THE CELTS

An iconic people receive a scholar’s attention.

Stewart, a scholar at the University of Edinburgh, reminds readers that ancient writers (Caesar, Tacitus) recorded Celts as fearless warriors who rampaged across Europe and even sacked Rome. Vanishing from the record for a thousand years, they were rediscovered by Renaissance humanists. Although nowadays associated with Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, the original Celts cast a broader shadow. Never happy with their German ancestry, French academics worked to promote a Gaulish alternative, and British opposition to Anglo-Saxons flourished. The Renaissance was the period when modern European nations took shape, and these humanists, patriots and Christians all, disliked the Roman conviction that all people north of Italy were barbarians. Poring over fragmentary ancient manuscripts but speculating generously, many concluded that their nations’ founders were civilized migrants from ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, or Troy; their religious leaders (druids) were precursors of Christianity, and their language a direct descendant of Europe’s mother tongue—Hebrew. Much of this was nonsense, or deliberately faked, but Stewart is a dedicated scholar, not a popular historian, so he leaves no stone unturned, and readers will encounter a steady stream of unfamiliar savants, obscure texts, and raging controversies often wacky to modern ears but now forgotten. Persistent readers may perk up as he reaches the 19th century, when history became scientific, although that included the abortive sciences of racism and phrenology, which mostly reinforced English dislike of the Irish. French, English, and German Celtic claims receded, and Stewart’s focus narrows to familiar Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, plus a touch of Brittany. Over the last century, Ireland’s independence and the elimination of scholarly nonsense have made Celtic studies a respectable academic field. Popular Celticism persists, mostly in Wales and Scotland, as a minority movement more successful in culture than politics.

Definitive and encyclopedic.