A Celtic Miscellany: Translations from the Celtic Literature (Penguin Classics) (original 1951; edition 1972)

by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson

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Including works from Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Breton and Manx, this Celtic Miscellany offers a rich blend of poetry and prose from the eighth to the nineteenth century, and provides a unique insight into the minds and literature of the Celtic people. It is a literature dominated by a deep sense of wonder, wild inventiveness and a profound sense of the uncanny, in which the natural world and the power of the individual spirit are celebrated with astonishing imaginative force. Skifully arranged by theme, from the hero-tales of Cú Chulainn, Bardic poetry and elegies, to the sensitive and intimate writings of early Celtic Christianity, this anthology provides a fascinating insight into a deeply creative literary tradition. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.… (more)

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Member:	dunyazade
Title:	A Celtic Miscellany: Translations from the Celtic Literature (Penguin Classics)
Authors:	Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson
Info:	Penguin Classics (1972), Paperback, 352 pages
Collections:	Your library
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Tags:	Celtic

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A Celtic Miscellany: Translations from the Celtic Literatures by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson (1951)

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I really enjoyed this collection, experiencing a range of Celtic literature.

Unfortunately, the excerpts only whetted my appetite for wanting to read the rest of the works, but then it was time to move on to the next subject.

The author made a choice to not attempt to rhyme the poetic excerpts and instead focus on meaning, which I understand, but I would have liked perhaps to see the original as well, so I could get some idea of the rhythm and rhyme of the native language. (

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weemanda | Mar 17, 2024 |

A Celtic Miscellany is an anthology of excerpts from Celtic literature (mainly Irish and Welsh, but also Scottish, Breton, Cornish, and Manx). It contains a lot of material, from mythology to love poetry to folk songs and prayers to bardic elegies, both well-known tales and many pieces that would likely be hard to find elsewhere. That said, it's kind of an odd book. It groups the pieces by theme (hero-tale, nature, love, etc.) rather than by country of origin or chronologically, and many of the excerpts are quite short and presented without much context or explanation (there's a short introduction to each themed section, and a series of notes at the back, but I'm not sure that either of these is that helpful). Most oddly (I thought), the poetry is presented as prose, which makes sense due to the difficulties of translating Celtic verse-forms into English, but makes for a somewhat disconcerting reading experience. That said, however, I did enjoy slowly reading through this book. As I said above, the material is varied and it's likely that you'll find something in it to interest you. This would be a good book to round out a collection of Celtic literature, but I would not suggest it as your first introduction to the subject. (

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Heather39 | Jan 26, 2021 |

This book has problems that made it nowhere near as worthwhile as I'd hoped:

First, it's full of fragments, except where the wholes are very short, anyway. Excerpts just make me want to see the full thing, to get the context and story properly. Second, there's poetry in here, but it's translated as prose. Whenever someone says, "It's not possible to translate poetry," they really mean, "I'm not up to the task but my ego won't allow me to admit it."

One does get a flavour of the literatures (all six Celtic languages) but it forever left me wanting more or better.
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Arbieroo | Jul 17, 2020 |

It's really hard, unfortunately, to read this anthology of Celtic literature. Anthologies themselves don't tend to lend themselves to reading straight through, and in many cases in this volume, even with the notes, the references can be obscure. Strictly, I think, for Celtic studies/Old English types. (

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EricCostello | Mar 10, 2020 |

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SueJBeard | Feb 14, 2023 |

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Canonical title

A Celtic Miscellany: Translations from the Celtic Literatures

Original title

A Celtic Miscellany: Translations from the Celtic Literatures

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1951

1971 (Revised edition)

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Dedication

To Janet, Stephanie, and Alastar

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PREFACE

There have been a number of anthologies of translations from Celtic literature published since Charlotte Brooke's Reliques of Irish Poetry (1789), though hardly any are now still in print.

HERO-TALE AND ADVENTURE

NOTE

Literary historians are familiar with the concept of what is called the Heroic Age. The theory is that early in the evolution of society a stage is reached when, in a materially and socially simple contest, an aristocratic warrior caste dominates the scene....

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Wikipedia in English (5)

Celtic mythology

Kenneth H. Jackson

The Girls of Llanbadarn

The Seagull (poem)

Trouble at a Tavern

▾Book descriptions

Including works from Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Breton and Manx, this Celtic Miscellany offers a rich blend of poetry and prose from the eighth to the nineteenth century, and provides a unique insight into the minds and literature of the Celtic people. It is a literature dominated by a deep sense of wonder, wild inventiveness and a profound sense of the uncanny, in which the natural world and the power of the individual spirit are celebrated with astonishing imaginative force. Skifully arranged by theme, from the hero-tales of Cú Chulainn, Bardic poetry and elegies, to the sensitive and intimate writings of early Celtic Christianity, this anthology provides a fascinating insight into a deeply creative literary tradition. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Epic feats, ribald verse, tales of Celtic magic, descriptive passages, Bardic poems, laments and poems of love and nature - these carefully chosen selections reveal the full and brilliant spectrum of the Celtic imagination. Drawing on ancient sources written n Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton. Jaskson's fresh and accurate inhalations cover the whole of the Celtic literature, encompassing six languages and thirteen centuries.

Celtic literature began in early times and continued into the Middle Ages as the principal form of entertainment for an aristocratic social system: both prose and verse were composed by a professional class of literary men.
Setting aside the romantic image of the Celtic mind as mysterious and filled with the darkness of the supernatural, Jackson has chosen and translated these pieces to illustrate the entire literature of the Celtic peoples as we see it today.

Arranged in sections on Hero-Tales and adventures, nature, Love, Epigram, Celtic Magic, Description, Humor and Satire, Bardic Poetry, Elegy and Religion, A Celtic Miscellany presents both general characteristics and a detailed, literary exploration into popular and obscure source material.

Each section is prefaced by an introductory Note that covers that particular genre, and at the end of each selection the original language, author's name and approximate date are given (whenever available.)

Filled with vivid colors, fresh imagination, ordinary magic and the simply unexpected, this many-splendored collection of prose and poetry ranges from Cattle Raid of Cooley - known as the Iliad of the Irish - to Tom Moore's The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall... where the poet laments on a ruined building and the power and glory which once flourished there.

So can we also, in this remarkably collection, taste the power and the glory of the ancient Celtic literature and revel in those literary epics of olden Times.

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