Currently Reading

I am currently reading:

"The Tain" by Ciaran Carson.

Have you tried the version by Kinsella? The Tain (from the Irish epic Tain Bo Cuailnge) How do they compare I saw this recent oneon sale but Kinsella's version is considered the definitive one.

Thomas Kinsella's version is next on my list.

Currently reading:

"A brief history of the Druids" by Peter Beresford Ellis.

Be careful of Ellis- sometimes he steps over the line into fantasy, and he also ignores much of the recent skeptical work that has been published concerning the 'Celtic' peoples. The latter point unbalances his conclusions.

Currently reading:

Cattle Lords and Clansmen: the social structure of early Ireland by Nerys Patterson

Definitely a good book so far. It is a treasure trove of information that is often ignored in other academic works.

I'm dipping into lots of things as they affect my current writing project. Some in the last week: The Picts and Scots at War, Welsh Military Institutions, 633-1283, Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a mass grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461, Gwynedd: A Guide to Ancient and Historic Wales, An Atlas of Roman Britain,The Roman Cavalry.

5: Re: PB Ellis: I agree. I have several of his books, but may be culling some of them by and by.

(edited to try & get the touchstones to work)

An Atlas of Roman Britain is a good one. I will have to check out the Gwynedd text- looks interesting.

>7 An_Fear_Glas: The Gwynedd book is one of a set of 4 covering the 4 major divisions of Wales which were published by HMSO in the 90's. They are excellent guidebooks, organized by periods (Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman Occupation, etc), with aerial photos or sketch maps for most sites and an overall map key, and best of all Ordinance Survey map # and national grid reference for each site. They mostly contain sites which are open to the public, so some things are left out, but otherwise they are wonderful. I think they are all out of print now, but well worth acquiring if you can find them.

Other books read/consulted in the last couple of days: Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales (a new acquistion); Armour from the battle of Wisby 1361 (interlibrary loan, and mostly interesting for the battle injuries); The law of Hywel Dda;The Welsh King and His court. The last is an interesting collection of chapters by specialists on aspects of the Welsh court, mostly based on the 12th/13th century lawbooks - meaty stuff!

I am in the middle of reading Ginnell The Brehon Laws, and I have just started to read the first volume of A New History of Ireland.

Like Gwernin, I'm usually reading bits and pieces of several books for my writing. Recently, I've consulted Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, The Governance of Gwynedd, which is very informative about how the princes organized and ran Gwynedd, and Traditional Food from Wales.

Unfortunately, the interlibrary loan in Multnomah county will be down for another month, so I won't be able to access some great Welsh books until then. I'm itching to get my hands on From Medieval to Modern Wales. Another librarything member told me about a very helpful essay in there about Welsh architecture. Ah, well, patience is a virtue, right?

>10 jroach19: My favorite for Irish law is Fergus O'Kelly's A Guide to Early Irish Law.

Have just started reading "Britain BC" by Francis Pryor.

Just started "Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain" by Ronald Hutton for a book group of which I am a member.

Making a start on "Early Irish Myths and Sagas" the Jeffrey Gantz translation.