The Discovery of Middle Earth: Mapping the Lost World of the Celts Author: Visit Amazon's Graham Robb Page | Language: English | ISBN:
039308163X | Format: PDF
The Discovery of Middle Earth: Mapping the Lost World of the Celts Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Presenting one of the most astonishing, significant discoveries in recent memory, Robb, winner of the Duff Cooper Prize and Ondaatje Award for The Discovery of France, upends nearly everything we believe about the history—or, as he calls it, €œprotohistory€—of early Europe and its barbarous Celtic tribes and semimythical Druids. Popularly dismissed as superstitious, wizarding hermits, Robb demonstrates how the Druids were perhaps the most intellectually advanced thinkers of their age: scientists and mathematicians who, through an intimate knowledge of €œsolstice lines,€ organized their towns and cities to mirror the paths of their Sun god, in turn creating €œthe earliest accurate map of the world.€ In his characteristically approachable yet erudite manner, Robb examines how this network came to be and also how it vanished, trampled over by a belligerent Rome, which has previously received credit for civilizing Europe—though in Robb's account, Caesar, at the helm, appears dim, unwitting, and frankly lucky, and the (often literally) deeply buried Celtic beliefs and innovations seem more relevant in modern Europe than previously assumed. Like the vast and intricate geographical latticework that Robb has uncovered, the book unfurls its secrets in an eerie, magnificent way—a remarkable, mesmerizing, and bottomless work. 50 illus. Agent: Gill Coleridge, Rogers Coleridge & White (U.K.). (Nov.)
From Booklist
Were an atlas of the Celtic world before the Roman conquests ever created, it could derive from the information amassed in this volume. The author of a prior geographical investigation, The Discovery of France (2007), Robb remarks that this one begins with a scholar’s hypothesis that Celtic settlements, sacred places, and roads were sited on abstract lines based on summer and winter solstices. Off and running after explaining one such line, named for the classical hero Hercules, Robb proceeds to delineate scores of lines at whose intersections archaeological evidence of Celtic habitation has been excavated in modern France and Britain. Dozens of diagrammatic maps visualize Robb’s somewhat complex accounts of Celtic cartography, which developed in the course of Celtic migrations. When one of these reached Rome in 387 BCE, Celts entered a written history that Robb taps for his narratives of Celtic resistance and defeat in Rome’s invasions of Gaul and Britannia. Assiduous research into the obscurities of an ancient culture, including its Druids, Robb’s opus should lure readers interested in the Celtic domains. --Gilbert Taylor
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- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (November 4, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 039308163X
- ISBN-13: 978-0393081633
- Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The Celts of Europe, a loosely organized cultural group that shared language and religion, have remained fairly mysterious for historians and others. Because they didn’t write down much about their beliefs, rituals or laws, we are left with outsider accounts, primarily those of Roman writers. But it has always been obvious that the Celts helped shape Europe from the foundation of cities to material and artistic expressions. What Graham Robb suggests in his latest book is that the Celts, from Gaul all the way to Britain, shaped Europe in ways never before appreciated or even understood, by creating a map of the known world.
By looking at the placement of Celtic towns and sacred sites, and carefully mapping them by latitude, longitude and other measurements, Robb saw a pattern begin to emerge indicating that the Celts had a more sophisticated understanding of the world and a greater grasp of science than previously believed. Starting with the road, known as the Heraklean Way, which ran across the Iberian Peninsula as early as the sixth century BCE, Robb connects various ancient and contemporary towns to each other, illustrating what he thinks is not just a systematic ordering of the world by the Celts but a reflection of the worlds they felt existed above and below as well (hence this world as Middle Earth, a concept famously borrowed by Tolkien).
The science of the Celts, argues Robb, has been so overlooked because it is not the monumental feats of engineering we find with the Romans, Egyptians and other early civilizations. And there are no Celtic texts explaining their views on nature, earth or the cosmos.
Wow. I just finished this book, and I'm feeling overwhelmed. First of all, I am not an academic, but I take an academic interest in the history of the Celts. Therefore I am grateful for such a well-researched and well-documented book. My real interest is in the culture of the Celts and the function of the Druids in Celtic society. This book focuses on Celtic astronomy and geometry and how those sciences affected the layout of the Celtic homelands, particularly Gaul. That angle is of secondary interest to me. But along the way, as the author undertakes a sort of pilgrimage along the paths of the old roads through the old towns, he works in a variety of other information about the Celts taken from about 500 sources, which are listed in the back of the book. This list of sources alone is quite valuable. Just to mention one question that is of interest to me: Were the Celts matrilineal? The author makes a reference to "the matrilineal Celtic tradition," but it is not clear whether he is taking a stand. By contrast, in an article in the academic tome "The Celtic World," edited by Miranda Green, Timothy Champion seems to take a clear stand that Celtic arrangements were patriarchal. In chapter 9, Robb writes, "Following Celtic tradition, in which property passed through the female line...," but no source for this is given in the notes. So I am left tantalized, and in doubt, about many of my questions about the Celts including the status of the sexes, attitudes toward homosexual behavior, etc. Those questions, of course, are not the focus of this book. However, this book goes further than any source I'm aware of in attempting to outline the curriculum of Druid education, without straying into speculation.
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