Miranda GreenCritiques

This book is very comprehensive in the historical documents by Greek philosophers and Roman authorities and the archaeology of the Druids and Celts. Certainly this is an eye-opener if you think Druids are adventurous sorcerers with nature empathy and Celts are the Irish of antiquity--an unfortunate stereotype that I, as a gamer, had fallen into. Miranda Green addresses a little bit of all topics and supports her composition with a myriad of quotes from Pliny the Elder, Cicero, Julius Caesar, Strabo and more, meanwhile half of the layout is possessed by ink art work and selected photos of archaeological finds. To the Druidic theme of circles connecting different lives, Green started with antiquity and concluded with modern Druids who wish to no revive the ancient pagan religion but adapt it to the stage of evolution our society currently holds.

Otherwise excellent overview of ancient Iron Age bog internments that however strays a bit as far as contextual conjecture is concerned. A bit too fanciful in what seems like padding at times. Nice illustrations and photographs, index and notes. Relies a tad too much on Roman Gallic histories as extrapolated to what are largely Germanic and Britannic bog sites. Still, what else is there to go on at present? Clearly states what is conjecture as opposed to fact anyway.

Very well written and engaging argument, laying down all the possible interpretations of how and why iron-age people met violent ends in bogs. Fascinating and very thorough exploration of all the facets of what is know about these remains, without losing sight of the humanity of the subjects.

This book is a great introduction to the rich world of Celtic art! I thought that it would be very general, but it present the subject with just enough detail to feel like nothing is neglected. Green focuses on the physical nature of the artwork produced by the Celtic peoples and makes it very clear that while they were rich in imagination, artistic expression was often of a very practical nature. From kitchen supplies to warrior gear, the Celts seem to have decorated everything with intricate metal-, wood-, and leather-work - proving that beauty was an intrinsic cultural value.

Short but informative book from the Shire Archaeology series, with summaries of native Celtic deities and introduced Roman and eastern gods (like Mithra), finishing up with early Christianity. Lots of illustrations; no footnotes but a good bibliography.

Miranda Aldhouse-Green takes a look at the mystery of the bog bodies: how and where they were discovered; the world the bog people lived in; crime scene investigation of the bodies, how bog environments preserve bodies; whether the bog bodies were accident execution or murder victims; the ways they were killed; who might have done the deeds; and why this was done. The book is interesting and informative, with a great deal of research and many photographs. However, there is also a great deal of speculation, repetition and no definitive answers.

All the dry information that you would expect of an academic journal. ;) But for the research I wanted to do, it was absolutely perfect. Comprehensive and well organized, it covers a wide range of topics from a number of authors.

I picked this book up on a whim at my local library, and soon discovered it was already on my to-read listing. Clearly, this was a fortuitous sighting.

This book was incredibly fascinating. Others have complained about the surfeit of speculation within it, and I will agree that there is a lot of speculation, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you pick it up as a relative newcomer to the Bog Body phenomenon, I feel this book has a lot to offer and a lot of fascinating insight into the not all that distant past. The photographs, at the very least, are worth quickly thumbing through the book to see. They're truly breathtaking.

Ultimately, I think my favorite part of the book was the utter respect with which the author treated the subject. At no point do the Bog Bodies become some freakish display, they are always human. It's important that we respect the past, and the bits of life that were managed to be reconstructed with startling things.

We may never know why the bodies were put into the bogs, why the ritual sacrifice (if it was such) occurred. But we can wonder, and we can do our best not to forget those we find, and what their last moments must have been like as they sunk beneath the surface, trapped forever somewhere between life and death.

Natural bogs having preservative properties makes for some pretty fascinating and shocking modern-day discoveries while harvesting peat. Who are these ancient individuals, and why where they intentionally interred in a bog? The bog bodies herein are captivating and mysterious, and modern science allows researchers to perform impressive forensic feats toward discovering their histories. And, come on, who doesn't love bog bodies?

This book contains oodles of great information, excellent illustrations and color photos, and lots of compelling food for thought. Unfortunately, it also suffers from poor editing. Although each chapter was purportedly focused on a discrete topic, they were more or less indistinct from one another due to boundless repetition. The author also could not resist wandering frequently into the realm of conjecture which, to a reader accustomed to good scientific writing, was distracting and grating. Recommended for fans of history, archaeology and forensics, as long as you can look past misuses of "beg the question" without shuddering.

Fascinating recent study on Northern European bog bodies--bog ecology and the role of Sphagnum in preserving these bodies; types of people thrown into bogs; who killed them and how forensics has helped archaeologists. Interesting section on facial reconstruction and another on how a Suebian Knot is fashioned. The author speculated somewhat and there was repetition, but often coming at the same facts from different angles. The possibility of cannibalism was raised. Written for the educated layperson, with many illustrations and color plates. Recommended highly.

A lot of useful information, best with art, artifacts, and possible time lines for further study.

Sun-cults, are surprisingly diverse and complex. The author traces the development of sun-worship from megalithic tombs through Neolithic and Bronze Ages, to the great expansion in the late Bronze Age. Impact of climatic deterioration in northern Europe, and the complex perceptions of the Celts and Romans.

The Sun is understood as more than an astronomical natural body, it is a ruler protector-guardian, to be appeased and invoked. The symbol of our most important earthly concerns -- fertility and death. The author provides a comprehensive analysis of the penetration of the Sun-cult into divergent religious practices, which shadow our present life.

Excellent Bibliography, drawings, photographs, and Index. Omits much material - for example, linguistic studies, and the implications in the words used for "Hand" for example, as clues to the fact that we use euphemisms to avoid referring to an important god. In Sanskrit, the "god with big hands" Prthupani/Savitar, and in Celtic, Lugh Lamhbadha/Celtic Samildanach "long fingered arms" both of whom are affiliated with the Sun. Even though the author is familiar with Celtic, she fails to explore the linguistic associations - and perhaps for that reason fails to realize that Lugh is a sun-god [132].

The author otherwise provides abundant evidence. She would have more if she realized that the symbols, like words, are often euphemisms used to avoid referring to an important god.

For example the material on solar fertility-goddesses was new and convincing, if a little obvious. Tying Snakes to this fertility/comfort, while noting that "all snakes are carnivorous" [131a] and "an awesome, usually ground-based creature", makes her presentation breath-taking. Awesome.

A thoughtful and well-balanced contribution to the literature.

A very interesting archaeological study of ritual human sacrifice in prehistory. A lot of info on various bog bodies.There's something that becomes apparent as you read the book. A lot of the sacrifices, especially the younger ones, have some sort of deformity or injury, often relating to the spine. I honestly can't recall if I've read this somewhere else before or not. But what strikes me is that, had I lived way back then, I could have been one of those bog bodies. Scoliosis was one of the deformities mentioned (for a sixteen-year-old girl). And one would think this would creep me out, right? Nah. In fact, I was thinking, yeah, it'd be pretty nifty to have people studying my body millennia after my death.

This is a comprehensive, copiously illustrated volume that is sufficiently academically rigorous for the well-informed layperson, but straightforward and sufficiently full of eye candy for the neophyte. Green covers what we actually know about the Druids (not a lot, really), their place in myth and legend, and the Neo-Pagan Druidic movement.

What this book was lacking in continuity it made up for in subject selections and illustrations. The World of the Druids consists of many encyclopedia-like entries accompanied by illustrations and photography. It covers many topics from antiquity to the modern druidic movement. While I don't necessarily agree with some of the assumptions made, in all there is quite a bit of good information here presented in an interesting manner. While the book doesn't cover very much in depth, it provides a nice overview and a place to start.

Experiments in Reading½

This is one of the most comprehensive books on Celtic Studies. The book includes chapters on archaeology, language, literature, warfare, rural life, towns, art, religion and myth, trade and industry, political organization, society and technology. It looks at the Celts all over Europe and concludes with a survey of modern Celts and how they view their Celtic identity.

I initially bought this book for use as a reference with which to construct a seminar on the symbolic meaning of animals in Celtic culture.

While the book is well researched, it draws examples almost exclusively from iconography, physical evidence, and classical texts. It does use these resources to develop an accurate picture of the Celts as a farming culture but it fails utterly to connect this reconstructed reality with the myths.

Inclusion of at least one map showing the locations of the archeology sites referenced would have been helpful. Green jumps from country to country and even across continents so often within sections that it becomes difficult to tell to which branch of the Celts she is referring.

Green's visual examples seem randomly placed throughout the book, often chapters ahead of the section which refers to it. It made it difficult to examine examples without flipping through the book and disrupting concentration. The examples provided are mostly sketches, unnecessary when there are obviously stock photos available of the pieces in question.

Many sections are repetitive, using nearly the same wording for the chapter as expressed in previous pages. Green seems to have an aversion toward discussing the religious and mythological aspects of the site findings because she nearly always glosses over it with a single sentence stating that the representations of the animal in question probably had ritual uses or were used in sacred rites.

As a general overview of Celtic iconography, artwork, and an analysis of artifacts found in ritual pits this is a solid scholastic work. As a discussion on the significance of animals in Celtic life and mythology, it falls short.

This reads more like someone's doctoral thesis than a scholastic publication intended for a wider audience.½

This is a glossy book full of pretty pictures which also manages to cover everything known about Druids, from Pliny to the modern Keltoi. It focuses on archeology and primary sources, which means that unlike most books about Druidry, it's actually fact-based; and the later chapters on the modern Druid revivals are well-balanced and accurate.

Reasonable, useful reference text. Some of the author's conclusions have been disputed, but at least I gather that the information (as opposed to conclusions drawn from it) involved is sound. Dictionary format... fairly obviously.