Reddit reviews Celtic Mythology

Thanks for asking!

I think the main thing is to avoid Llewellyn publications. Even the Arthurian scholar R.S. Loomis's books are extremely outdated but are probably easier to find on the market as they can serve as "proof" behind the new age books.

I'd recommend anything by Kenneth Jackson, O.J. Padel (great Arthurian source!), Proinsias MacCana, Rachel Bromwich... Miranda Green also comes to mind, but iirc it's her work on the Green Man that I would take with a grain of salt.

Hope that helps!

edit to add: A.O.H.Jarman and Patrick Sims-Williams too!

edit2 for personal favourites:

After Rome by Thomas Charles-Edwards Note: this is on "post Roman Britain" not "dark age Britain"

Celtic Mythology by Proinsias MacCana. Some of the research is outdated but it is still considered, to this day, an awesome go-to book (pretty pictures!).

Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature by O.J. Padel. Hands down, the best book I've come across on Arthurian origins and it's extremely accessible for the average reader. It's quite short so anyone interested in this subject should absolutely pick this one up. The prices in this link are ridiculous though. (Great news - this one will be reissued in August 2013!)

Okay so:

Read our FAQ first if you haven't. This will help orient you to our site here.

Read through Seeking. While you already have an interest on a cultural background, it is useful to explore more information for someone getting into Pagan religious practice.

I really recommend picking up a copy of John Michael Greer's A World Full of Gods: An Inquiry Into Polytheism, where you can find it used cheaply. If you're coming from a non-polytheistic background it helps orient you towards that.

Now, the next question is: which Celtic religion? This is a lot more nuanced than people think. What I'm going to do is assume that you mean Gaelic/Irish Celtic, because that's what most people who aren't in relevant fields of study think of when they think of Celtic. Assuming you meant Irish, the following are useful sources that are all pretty standard and good:

• Tairis Gaelic polytheism site
  
  
• Gaol Naofa's site
  
  
• Mythic Ireland by Michael Dames
  
  
• The Year in Ireland by Kevin Danaher
  
  
• Celtic Goddesses by Miranda Green
  
  
• Gods of the Celts by Miranda Green
  
  
• Celtic Mythology by Proinsias MacCana
  
  All of these are pretty standard for initial inquiry.
  
  If I assumed wrong, and you're interested in the other two big Celtic traditions that are out there (Brythonic and Gaulish), I'll dig sources up for those, too.
  

I took an elective in it in first year at uni (didn't have much of a choice). Anyway, the 'definitive' book about the whole thing is Celtic Mythology by P. Mac Cana if you want to know more. It's from the 70s but has widely survived the test of time.

My favourite is the Dagda. Coolest Demi-God around. The way he's described puts me in mind of Frank Reynolds in his sleepwear - he walks around in a tunic too small to cover his arse, bangs a load of hoors, and drinks/eats copious amounts of food and booze. My kinda guy!

There are different valid starting points, and I think which one would be best depends on your interests, desires, and knowledge level.

If you're a Hibernophile who is itching to delve into Irish history and culture, or if you wish to read some epic and fantastic tales, then jumping into the mythological cycles is a fine starting point. The pro to this would be that you would be familiarizing yourself with the biggest bulk of Gaelic polytheist source material right off the bat. The cons would be that this literature alone is probably not going to give you much of a conceptual framework for polytheism and how to practice it, and you will certainly want to purchase a hard-copy with a reputable translation (unless you are fluent enough in Irish already) and annotations in order to properly comprehend the material.

If polytheistic practice is your biggest draw, then I would recommend starting your journey outside of Irish literature by examining the actual Celtic pagan archaeological remains at our disposal. The con to this would be that the majority of the material you examine is probably not going to be Irish. The pro to this is that it represents actual pagan and polytheistic practices that can inform us how our ancestors approached the gods and how we can do so as well. For this, I would recommend the somewhat misleadingly named Celtic Mythology by Proinsias MacCana. It is a highly accessible and enjoyable introduction to Celtic archaeology and it does an admirable job of connecting the archeological material to the later written mythology. You may also want to explore www.polytheist.com and J.M. Greer's A World Full of Gods.

Unfortunately I am not very familiar with literature about Gaelic folk culture, but that is another potential starting point. The pro being that it's Gaelic and would be full of practices and worldviews you could immediately adopt. The con being that many of those practices and worldviews are not completely (or even partially) pagan. I know many CR's are quite fond of the Carmina Gadelica, though I don't know of any other recommendable books outside of that.

If you are a total neophyte and those aforementioned avenues seemed daunting, then I would recommend Peter Berresford Ellis' Celtic Myths and Legends for a more modern and digestible rendition of the Irish and Welsh legends, or Morgan Daimler's Irish Paganism for a general overview of beliefs, practices, and source materials for Gaelic polytheism.