A Short History of the Celts

The image of the visionary Celt has captured the modern imagination. Whether it be the woad-painted pagan warrior fighting for his freedom against distant rulers (be they Roman, English or French), or the fanatical druid harrying Roman legionaries through the treacherous and mist-drenched forests of north Wales, the Celtic idea represents a proud and fierce independence. Yet there is another sort of Celtism: represented by the calligraphy and austere spirituality of the monks who illuminated the Book of Kells, or by that distinctive separateness characterizing the so-called 'Celtic fringe' of Britain (host to still-living Celtic languages). But as Alex Woolf shows, even these contemporary associations do the Celts less than justice. Northern and western Britain are merely the last redoubts of what was once a mighty and far-flung iron-age civilization, whose settlements extended from Anatolia and the lower Danube to Ireland and Spain. Alex Woolf looks at Celtic culture in its entirety,