Celtic Fantasy

[sleigh]

I'm putting together a literature class to study Celtic Fantasy. The mythic sources are pretty obvious, but I want the class to read a novel (or two) that is relatively modern and which dips into Celtic mythology. Yes, I know -- I could use my own Cloudmages series -- certainly HOLDER OF LIGHTNING would work -- but that would make me feel a little too weird and self-centered to require the class to read my own book, I think.

So what book(s) would you suggest? They have to be currently available and not out-of-print. What your favorite bit of Celtic Fantasy?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Well, some of the original texts -- the Mabinogi and some of the early Irish tales. And Kim MacCOne's Pagan Past and Christian Present as a library read, to check tendencies to assume that everything is automatically a 'pagan' survival. Lisa M Bitel, Land of Women is sensible about early Irish women, too, in place of the usual anhistoric beliefs about independent Feminist Archtypes. (my ,i>PRincess Nest is, too, but is British and, um, I'm not supposed to recommend my own books!)
Novels... Argh. aberwyn's Daggerspell, which gets the cultures right and is in print as far as I know. Evangeline Walton's Mabinogion Tetralogy, which seems to be in print in one volume right now (and the paperbacks of the four individual volumes are widely available second hand); Lloyd Alexander's wonderful YA Prydain series (starts with The Black Cauldron); Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence; Patricia McKillip, The Riddlemaster. I will be honest: being a historian of matter mediaeval and Celtic, 99% of Celtic fantasy gives me hives, but these would be the ones I'd suggest to students if I was faced with such a course to teach.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Good suggestions. The Lloyd Alexander and Susan Cooper ones I remember fondly myself. I know of Patricia's "Riddlemaster" but don't know that I've ever read it.

And hey, as a proper historian and all, is there a good reference book you'd suggest for Celtic mythology?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Do you mean a collection of the texts in translation, or a commentary? The standard collections are K H Jackson, A Celtic Miscellany, which is old but sound; and Ann Dooley Tales of the Elders of Ireland. Sioned Davies, The Mabinogion is a good introduction to the Welsh tales. The MacCone book I mentioned is good for an analytical approach, and there's a new book by Brent Miles, Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more commentary. I have a book in my collection -- "Celtic Myths and Legends" by Peter Berresford Ellis -- but don't know how that's book considered or if there would be a better similar book that's currently available.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Oh, goodness, no. That's written wholly for the popular market and not at all sound. Try C W Sullivan, The Mabinogi: a book of essays, H Fulton, Medieval Celtic Literature and Society, the MacCone book I mentiuoned plus his Progress in Irish Medieval Studies; J E Caerwyn Williams & Patrick K Ford, Irish Literary Tradition and Michael Richter, Medieval Ireland: the enduring tradition. There aren't really many general books on this -- most of the work is published in journals and so forth. The old standard is J E Caerwyn Williams, Literature in Celtic Countries -- 1971, so very dated, but still reasonable in many ways.