunting and sovereignty being equally important aspects of their cults.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415144213 EB:0203456386

Animals played a crucial role in many aspects of Celtic life: in the economy, hunting, warfare, art, literature and religion. Such was their importance to this society, that an intimate relationship between humans and animals developed, in which the Celts believed many animals to have divine powers. In Animals in Celtic Life and Myth, Miranda Green draws on evidence from early Celtic documents, archaeology and iconography to consider the manner in which animals formed the basis of elaborate rituals and beliefs. She reveals that animals were endowed with an extremely high status, considered by the Celts as worthy of respect and admiration.

This volume is a study of the female aspect of religion both in past and present mythologies. It explores the function and nature of goddesses and their cults in many cultures, including Celtic, Roman, Norse, Caucasian and Japanese traditions. The contributors explore the reasons for the existence of so many goddesses in the mythological traditions of largely patriarchal societies. They demonstrate how, in many myths, the female deity is seen as more ambivalent than her male counterparts, curing and cursing at whim. They show goddesses do not play primarily "feminine" roles in myths; war, hunting and sovereignty being equally important aspects of their cults.

For the Celts, a rural people whose survival depended solely upon their environment, natural phenomena, the elements, and animals, especially, merited their extreme respect. The Celts made both wild and domesticated species the focus of elaborate rituals as well as the basis of profound religious beliefs. "Animals in Celtic Life and Myth" examines the intimate relationship between humans and animals, in a society in which animals were special and central to all aspects of life.
Miranda Green draws on evidence from a variety of early Celtic documents, as well as archaeology and iconography, revealing that the Celts believed many animals to be sacred, either possessing divine status in their own right or acting as mediators between gods and humans. She covers the crucial role of animals in the Celtic economy; in hunting and welfare; in Celtic art and literature; in religion and ritual. The attitude of the Celts toward animals closely connected the Celtic with the everyday: warfare was bound up with religion; the killing of animals was a ritual act; in stories, heroes talk to animals in their own language and gods change at will from human to animal form. The book covers the important period between 8 B.C. and 1 A.D., during which much of Europe, ranging from Ireland to Czechoslovakia, was turning to Christianity.
"Animals in Celtic Life and Myth" is invaluable to students of archaeology, anthropology and history, as well as to the general reader with an interest in animals.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203418190

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The presence of gods was felt in every corner of the Celtic world, and influenced all areas of life in Celtic society. This fascinating book delves into these corners to examine all aspects of the gods, ritual customs, cult objects and sacred places of the ancient Celtic peoples. Miranda Green introduces the Celts and the evidence that they left behind, placing them in their geographical and chronological context, and continues on to look at Celtic cults of the sun and sky, animals and animism, mother goddesses, water gods and healers, as well as examining the influence of religion on war, death and fertility. Embracing the whole of the Celtic world from Ireland to Australia, and covering from 500 BC to AD 400, this is a rewarding overview of the evidence for Celtic religions, beliefs and practices which uses modern scholarship to bring a mysterious and captivating part of European history to life.

In Beyond 1776, ten humanities scholars consider the American Revolution within a global framework. The foundation of the United States was deeply enmeshed with shifting alliances and multiple actors, with politics saturated by imaginative literature, and with ostensible bilateral negotiations that were, in fact, shaped by speculation about realignments in geopolitical power. To reanimate these intricate and often indirect connections, this volume uncovers the influences of people across disparate sites both during and after independence. The book centers first on the migration of ideas across the Atlantic, particularly among intellectuals and through print. In this section, scholars focus on how various European countries or cliques appropriate the Revolution to reanimate an array of national, local, or cosmopolitan affiliations. The essays in the second section articulate how revolutions fostered surprising exchanges in, for example the West Indies and in the first penal colonies of Australia, along the Celtic fringe and Pacific Rim, and in the vast territories through which goods circulated. Taken as a whole, this collection answers the persistent calls from scholars to move beyond the boundaries defined by the nation-state or periodization to rethink narratives of U.S. foundations. The contributors examine a range of texts, from novels and drama to diplomatic correspondence, letters of common sailors, political treatises, newspapers, accounting ledgers, naval records, and burial rituals (many from non-Anglophone sources). Beyond 1776 will appeal to scholars seeking to understand contact and exchange in the late eighteenth century. It indexes how different intellectuals in the period deployed the Revolution as a point of connection; follows the dispersal of print books, guns, slaves, and memorabilia; and evaluates literary responses to the new republic. The book puts in conversation scholars of literature, theater, history, modern languages, American studies, political science, transatlanticism, cultural studies, women's studies, postcolonialism, and geography. Contributors: Jeng-Guo Chen, Academia Sinica, Taiwan; Matthew Dziennik, United States Naval Academy; Miranda Green-Barteet, University of Western Ontario; Carine Lounissi, Universite de Rouen-Normandie; Therese-Marie Meyer, Martin-Luther-University of Halle- Wittenberg; Maria O'Malley, University of Nebraska, Kearney; Denys Van Renen, University of Nebraska, Kearney; Ed Simon, Bentley University; Wyger Velema, University of Amsterdam; Leonard von Morze, University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Sacrifice, like death, is one of the great taboos of modern society. The notion that human sacrifice, and even cannibalism, could be considered a most holy act is almost inconceivable. Yet the evidence for human sacrifice in northwest Europe, deriving from both archaeology and the testimony of Classical writers of the first centuries BC and AD, has to be confronted. Professor Green puts forward some reasons for ritual murder and shows how the multiple deposits of bog-bodies at sites like Tollund and Lindow illustrate the importance of place in the sacrificial rite. She also highlights the essential role of the priesthood in sacrificial murder.