Legends of the Celts

The author recounts his favourite Celtic legends, drawing on the oral tradition of story telling of the last thousand years. He demonstrates the universality of our stories, and the many motifs that we have in common with ancient mythology.

The Celtic peoples fed on a rich mixture of legend and myth which, in many versions and derivations, were told at the firesides of Europe since before literacy. The Celts' ancestors had come from the foothills of the Himalayas, through the Middle East into Europe, and consequently many of the mythologies of the world connect with Celtic motifs. The most powerfully intact of the Celtic myths and legends are to be found in the Irish, Welsh and Breton tradition. Frank Delaney has been reading the Celtic legends since childhood and in this volume draws together their main strands, in a retelling of many of the most important mythologies. This book brings up-to-date the story-telling powers of the Celts.

Novelist, broadcaster and freelance journalist Frank Delaney was born in the south of Ireland in 1942. His radio programmes have included ‘Bookshelf’ and the language series ‘Word of Mouth’ on Radio 4. He regularly appears on TV, having made arts and history documentaries for the BBC, including ‘The Celts’, and features in the ‘Book Show’ on Sky News.