New books on Ancient Celts

[Xavier Delamarre]

   I mentionned, a few days ago, on 'the Continental Celtic List' two
forthcoming books for the study of Continental Celtic linguistics :
Lambert's RIG II-2 and my Gaulish Dictionary.

  We now have an other important book just issued (last week) about Ancient
Celts :

Venceslas KRUTA : "Les Celtes. Histoire et Dictionnaire. Des origines à
la romanisation et au christianisme." Robert Laffont (Paris), collection
"Bouquins", Nov. 2000, 1005 pp. Price : 189 FRF (‰ 29 Euro).

V. KRUTA is the leading editor, with PY LAMBERT of the journal "Etudes
Celtiques" and professor of European prehistory in Sorbonne (EPHE).

The book is divided in 3 parts :

- pp 1-386 : "Les Celtes avant Rome et le Christianisme" (a linear
description of the history of the Celts)

- pp 387-876 : "Dictionnaire" (more than 2000 entries dealing with
ethnonyms, anthroponyms, theonyms, toponyms, and main aspects of material
civilisation)

- pp 877-1003 : List of Classical Authors quoted, Bibliography, List of
European Museums (with ph./fax/e-mail), Indices.

KRUTA's book will be an indispensable tool for those interested in the
history & archaeology of ancient Europe. The Dictionnaire will be a very
pratical instrument to get quickly a reference & the main literature on a
specific subject. An other important feature is the systematic inclusion of
archaeological founds made in Central Europe, Bohaemia, Hungary, Slovenia
etc. This is new and very welcome.

However, Kruta being mainly an archaeologist, the weakest point of the book
is clearly linguistics and mythology. His few linguistic statements are
often outdated or even erroneous (e.g. Uolcae connected with Germ. Volk !,
Eburo- translated 'boar' [rather 'yew'], no analysis of gutu-ater and druid-
etc.). I hope that my "Dictionnaire" will provide a complement to this.

The mythological entries, especially the Irish stuff, are clearly
second-hand and cursory : for the Táin we are referred to Medb (9 short
lines poorly informative) etc. The recent dictionary of Bernhard Maier
"Dictionary of Celtic Religion & Culture" (Boydell Press 1997), transl. from
the German, will give a useful complement.

But we cannot blame Kruta for not being a linguist & mythologist. Each one
has his one speciality. We often have the same problems in the discussions
about Proto-Indo-European culture : the results of archaeologists (who
usualy are not linguists) do not match those of the linguists (who are not
archaeologists).

I warmly recommend the book, published in the very handy & practical
paperback collection "Bouquins".

Xavier DELAMARRE
Vaucresson
<xavier.delamarre at free.fr> >