The Sea Kingdoms: The History of Celtic Britain and Ireland - Hardcover

Moffat, Alistair

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002572168 ISBN 13: 9780002572163

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

Synopsis

A journey from Shetland to Cornwall reveals – gloriously – the nature and history of the Celts.

‘I have travelled south from Stornoway through all the Hebrides to Ulster, to Galloway, to the Isle of Man, southern and western Ireland. I can report that there is such a place as Celtic Britain, that it shares a common culture, an intimately related history and strikingly similar geography. The story of Celtic Britain can be found in these places.’

The Sea Kingdoms is a narrative history based on a journey from Shetland, down the west coast of Scotland taking in the Isle of Man and the Outer Hebrides, across to Ireland, back to Anglesey and the west Welsh coast, back to Ireland again and finally Cornwall. The heart of the book is the journey from which Moffat strays into the oral histories, legends and known events of the Celts and their past. Its narrative soaked in legend and myth and sensuality, tragedy and gore. In Moffat’s masterful hands,all these apparently disparate stories, fragments of history and myth come together to give the most powerful representation yet of the race who have repeatedly changed history as we know it.

Ranging between pre-history and the present, with much inbetween – The Sea Kingdoms tells the story of a people, stretched down 1,000 miles of coastline that has to be Britain’s richest and most ancient. It also tells the story of the sea itself, which has more than anything shaped the Celtic character.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'Sea Kingdoms' is a history of whispers and forgetfulness, a story of how the memories and understandings of the Celtic peoples of Britain and Ireland almost faded into inconsequence. Alistair Moffat's journey round the western coast of Britain, and Ireland, takes us to the heart of Celtic Britain – Shetland, Orkney and the Empire of the Vikings, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, the Peak district – a culture which, due to its oral proclivities, has been too easily subsumed and forgotten.

In 'De Bello Gallico' Caesar began the process of converting Celtic virtues into vices. The eloquence of a non-literate people became garrulousness, their feats of memory infected by imprecision and the hyperbole of poetry. As the Celtic kingdoms of Britain were successively dismantled or compressed, this process continued. As propaganda rather than proper history, these cliché's have been remarkably successful, convincing many Celts that they really are more temperamental, more prone to the excesses of alcohol than the level-headed English. Amidst the jumble of tartan, leprechauns, leeks and clotted cream it is difficult to see clearly what remains.

Alistair Moffat tackles these preconceptions head on and, in telling the story of the Celtic people, he rediscovers a vital part of Britains most ancient and richest heritage. Whether on the northern tip of Scotland or in Cornwall, Moffat reminds us of the farms, fortresses and harbours which echoed to the speech of the Celts, who recited their history and managed their politic in recognisable versions of old Welsh and early Gaelic. In doing so, Moffat discovers something fresh and new – another country within our own.

Synopsis:

"I have travelled south from Stornoway through all the Hebrides to Ulster, to Galloway, to the Isle of Man, southern and western Ireland. I can report that there is such a place as Celtic Britain, that it shares a common culture, an intimately related history and strikingly similar geography. The story of Celtic Britain can be found in these places." "The Sea Kingdoms" is a narrative history based on a journey from Shetland, down the west coast of Scotland taking in the Isle of Man and the Outer Hebrides, across to Ireland, back to Anglesey and the west Welsh coast, back to Ireland again and finally Cornwall. Using Patrick Leigh Fermor as a model, the heart of the book is the journey from which Moffat will stray into the oral histories, legends and known events of the Celts and their past. Its narrative soaked in legend and myth and sensuality, tragedy and gore.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0002572168
• ISBN 13: 9780002572163
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400