Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Fairies, Lovers, and Warriors: “Book of Celtic Verse” by John Matthews


Writer John Matthews has published more than 90 books on the history, culture, and literature of Britain. He’s written novels, short stories, poetry, children’s books, histories, and cultural studies. He’s especially well-known for his works on King Arthur and the Holy Grail, and he’s often served as consultant for movies and television programs. With his wife, Caitlyn, he’s published numerous other works. 

Matthews has previously studied Celtic literature, and he now is turning his publishing attention to Celtic poetry. The modern mind almost inevitably associates “Celt” with “Irish,” and for good historical reasons. But the Celts emerged as a group of tribes in central Europe, and at one time they occupied the geographies we know today as Romania, Hungary, Austria, southern Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, northern Italy, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Turkey, as well as the British Isles. 

 

Today, Celtic heritage is most pronounced in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany in France, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man. And it is from those areas that Matthews draws the poems he’s collected in The Book of Celtic Verse: A Treasury of Poetry, Dreams, & Visions.

 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

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