Book Series Papers in Mediaeval Studies, vol. 26

Celtic Cosmology

Perspectives from Ireland and Scotland

Jacqueline Borsje, Ann Dooley, Séamus Mac Mathúna, Gregory Toner (eds)

  • Pages: 315 p.
  • Size:150 x 230 mm
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:2014

  • € 70,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-0-88844-826-2
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The essays in this collection examine the worldviews held by the Celtic peoples, particularly the Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) perspectives.

Review(s)

“Celtic Cosmology is an absorbing book, and the standard of all the contributions is high. Even the production quality is exemplary.” (Jessica Hemmin, in Folklore, 127/2, 2016, p. 253)

Summary

The essays in this collection, many originally presented at a 2008 colloquium on Celtic Cosmology and the Power of Words, aim to examine the worldviews held by the Celtic peoples, particularly the Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) perspectives. Texts and inscriptions, some of them pre-Christian, in Celtic languages and in Celtic Latin provide the sources for the worldviews under study. This area of research is also linked to that of the power of words, which refers to human belief in powerful speech acts. Naming and story-telling processes convey knowledge of the cosmos; this knowledge is connected to the landscape and its roads, rivers, mountains and hills. Cosmology is a description of the order and structure of the world as perceived by human beings, and its study is a study of layers – in the earth, in the language and in the tales.