approaching Celtic literatures
for readers who do not speak or read any Celtic languages, access to Celtic-language literatures is often mediated through more than two centuries of colonial stereotypes, R/romanticism, outdated translations, and (re)interpretations by outsiders, many of whom themselves did not know any Celtic languages. as the Scottish Gaelic scholar William Gillies has observed in the context of the controversy surrounding James Macpherson’s Ossian poems, published in the 1760s, “a series of value-judgments embedded themselves in people’s thinking about Gaelic poetry. Not, what was Gaelic poetry like, but what must it be like (this was the outsiders’ version) or what ought it to be like (this was the insiders’ version)” (“On the Study of Gaelic Literature,” 9-10). even as the Ossian controversy wound down around the turn of the 19th century (at least for English-speaking audiences), dominant-language audiences for Celtic-language literatures have continued to be caught up first and foremost in a complex constellation of ideas about what these literatures must be like, informed by colonial histories extending back to the Roman period, the Romantic movement’s valuation of “nature,” the development of race science in the 18th and 19th centuries, and subsequent offshoots of these, perhaps most notably the development of neopaganism.
all of this has created a situation where ideas about Celtic-language cultures and communities, and the “Celtic fringe” more broadly (encompassing areas like Cornwall, where Celtic languages died out relatively recently and have subsequently been revived), have circulated at several degrees of remove — if not entirely disconnected — from the real literatures, cultures, and communities, both past and present, that produced the “Celtic literature” that dominant-language writers like Ernest Renan, Matthew Arnold, Standish James O’Grady, Isabella Augusta (aka “Lady Gregory”), W.B. Yeats, Lewis spence, and Robert Graves popularized and presented to dominant-language audiences. a search for “Celtic literature” on Wikipedia or whatever your preferred search engine is will turn up results that are, at best, vague and, at worst, wholesale fabrications presented as “authentic” “Celtic” “folklore” (or, worse, simply “lore”). without access to texts in Celtic languages, it can be difficult or impossible to know where to begin. where and how does one find actual Celtic-language literatures in adequate, responsible English translations?
there are six modern Celtic languages, divided into two groups.
- the “Brythonic” languages, descended from a Common Brittonic language once spoken across Wales, England, and parts of Scotland:
- Breton, spoken in Brittany, in northwest France, descended from the language of British settlers who migrated to Brittany in the early Middle Ages.
- Cornish, spoken in Cornwall, in southwest England. the last native speakers of traditional Cornish died in the late 18th or possibly early 19th centuries, but a revival movement began around the turn of the 20th century, and there are now several thousand speakers, including some native speakers.
- Welsh, spoken in Wales, with the largest concentration of speakers in Gwynedd, in the northwest, and on the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Môn).
- the “Goidelic” languages, descended from Old Gaelic, sometimes called Old Irish, spoken across Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man:
- Irish, sometimes referred to as “Irish Gaelic” or, misleadingly, just as “Gaelic”, formerly spoken across Ireland but now, after several centuries of colonialism, attempted genocide, and state neglect, mainly spoken in communities along the west coast, though there are also some communities of speakers in urban areas.
- Manx, spoken on the Isle of Man. the last native speakers of traditional Manx died in the second half of the 20th century, but revival efforts were already underway at that point and, as with Cornish, there are new a few thousand speakers, including a small number of native speakers.
- Scottish Gaelic, often just referred to as “Gaelic” in specialist contexts, formerly spoken across almost all of Scotland but now, after several centuries of colonialism, attempted genocide, and state neglect, mainly spoken in communities along the west coast of the Highlands and in the Hebrides, the islands off the west coast.
I should note in particular that Scottish Gaelic is distinct from Scots, an unrelated Germanic language spoken primarily in the Lowlands of Scotland that diverged from Early Middle English. Scots will be most familiar to English-speakers from the poetry of Robert Burns, from some well-known ballads, and from being treated as a ~funny meme~ by non-Scottish audiences on social media. Scots has its own literary and folk traditions, as a stigmatized language of rural communities and the urban working class, that are worth exploring (I particularly recommend Harry Josephine Giles’s sci-fi verse novel Deep Wheel Orcadia, which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2022), but it is beyond the scope of this introduction.
before I get to the lists, a few notes.
first, I have not read every text here (in particular the translations of modern Celtic-language literatures); my goal is to provide a broad basis for entering the fields of various Celtic-language literatures and cultures. Breton unfortunately gets particularly short shrift here because it’s very difficult to find Breton-language texts in English translation; I suspect the field is a bit broader in French, but — frankly — I haven’t really looked into it, so I don’t know.
second, it is an unfortunate reality that actually accessing Celtic-language texts in translation can be difficult even when translations are theoretically available; for this reason, particularly in the premodern literature and folklore section, I have included a selection of 19th- and early 20th-century translations that are freely available online. these should be taken with a grain of salt: purely at a philological level, our understanding of premodern Celtic languages has improved significantly since the 19th century, and older translations are often marked by outdated ideas about medieval culture and religion and about anthropology and folklore. take the paratexts — introductions, notes, commentaries, appendices — in this kind of material with a strong skepticism; in some cases it should probably be entirely disregarded. I’ve added notes with caveats to specific texts, as well.
third, for a number of reasons — not least the relative paucity of translators — many Celtic-language texts have been translated by their authors (“self-translation”). I and others have major reservations about this (see the pieces by Corinna Krause, Wilson McLeod, and especially Christopher Whyte in the works cited). self-translation, especially in the context of bilingual editions (a common format for Gaelic poetry), creates the illusion of transparency, eliding the fact that every translation is an act of interpretation and that the author’s interpretation is not necessarily the only one (or even the best, as I’ll note in a few cases below). in some cases, particularly with prose translations, self-translations amount to rewritings, as I observed of Manon Steffan Ros’s English translation of her novel Llyfr Glas Nebo (published as The Blue Book of Nebo), which significantly deemphasizes the original novel’s interest in Welsh culture and literary history, centering English-language texts intead, in sometimes bizarre ways. this is unfortunately an unavoidable problem for readers who are not equipped to approach the texts in their original language, but I encourage you to keep it in mind and, in the case of bilingual editions, to at least glance at the Celtic-language text from time to time. it’s also worth noting that the problems presented by self-translation are not unique to self-translation but rather particularly thorny examples of the dominance of a broader ideology of translation in the English-speaking world that sees transparency or invisibility as an ideal; for those curious to get into critical translation studies, I would particularly encourage looking at work by Lawrence Venuti (most notably The Translator’s Invisibility) and Arianne Des Rochers (Language Smugglers; full disclosure, I’m biased on this one because Arianne is a close friend and I edited the manuscript).
finally, I just want to add that it’s never been easier to learn a Celtic language, even if you’re outside the regions where they’re spoken and don’t have access to in-person classes. there are several established distance programs teaching Scottish Gaelic, for example (I started with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye; there’s also Colaisde na Gàidhlig in Cape Breton), and I found the model of SaySomethinginWelsh extremely useful (coupled with Duolingo for vocabulary) in jump-starting my Welsh. the Celtic Languages wiki has links to online courses and learning materials, as well. it’s never too late to start learning!
1. mixed anthologies
Francis Boutle Publishers has published anthologies of work in multiple genres and spanning multiple time periods in four of the six modern Celtic languages (as well as other denied languages and in some “smaller” European languages like Maltese), and there are a few of other anthologies of this kind.
- multiple Celtic languages
- Michael Davitt and Iain MacDonald (ed.), Sruth na Maoile: Gaelic Poetry from Scotland and Ireland (Canongate/Coiscéim): an anthology of poetry by a representative selection of contemporary (as of 1993) poets working in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, all with English translations.
- various (ed./tr.), Writing the Wind: A Celtic Resurgence: The New Celtic Poetry (New Native Press): an anthology of modern poetry in all six modern Celtic languages, with English translations.
- Breton
- Jacqueline Gibson and Gwyn Griffiths (ed.), The Turn of the Ermine: An Anthology of Breton Literature (Francis Boutle): this is one of only two translations of anything from Breton into English that I’m aware of. it also includes a few things translated from Latin and French.
- Cornish
- Amy Hale, Alan M. Kent, and Tim Saunders (ed.), Inside Merlin’s Cave: A Cornish Arthurian Reader 1000-2000 (Francis Boutle): includes texts in Latin, English, and Cornish.
- Alan M. Kent and Tim Saunders (ed.), Looking at the Mermaid: A Reader in Cornish Literature 900-1900 (Francis Boutle): includes extes in Cornish, English, Latin, and a few other medieval languages.
- Irish
- weirdly I’m not aware of any mixed anthologies of this kind in Irish (if you are please let me know!).
- Manx
- Robert Corteen Carswell (ed.), Manannan’s Cloak: An Anthology of Manx Literature (Francis Boutle): this is the only published translation of anything from Manx into English that I’m aware of.
- Scottish Gaelic
- Michael Newton (ed.), Bho Chluaidh gu Calasraid / From the Clyde to Callender: Gaelic Songs, Poetry, Tales and Translations of the Lennox and Menteith with English Translations (Acair)
- Michael Newton (ed.), Seanchaidh na Coille / The Memory-Keeper of the Forest: Anthology of the Scottish-Gaelic Literature of Canada (Cape Breton University Press): this has the distinction of having a selection of non-fictional prose, which is otherwise hard to come by in translation.
- Michael Newton and Wilson McLeod (ed.), An Ubhal as Àirde / The Highest Apple: An Anthology of Scottish Gaelic Literature (Francis Boutle): this is an 813-page behemoth extending from the medieval period to the present; of particular note for SFF readers, it includes a selection from Tim Armstrong’s 2013 sci-fi novel Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach.
- Welsh
- Gwyn Griffiths and Meic Stephens (ed.), The Old Red Tongue: An Anthology of Welsh Literature (Francis Boutle)
2. premodern literature in translation
this spans four groupings: inscriptions, mostly fragmentary, in ancient Celtic languages (Gaulish, Celtiberian, etc.) that have been published in translation; medieval Cornish literature; medieval Gaelic literature, spanning Ireland and Scotland; and medieval Welsh literature.
in this vein, it is crucial to keep in mind that we have no direct textual evidence for “pagan” religious beliefs and practices in any Celtic-language-speaking region. every single medieval text in a Celtic language was produced in a Christian context: Celtic-language communities were early adopters of Christianity (and, indeed, this was a bone of contention when Germanic tribes began colonizing Britain), and every medieval account of “pagan” times in Ireland, Scotland, or Britain was produced by a Christian writer. this colors every aspect of these texts, from frankly unhinged figural interpretations to denigrations of druids to invocations of the Christian god by ostensibly pagan heroes and gods. it is difficult, if not altogether impossible, to say anything definitive about pre-Christian religious practice in Ireland or Wales on the basis of textual evidence; the most promising source we have is archaeological evidence, which has its own limitations.
to that end: bluntly, anyone who talks about “Irish mythology” or “Welsh mythology” as if these are things we have immediate and unproblematic access to is either lying to you themselves, repeating lies or misrepresentations from discredited 19th- and 20th-century scholarship, or repeating lies or misrepresentations from neopagans and neopagan-adjacent writers like Robert Graves. the selected bibliography of critical texts includes some readings on this point; in particular, I would recommend Mark Williams’s The Celtic Myths That Shape the Way We Think (aimed at non-academic readers) and Ireland’s Immortals (more academic but very good and still imo reasonably accessible) and Ronald Hutton’s work on druids and on “mythological” readings of medieval Welsh literature.
(we are on only slightly firmer ground with ancient texts, since much of our evidence comes from Greek and Roman writers who were, at best, chauvinist and, at worst, actively elaborating on and expanding colonial stereotypes designed to justify Roman imperialism. Juan Carlos Olivares Pedreño’s “Celtic Gods of the Iberian Peninsula” provides a useful overview of some of the methodological challenges of reconstructing continental Celtic religions.)
2a. ancient Celtic languages
mostly these are published in scholarly publications. the only general-audience example I’m currently aware of is Joe Koch’s The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe and Early Ireland and Wales (Celtic Studies Publications), which provides translations of two Gaulish religious inscriptions. Koch is also useful because he provides a broad selection of Greek and Roman authors who wrote about populations they identified as “Celtic” or who are now identified as “Celtic,” but note that Koch is a proponent of the controversial “Celtic from the west” hypothesis, and this colors some of his presentation of the material in the book.
2b. medieval Cornish literature
medieval Cornish literature is a particularly striking example of the status of Christianity in Celtic-language communities, because apart from some glosses and one long poem it’s really just a collection of late medieval religious plays. I haven’t read any of them but I’ve heard some of them are kind of wild, and one of them, Bewnans Ke, includes an Arthurian episode.
- Beunans Meriasek (various translations, see below): a hagiographic drama about the life of St. Meriasek / Meriadoc.
- Myrna Combellak (tr.), The Camborne Play: A Translation of Beunans Meriasek in Verse (Redruth): as the title suggests, a verse translation, published in 1988.
- Markham Harris (tr.), The Life of Meriasek: A Medieval Cornish Miracle Play (Catholic University of America Press): a slightly older translation, published in 1977.
- Graham Thomas and Nicholas Williams (tr.), Bewnans Ke / The Life of St. Kea: a hagiographic drama about the life of St. Kea, but it also includes a long Arthurian section that ranges from adultery to a tributary dispute.
- Whitley Stokes (tr.), Gwreans an Bys: The Creation of the World, a Cornish Mystery (Williams and Norgate): a very early and likely superseded edition and translation of Gwreans an Bys, a standalone mystery play, published in 1864.
- the Ordinalia (various translations, see below): a trilogy of mystery plays.
- Markham Harris, The Cornish Ordinalia: A Medieval Dramatic Trilogy (Catholic University of America Press): a slightly older translation published in 1969.
- Alan M. Kent, Ordinalia: The Cornish Mystery Play Cycle (Francis Boutle): a contemporary verse translation of the Ordinalia by a scholar and poet.
- Pascon agan Arluth (various translations, see below): a 14th-century long poem about the Passion of Christ, including some in-text commentary/exegesis.
- Whitley Stokes (tr.), “The Passion of Our Lord”: a scholarly translation published in 1861.
- Ray Edwards (tr.), Passyon agan Arluth / Passhyon agan Arloedh (Kesva): the most recent translation.
- Goulven Pennaod (tr.), Passyon agan Arluth / Pasion hon Aotrou (Preder): the listing I can find for this only indicates Cornish and Breton, but Wikipedia suggests this also includes an English translation.
- there is apparently also a translation by Robert Morton Nance from the 1930s, but I can’t find publication information for it.
2c. medieval Gaelic literature
I use the phrase “medieval Gaelic” to highlight that the Gaelic world in much of this period extended from Ireland to the Isle of Man to almost all of Scotland. mostly, however, people will speak of “medieval Irish” literature, written in “Old Irish” or “Middle Irish.”
the Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT) at University College Cork hosts freely available translations of many medieval Gaelic texts; I highlight a few I particularly like below, alongside some anthologies.
- Buile Suibhne (various translations, see below): Buile Suibhne is a fun, kind of wacky, and also at times kind of beautiful example of the extremely loose group of texts sometimes known as the Cycle of the Kings, stories of the legendary High Kings of Ireland. its protagonist, Suibhne (sometimes anglicized as “Sweeney”) is probably best known to English-language readers as one of the main characters of Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds.
- Seamus Heaney (tr.), Sweeney Astray (Farrar, Straus and Giroux): this is a fairly free, more “literary” translation; this is the version I was assigned to read in undergrad.
- J.G. O’Keefe (tr.), Buile Suibhne (Irish Texts Society/CELT): this is a more scholarly translation and has the advantage of being readily accessible online.
- Elizabeth A. Gray (tr.), Cath Maige Tuired: The Second Battle of Mag Tuired (Irish Texts Society/CELT): this is one of my personal favorite medieval Gaelic texts, the premier text of the group of texts that scholars have called the Mythological Cycle, stories about the Túatha Dé Danann, who seem to be literary descendants of pre-Christian Gaelic deities, though as I noted above this identification should be taken with salt: the Túatha Dé are, first and foremost, literary constructions used by Christian writers, situated in a Christian mytho-historical narrative of the history of Ireland. see Mark Williams’s Ireland’s Immortals for a more detailed discussion of this.
- Wilson McLeod and Meg Batemen (ed.), Duanaire na Sracaire / Songbook of the Pillagers: Anthology of Scotland’s Gaelic Verse to 1600 (Casemate): an anthology of medieval Gaelic poetry from Scotland, including some of the earliest named women poets in Gaelic.
- Jeffrey Gantz (tr.), Early Irish Myths and Sagas (Penguin Classics): this is an accessible collection of stories mainly connected to the Táin Bó Cúailnge. unfortunately, most of Gantz’s introductory material is severely outdated and should be disregarded; he also makes some questionable translatorial and editorial choices. in spite of this, however, EIMS remains a good starting point for engaging with medieval Gaelic literature.
- James Carney (tr.), Medieval Irish Lyrics (University of California Press): an anthology of medieval poetry, published in 1967.
- Barbara Hughes Fowler (tr.), Medieval Irish Lyrics (University of Notre Dame Press): a different anthology of medieval poetry, published in 2000.
- Táin Bó Cúailnge (various translations, see below): the Táin is probably the best-known medieval Gaelic text, the heart of the group of texts that scholars refer to as the Ulster Cycle, narrating a climactic battle between the forces of Connacht (western Ireland) and — mostly — Cú Chulainn, the champion of Ulster (northeastern Ireland). the Táin has been translated a number of times; two of these are more or less readily available in published form, aimed at popular audiences (see below). both of the popular translations, however, are also editions: the Táin circulated in multiple versions (or “recensions”), and both Carson and Kinsella have constructed (slightly different from each other) composite texts integrating elements of multiple recensions. if you’re interested to read the Táin in a “raw-er” (though still edited) form, CELT has editions of the two major recensions, which I also link below.
- Ciarán Carson (tr.), The Táin (Penguin Classics): this is the edition I was assigned in undergrad.
- Thomas Kinsella (tr.), The Táin: From the Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge (Oxford University Press): this was the first mainstream translation of the Táin and popularized the (inaccurate imo) description of it as an “epic”; I would say it’s still about as well-regarded as Carson’s.
- Cecile O’Rahilly (tr.), Táin Bó Cúalnge Recension 1 (Irish Texts Society/CELT): as the title indicates, this is a translation of recension I, based primarily on the manuscript known as Lebor na hUidre (occasionally called the Book of the Dun Cow) but drawing on variants from other sources, especially the Yellow Book of Lecan. O’Rahilly’s work is at times a bit idiosyncratic, but it’s what’s available.
- Cecile O’Rahilly (tr.), Táin Bó Cúalnge from the Book of Leinster (Irish Texts Society/CELT): this is a translation of recension II, based solely on the version in the Book of Leinster (where it is best preserved).
- Ann Dooley and Harry Roe (tr.), Tales of the Elders of Ireland (Oxford University Press): this is a translation of the late medieval Acallam na Senórach, an extended dialogue between Saint Patrick and the surviving heroes of the Fiann(a), the band of warriors led by the legendary Fionn mac Cumhaill (sometimes anglicized as “Finn MacCool”). it’s probably the most accessible medieval text of what scholars have called the Fenian Cycle, the stories of Fionn and the Fiann(a).
2d. medieval Welsh literature
in addition to the printed translations listed below, the Early Merlin Poetry project, launching imminently, will include translations of some of the earliest Welsh poetry about Merlin (aka Myrddin).
- Nerys Ann Jones (tr.), Arthur in Early Welsh Poetry (MHRA): an anthology of early Arthurian texts in Welsh.
- Gwyneth Lewis and Rowan Williams (tr.), The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain (Penguin Classics): the Book of Taliesin is a 14th-century compilation of poetry attributed to the legendary 6th-century poet Taliesin, including some striking (and difficult) Arthurian material.
- the “Mabinogion” (various translations, see below): this is the name given by the 19th-century editor and translator Charlotte Guest to a group of rather disparate medieval Welsh narratives: the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi” (we do not know what “the Mabinogi” is, and it’s possible there were more than four branches), a selection of miscellaneous narratives (including one of the few complete Arthurian texts that does not appear to have been influenced by continental Arthurian romances), and three Arthurian romances adapted from French models. the oldest extant manuscript dates from the 14th century, but earlier fragments suggest that some of the stories were circulating prior to that. a few notable translations:
- Sioned Davies (tr.), The Mabinogion (Oxford University Press): an extremely approachable text focused on producing a version of the text that sounds good when read aloud — which was likely the original way the text was read. includes extensive (though occasionally frustrating) notes. this is the translation I’d recommend.
- Jeffrey Gantz (tr.), The Mabinogion (Penguin Classics): I haven’t read this, but based on Gantz’s medieval Gaelic translations I would guess it is serviceable but perhaps a bit dated.
- Charlotte Guest (tr.), The Mabinogion, from the Welsh Llyfr Coch Hergest: this was the first translation, originally published between 1838 and 1845. it has been largely superseded and has some Victorian expurgation, but I include it because it’s available online. Guest’s translation includes the story known as Hanes Taliesin, a prose narrative about the legendary poet Taliesin.
- Joseph P. Clancy (tr.), Medieval Welsh Poems (Four Courts Press): what it sounds like, an anthology of medieval Welsh poetry, notably including a translation of two texts of the Gododdin, one of (possibly) the earliest medieval Welsh poems (assigning it a date is complicated) and an important document of either the history of or (if it’s not actually 6th-century) later Welsh attitudes towards the “Hen Ogledd” (Old North), the Brittonic-speaking region of what’s now northeast England.
- there are other translations of the Gododdin, but I have it on good authority that Clancy’s is the best that’s currently available.
- Peter Goodrich (ed.), The Romance of Merlin: An Anthology (Garland): pending the launch of the Early Merlin Poetry project, this is a multilingual anthology of material related to Merlin / Myrddin, and includes translations by J.K. Bollard of medieval Welsh material about Myrddin.
- Rachel Bromwich (tr.), Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain (University of Wales Press): the premier example of a major form in Welsh (and to a lesser extent Irish) literature, the “triad,” a group of three (and sometimes four) items, comprising a large and at times enigmatic collection of allusions to and micro-tales from medieval Welsh literature and folklore.
3. Celtic-language folklore in translation
Celtic-language folklore is maybe the group of Celtic-language literatures that’s most difficult to untangle from popular and R/romantic misrepresentations, neopagan inventions, and outdated anthropological interpretations. trying to find accurate information on (for example) fairies using search engines or Wikipedia is nearly impossible unless you already know where to look.
unfortunately, many 20th-century folklore collections are also difficult to access, meaning that most of what casual readers are likely to be able to find is 19th-century collections. these present a major problem even beyond the normal methodological problems of reading a printed version of an oral performance, namely that the texts published by folklorists like John Francis Campbell are not exact transcriptions of a performance but rather a subsequent reconstruction based on notes and the folklorist’s memory. as such, while they are an invaluable resource for the study of these bodies of folklore, they should be approached with a bit of caution, especially because folklorists like Campbell also often produced composite texts, combining multiple performances into a single, more “literary” or “cohesive” text. the result is something that may be representative of the tradition as an aggregate, or taken as an average, but isn’t necessarily representative of any individual performance or version of a given narrative or song.
due to gaps in my own knowledge, the loss of traditional Cornish-language oral narratives as the language died in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and also the fact that less Welsh material has been translated, this section is currently essentially limited to Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic material, but it should be noted that some Breton oral texts are available in The Turn of the Ermine.
3a. Cornish folklore
the only Cornish-language oral text I’m aware of is a song collected from a non-speaker in the 19th century, the “Cranken Rhyme.”
3b. Irish folklore
[to come]
3c. Manx folklore
[to come]
3d. Scottish Gaelic folklore
[to come]
4. modern Celtic-language literatures in translation
I am unfortunately not aware of any Breton or Manx literature in English translation outside of the anthologies listed above.
Scottish Gaelic
between approximately 1975 and 2015 (and to some extent still since 2015) the large majority of Gaelic poetry was published in bilingual editions, usually with an English translation by the author. as a result, pretty much anything from that period that you find will be accessible in translation (though note the caveats re self-translation that I offered in the introduction). to that end, I offer recommendations of a few particular collections and anthologies, rather than listing every single Gaelic poetry book that’s available in translation.
[list to come]
5. Celtic-language films
a few things to note here: one, I’m including television programs where these are available with English subtitles; two, a lot of these are short films, so they’re a pretty minimal time investment; three, there are more things available in all of these languages with no subtitles; four, some of these are (currently) on YouTube or Vimeo, and I’ve included links to these where possible. I should also note that I haven’t seen all of these films, so I can’t speak for all of them directly. something it’s vital to keep in mind when exploring Celtic-language (and, indeed, any denied-language) visual media is that there’s typically just less available for filmmakers to work with: less money, fewer actors, less audience, less general interest. it’s important to approach these films and TV shows with the understanding that, for the most part, you’re not going to be seeing a Hollywood production but rather people creatively working to do more with (often quite a lot) less.
Breton
- the only Breton-language visual media with English subtitles that I am aware of is a short drama/thriller series titled Fin ar Bed. unfortunately, while this was previously available on the streaming service MhzChoice (which still has a handful of shows in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh), it appears it’s been taken down. hopefully it will be available again in the future.
- I do also want to note (read: taunt you with) the trailer for the Welsh-Breton feature film Kan ar Mor, of particular note for SFF readers because it draws on the legend of the drowned city of Ys/Kêr-Is, which has been a recurring source text for dominant-language fantasy writers. unfortunately (the constant refrain with Breton), I haven’t been able to access the film anywhere. :-(
Cornish
- Hwerow Hweg (2002, 89 mins., dir. Antal Kovacs): a drama/thriller about a jilted lover’s revenge.
- Skynt: The Musical (2010, 16 mins., dir. Ian Bucknole): a short, bilingual musical (dialogue in English, lyrics in Cornish), an optimistic rejection of austerity and a sharp — if a bit rosy-eyed — critique of the economic marginalization of Cornwall and the impact of tourism.
- Trengellick Rising (2023, 29 mins., dir. Guy Potter): a historical drama about an 18th-century soldier on the coast watching for enemy ships.
Manx
- Ny Kirree fo Niaghtey (The Sheep Under Snow) (1983, 22 mins., dir. George Broderick): a documentary providing historical context for the traditional song “Ny Kirree fo Niaghtey”.
- Solace in Wicca (2013, 11 mins., dir. Andy North): a kind of bonkers and rather romanticized short film based on a famous witch trial on the Isle of Man.
Scottish Gaelic
[to come]
6. critical and historical texts
general background reading
- Chapman, Malcolm. The Celts: The Construction of a Myth. St. Martin’s Press, 1992.
- Johnes, Martin. Welsh Not: Elementary Education and the Anglicisation of Nineteenth-Century Wales. University of Wales Press, 2024.
- Newton, Michael, ed. Celts in the Americas. Cape Breton University Press, 2013.
- this is a useful reference that discusses the diasporas of Celtic-language communities in (primarily) North America, with introductory chapters giving historical overviews of each diaspora.
- Sims-Williams, Patrick. “Celtomania and Celtoscepticism.” Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 36 (1998): 1-35.
- Stroh, Silke. Gaelic Scotland in the Colonial Imagination: Anglophone Writing from 1600 to 1900. Northwestern University Press, 2017.
- Watson, Moray and Michelle Macleod, ed. The Ediburgh Companion to the Gaelic Language. Edinburgh University Press, 2010.
- various, ed. A Guide to Welsh Literature. University of Wales Press/Christopher Davies, 1976-1998.
- a six-volume series introducing Welsh literature from the earliest medieval poetry to 1996
- various, ed. A New History of the Isle of Man. Liverpool University Press, 2001—.
- an as-yet-incomplete five-volume history, currently made up of volumes 1 (on the natural history of the island), 3 (on the medieval period), and 5 (on the period from 1830-1999)
premodern literatures and cultures
in addition to some specific recommendations below, the Cork Studies in Celtic Literatures series, published by University College Cork, has a number of accessible introductions to different bodies of premodern Celtic-language literatures, as well as publishing editions of and commentaries on particular texts.
these suggestions are heavily skewed towards Gaelic and Welsh material; I’m just not familiar with the scholarship on the Cornish mystery plays or on medieval Breton.
- Bromwich, Rachel, A.O.H. Jarman, and Brynley F. Roberts, ed. The Arthur of The Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature. University of Wales Press, 2020.
- Hutton, Ronald. Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain. Yale University Press, 2009.
- Hutton, Ronald. “Medieval Welsh Literature and Pre-Christian Deities.” Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 61 (2011): 57-85.
- Jenkins, Dafydd, ed. The Law of Hywel Dda: Law Texts from Medieval Wales. Gomer, 1988.
- a translation of a major compilation of medieval Welsh legal texts.
- Jones, Aled Llion. Darogan: Prophecy, Lament and Absent Heroes in Medieval Welsh Literature. University of Wales Press, 2013.
- Kelly, Fergus. A Guide to Early Irish Law. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988.
- this book sounds like it will be very dry and boring, but my undergrad advisor was correct: it is absolutely fascinating.
- Lloyd-Morgan, Ceridwen and Erich Poppe. Arthur in the Celtic Languages: The Arthurian Language in Celtic Literatures and Traditions. University of Wales Press, 2019.
- Ní Bhrolcháin, Muireann. An Introduction to Early Irish Literature. Four Courts Press, 2009.
- conceived specifically as an introduction for non-specialists and students just beginning to work with medieval Gaelic literature.
- Rodway, Simon. “The Mabinogi and the shadow of Celtic mythology.” Studia Celtica 52 (2018): 67-85.
- Williams, Mark. The Celtic Myths That Shape the Way We Think. Thames and Hudson, 2021.
- this is a general introduction, intended for a popular audience, to the content and reception of a selection of medieval Gaelic and Welsh narratives and their receptions in modern literatures (both in English and in Celtic languages).
- Williams, Mark. Ireland’s Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth. Princeton University Press, 2016.
- this is a detailed and much more scholarly but still, I found, fairly accessible examination of the development of ideas about “pagan gods” in Ireland, from classical antiquity to the present.
modern literatures and cultures
I’ve selected a few things from the University of Wales Press catalogue that I’ve either read or encountered, but you could do worse than to just poke around in it and see what seems interesting/relevant. given my own background, the selection of material on Scottish Gaelic is most comprehensive; additionally, a large volume of the scholarship on modern literature in Irish and Welsh is written in those languages.
- Aaron, Jane. Welsh Gothic. University of Wales Press, 2013.
- discusses texts in English and Welsh.
- Brooks, Simon. Why Wales Never Was. Tr. Simon Brooks. University of Wales Press, 2017.
- looks at the cultural and political situation of Wales in the aftermath of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. note that Books is a polemic and not uncontroversial writer.
- Chapman, Malcolm. The Gaelic Vision in Scottish Culture. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1978.
- Dymnock, Emma and Wilson McLeod, ed. Lainnir a’ Bhùirn – The Gleaming Water: Essays on Modern Scottish Gaelic Literature. Dunedin Academic Press, 2011.
- Kent, Alan M. Literature of Cornwall: Continuity, Identity. Difference 1000-2000. Redcliffe Press, 2000.
- O’Leary, Philip. multiple works by a prolific scholar of modern Irish-language writing:
- Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State, 1922-1939. Penn State University Press/University College Dublin Press, 2004.
- Irish Interior: Keeping Faith with the Past in Gaelic Prose, 1940-1951. University College Dublin Press, 2010.
- The Prose Literature of the Gaelic Revival, 1881-1921: Ideology and Innovation. Penn State University Press, 1994.
- An Underground Theatre: Major Playwrights in the Irish Language. University College Dublin Press, 2017.
- Writing beyond the Revival: Facing the Future in Gaelic Prose, 1940-1951. University College Dublin Press, 2011.
- Stroh, Silke. Uneasy Subjects: Postcolonialism and Scottish Gaelic Poetry. Rodopi, 2011.
- Trower, Shelley. Rocks of Nation: The Imagination of Celtic Cornwall. Manchester University Press, 2015.
- this is a fascinating book about the relationship between geology and literature specifically vis-à-vis Cornwall and the construction of it as a “Celtic” space.
- Watson, Moray. An Introduction to Gaelic Fiction. Edinburgh University Press, 2011.
7. works cited
- Des Rochers, Arianne. Language Smugglers: Postlingual Literatures and Translation within the Canadian Context. Bloomsbury, 2023.
- Gillies, William. “On the Study of Gaelic Literature.” Litreachas & Eachdraidh / Literature & History: Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 2. Ed. Michel Byrne, Thomas Owen Clancy, and Sheila Kidd. Roinn na Ceiltis, Oilthigh Ghlaschu, 2006. 1-32.
- Krause, Corinna. “Self-translation: in dialogue with the outside world.” Lainnir a’ Bhùirn – The Gleaming Water: Essays on Modern Gaelic Literature. Ed. Emma Dymock and Wilson McLoed. Dunedin Academic Press, 2011. 115-131.
- Krause, Corinna. “‘Why bother with the original?’: Self-translation and Scottish Gaelic poetry.” Self-Translation: Brokering Originality in Hybrid Culture. Ed. Anthony Cordingley. Bloomsbury, 2013. 127-140.
- McLeod, Wilson. “Translation and Gaelic: Current Challenges and Contorversies.” Quaich: An Anthology of Translation in Scotland Today. Ed. Madeleine Campbell, Georgina Collins, and Anikó Szilágyi. Everytpe, 2014. 3-12.
- Olivares Pedreño, Juan Carlos. “Celtic Gods of the Iberian Peninsula.” e-Keltoi 6 (2005).
- Venuti, Lawrence. The Translator’s Invisibility: A history of translation. Routledge, 1995.
- Whyte, Christopher. “Against Self-Translation.” Translation and Literature 11.1 (2002): 64-71.
- Whyte, Christopher. “Translation as Predicament.” Translation and Literature 9.2 (2000): 179-187.
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