Aspects of Celtic Mythology

In his 1934 Sir John Rhŷs Memorial Lecture for the British Academy, the Dutch Celticist A. G. van Hamel examines Irish, Welsh, and Gaulish sources, from the Fenian Cycle and the Second Battle of Moytura to Arthur in the Mabinogion, to uncover the magical and religious undercurrents of Celtic myth. He argues that its gods, divine magicians, spirits of the land, and protecting heroes such as Finn and Arthur served above all to safeguard the land and guarantee its possession, and that reciting the legends was itself a form of protective magic. A classic of Celtic studies by the first major Celticist of the Netherlands, reprinted by Holmes Publishing Group.