Dùn Sgàthan Book List

This list is in the midst of an overhall....watch out for falling bookshelves.

**Barry Rafferty. Pagan Celtic Ireland: the Enigma of the Irish Iron Age One of the best looks at archeological findings in Ireland. Well written, in depth, and beautifully illustrated. Highly recommended, EXCEPT where the cattle raising issues are concerned, the man is not a farmer and is very confused.

Anne Ross. The Pagan Celts Hard to find but worth the search

Anne Ross Pagan Celtic Britain

Celtic Mythology and Folklore

Translations and retellings

T.P. Cross and C. Slover Ancient Irish Tales Very edited retellings,you can find better translations at CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts

***Thomas Kinsella, trans. The Tain

Jeffrey Gantz, trans. Early Irish Myths and Sagas see above

Dictionaries

James MacKillop. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology

Daithi O hOgain. Myth, Legend, and Romance

Commentary and analysis

Rosalind Clark. The Great Queens: Irish Goddesses from The Morrigan to Cathleen ni Houlihan Better on the later chapters on folklore than on the earlier literary material, also very difference feminist.

***Diana V. Dominguez Historical Residues in the Old Irish Legends of Queen Medb: An Expanded Interpretation of the Ulster Cycles Brillent study. See review on Championing Ourselves Blog

**Proinsias MacCana. Celtic Mythology

J. P. Mallory, ed. Aspects of the Táin

***Joseph Falaky Nagy The Wisdom of the Outlaw: The Boyhood Deeds of Finn in Gaelic Narrative Tradition Review coming soon! This is a MUST HAVE for anyone interested in the Outlaw warrior poet path

Joseph Falaky Nagy Conversing with Angels and Ancient: Literary Myths of Medieval Ireland

Marie-Louise Sjoestedt. Celtic Gods and Heroes

Walter Y. Evans-Wentz The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries

Religion and Folkloric Practices

***Alexander Carmichael. Charms of the Gaels (selections from the Carmina Gadelic) Scottish prayers and invocations ---most are decidedly Christian, but easily Paganized. A few are decidedly Pagan in orientation

Miranda J. Green. Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art

**Ronald Hutton. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy A must for the Celtic orientated Neo-Pagan, shows the difference between much of the modern fantasy and the facts. Is a bit rough about folklore and mythological sources, and is therefore problematic in assessments regarding these....he tries to cover too many academic disciplines and is weak in some such as folkloric anthropology.

F. Marian MacNeill The Silver Bough: Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk-Belief

Stuart Piggott. The Druids

Alwyn and Brinley Rees. Celtic Heritage .

Anne Ross The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands

The Picts

**W. A. Cummins The Age of the Picts

**Lloyd and Jenny Laing The Picts and the Scots

Anne Ritchie Picts ISBN: 0-114-93491-6

Alfred P Smyth Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80-1000

Indo-European Studies and Cross-cultural IE studies

*** Hilda Ellis Davidson The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe Includes a great deal of Celtic material...highly recommended

***Hilda Ellis Davidson Roles of the Northern Goddesses Again, includes both Germanic and Celtic material...highly recommended

**C. Scott Littleton The New Comparative Mythology : An Anthropological Assessment of the Theories of Georges Dumezil

Women's cross-cultural or other cultural studies --including pop culture

Frances Dahlberg, ed. Woman the Gatherer

**Jeannine Davis-Kimball, Ph.D with Mona Behan. Warrior Women: An Archaeologist's Search for History's Hidden Heroines See my review here

**Margaret Ehrenberg. Women in Prehistory

***Cynthia Eller, The Myth of Matriarchy: Why an Invented Past Won't Give Women a Future

Sherrie A. Innes, Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture

Abby Wettan Kleinbaum. The War Against the Amazons

Katheryn M. Linduff and Karen S. Rubinson, eds. Are All Warriors Male? Gender Roles on the Ancient Eurasian Steppe

Martha McCaughey, ed., Reel Knockouts: Violent Women in the Movies

Mary Zeiss Stange. Woman the Hunter

Warrior studies

***Collette Dowling The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls See my review here

Rick Fields,ed. The Awakened Warrior

***Martha McCaughey Real Knockouts: The Physical Feminism of Women's Self-Defense See my review here

Dáithí Ó hÓgáin Celtic Warriors:The Armies of One of the First Great Peoples in Europe See my review here

***Ellen Snortland Beauty Bites Beast: Awakening the Warrior Within Women and Girls see my review here

***Sun Tzu The Art of War

John "Lofty" Wiseman SAS Survival Handbook

Martial arts/self-defense/self-protection

***Massad F. Ayoob In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection

***Massad F. Ayoob The Truth About Self-Protection

Pauline Bart and Patricia O'Brien Stopping Rape: Successful Survival Strategies

***Judith Fein, Ph.D Are You a Target?

***Judith Fein, Ph.D. Exploding the Myth of Self-Defense

***Judith Fein, Ph.D. How to Fight Back and Win

***Bo Hardy Defensive Living: When Defensive Driving, Diets and Exercise Aren't Enough to Keep You Alive and Well!

Bruce Lee Tao of Jeet Kune Do

**Paxton Quigley Armed and Female

Paxton Quigley Not an Easy Target: Paxton Quigley's Self-Protection for Women

Fitness

***Karen Andes A Woman's Book of Strength

Patrick Avon Boot Camp: Be all you used to be (the Sergeant's Program)

Sustainable Living and food

***Lierre Keith The Vegetarian Myth:Food, Justice and Sustainability (if you eat you MUST read this book)

Jo Robinson Pasture Perfect: The Far-Reaching Benefits of Choosing Meat, Eggs and Dairy Products from Grass-Fed Animals

Michael Pollan The Omnivore's Dilemma

Michael Pollan In Defense of Food

Not Recommended

We have removed our infamous Not Recommended list due to the overwhelming number of books that keep coming out. We can't check them all out so we don't want to give the impression we might favor any of them. Instead, we'll just note that we do NOT recommend ANY:

Books that use the term "Celtic Wicca" to describe their teaching or any form of Wicca or NeoWicca where the author claims the tradition is Celtic.

Books that use the term "Celtic Shamanism" or "shamanism" united with any Celtic culture.

Books that might avoid such terms but are still using such techniques and claiming they are Celtic. Especially watch for, Four Directions/Elements, "invocations," circle casting....

Books that are specifically written for a NeoPagan or a New Age audience. This includes those using the terms "Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan," "Celtic Reconstructionist," "Celtic Reconstructionalism," "Celtic Traditionalism," "Celtic Restorationism" or the like. Or uses these terms mixed with "Gaelic," Brythonic," "Gaulish"or similar specific cultures. Yes, this DOES include a book whose authors include Kym Lambert ní Dhoireann as she is totally embarrassed to have been involved in that writing and no longer endorses it. However, at least none of the authors is making any money off of it so go ahead if you wish, just do not think that section, other than the one on women warriors, in any way reflects our views. Even more it includes a book that claims that someone with a name similar to mine, but not mine, but apparently ran a group I once ran, somehow was involved or endorses it. I don't.

Any "peaceful warrior" or "warrior" books that tell you that you can "connect with your warrior archetype" or be a warrior without being willing to train or fight.

Any fitness book that tells you that women must train different than men because we "don't want to get big and muscular" or that women have specific "female fat zones" which must be our top priority.

Main Library Index

Review Index

Line from Celtic Web Art