The Celtic survivals

Press, 21 November 1987, Page 25

The Celtic survivals

The Greatness and Decline of the Celts. By Henri Hubert. Constable, 1987. 276 pp. Bibliography and Index. $59.99 (Reviewed by Margaret Quigley) In the course of the job every reviewer at some stage reads a book which he or she would not otherwise have bothered to pick up, and occasionally this devotion to dpty yields unexpected rewards. So it was for me with “The Greatness and Decline of the Celts,” begun without any great enthusiasm, (the enormous number of footnotes on every page did look daunting), but read thoroughly with certain enjoyments. This is Part II of a two volume history of the Celtic race and the part it played in European history. Volume I “The Rise of the Celts” described the origins of the races and their early movements acroiss Europe and the British Isles. Volume II deals with Celtic civilisation of the La Tene period (or the Second Iron Age) and traces the conflicts with Rome and the survival of Celtic remnants in different areas. Henri Hubert wrote in the early years of the twentieth century (he died in 1927 and the books were first published in French in 1932), and he accomplished a quite remarkable synoptic history of the Celtic peoples. In the half century since his death, the knowledge of the Celts, their languages and civilisation has increased tremendously, but although

many of his ideas and theories are now questioned, Hubert’s work still stands as an important summary of Celtic history. His competence in many fields, particularly archaeology, history, and linguistics, allowed him to incorporate accurate and telling detail into the broad historical sweep of his writing, and it is refreshing to view such allround competence, when today there is, of necessity, so much fagmentation and specialisation of knowledge. This is not an easy read, however. Hubert assumes a good deal of basic knowledge of the period in his reader and particularly in the first section the names of tribes, areas and personalities are so numerous one is left only with a bewildering impression of shifting, swirling masses moving over the face of Europe. The provision of well prepared maps would be of inestimable value to the reader here, but, despite the price of the book there are only three meagre ones right at the end. The last part, which deals with the civilisation of the Celts and with Ireland as the only surviving Celtic nation, will have more popular appeal, showing as it does the very great contribution this vigorous race made to art, literature and industry. A specialised, and in some ways outdated book, which will be of interest mainly to scholars of the period, but which does hold .some rewards for the perservering general reader.