A Brief History of the Celts

Brief Histories

By: Peter Berresford Ellis

Narrated by: Christopher Oxford

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

For centuries the Celts held sway in Europe. Even after their conquest by the Romans, their culture remained vigorous, ensuring that much of it endured to feed an endless fascination with Celtic history and myths, artwork, and treasures.

A foremost authority on the Celtic peoples and their culture, Peter Berresford Ellis presents an invigoration overview of their world. With his gift for making the scholarly accessible, he discusses the Celts' mysterious origins and early history and investigates their rich and complex society. His use of recently uncovered finds brings fascinating insights into Celtic kings and chieftains, architecture and arts, medicine and religions, myths and legends, making this esesntial listening for any search for Europe's ancient past.

©2003 Peter Berresford Ellis (P)2014 Audible Ltd

Wonderful

Absolutely amazing book! Delivers factual history without bias. I enjoyed learning about the connections of ancient celts to the hindus.

Brief yet informative overview

The narrator Christopher Oxford was outstanding. Nary a word mispronounced, in English or French, and some entertaining forays into accents (Irish, Welsh and others). Although I thought I knew something about the Celts, I found from listening that many of my ideas had come from Roman propaganda. Another fascinating bit for me was the linking up of Celtic and Indic cultures. I will probably listen to this again at least once.

Well written and wonderfully read

Very enlightening and informative. Great listen. The only error is a lack of clarity about Augustine and Pelagius
M. Which anyone can clarify by reading the great book City Of God. Otherwise restores a correct and entertaining history of a great people group.

Amazing history

Really great. Amazing history of such a great ancient group
Really wonderful narrator too
I really enjoyed it

Great way to start learning about the Celts

Start with this audiobook if you want to learn about the Celts. I've listened to Barry Cunliffe's The Ancient Celts, and a good chunk of Kenneth Harl's Rome and the Barbarians. Both have their pluses and minuses, but this book is definitely the most interesting and I feel like I get a much better overview of the topic.

If you want to further your knowledge, then listen to the other two titles I mentioned. Cunliffe gives more detail on the ancient Celts, whereas this book has one chapter on the subject at the end. However, you will feel like you're having random facts thrown at you and it is more disorganised in how the subjects are grouped. Harl gives more information about the effect Celts had on Rome, but there is also a lot of Roman history that you could maybe skip (and you will get shouted at by the author).

However, both these authors put great stock in Roman descriptions of who the Celts were, even though these sources clearly had some bias. The author of this book has much more skepticism towards these sources which is refreshing. He also provides a lot more information about the Celts on the periphery of the ancient world, like Britain and Ireland, and uses the surviving Irish literary texts passed down through the centuries to help interpret who the Celts might have been.

All in all, I think each had its own merit, but start with this one.

The Greatest at everything everywhere.

Mr. Peter Berresford Ellis is most certainly one the greatest Celtic apologists. The Celts are the be all end all of civilization in Mr. Ellis' mind I do believe. Interesting information but very favorable in all things Celtic. I admire the Celts as much as anyone, and my DNA has roots in Britain and Western Europe, but Mr. Ellis certainly has his Celtic bias.

Great book

Knowledge is power , and you will find plenty of that here. try it out.

Worth you time

Engagingly written and well organized. I enjoyed the book, though the author is obviously a booster for Celtic culture and makes a lot of tendentious assertions that a more balanced writer would have qualified. Still worth your time if you’re looking for an overview of ancient Celtic culture and history - just double check the facts with other sources before you start spouting off the glories of the Celts to your friends. The reader is great - he has that perfect tone of authority and pomposity to go with the text’s recurring self-important dismissal of all contrary opinions. Or maybe it’s just the British accent. Go in with the understanding that the book has a bias and you’ll find much to enjoy.

Best Celtic history I’ve heard unraveling popular bias!

This is the best actual history of the Celtic peoples I have heard yet! It can be a bit monotonous at times but it aligns with my personal studies of the Celts almost entirely. I found it interesting, informative and very helpful. Thank you Mr. Ellis for this book!

Very good survey of Celtic history

Very good survey of Celtic history. There is so much material to cover in attempting to concisely cover 3000 years of Celtic history, and author gets the balance of including enough substantive detail without moving outside the “brief history” survey structure right.