Landscape Perception in Early Celtic Literature

Francesco Benozzo (Author)

£19.95 £7.95

Category:
ISBN: 9781891271113
Publisher: Celtic Studies Publications
Volume: 8
Year of Publication: 2004
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 260

This pioneering work shows how Celtic cultures understood the place of human beings in their natural environment in ways fundamentally different from our own. Benozzo explores the unique unfolding of landscapes in early Irish and Welsh texts, including Tain Bo Cuailgne, The Voyage of Bran, the Gododdin and the mythological Taliesin poem on the Battle of the Trees.

This is a landmark study of a topic much remarked upon but surprisingly little examined in real detail: landscapes in early Irish and Welsh texts. … [I]t is a book destined to take its place with (and in certain important ways to supersede) earlier studies of ‘Celtic nature poetry’ and writing …. That it succeeds so well is attributable in part to its virtuous grounding in philology. (Alfred K. Siewers, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 52 (Winter 2006), p. 100)

Benozzo set himself a near impossible task for this slim volume, but its appeal should extend beyond those with an interest in Celtic and early medieval literature to anyone interested in explorations of how we understand perceptions of our surroundings and how the physical world may influence artistic works. (Ian Wyatt, Landscape History 26 (2004), p. 106)