(17) While Yeats to some extent played the professional Celt early in his career, and
Celticist lyrics such as 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' and the folklore collection The Celtic Twilight (1893) would remain among his most popular work, he could see that, if thoroughly internalised, the Celticism espoused by the likes of Arnold could lead only to further provincialisation and a cultural kailyard.
The surprising connection was first suggested by the
Celticist John Koch well-known for, among other works, his recent edition of the Welsh epic poem The Gododdin.
For centuries, evidence of a racial, linguistic, or cultural Celtic-Oriental affinity has been claimed in grammatical texts, genealogies, origin legends, travel narratives, antiquarian studies, Orientalist romances,
Celticist studies, and anticolonial critiques.
One of Fletcher's stated aims is 'to call attention to this rich body of evidence which hitherto has tended to remain the strict preserve of the
Celticist' (p.
Between Thurneysen's death in 1940 and the end of his long life, he was the leading continental
Celticist, exerting a formative influence on the next generation of Irish scholars.
"Celtic" vernacular literatures had become a respectable subject of academic study around the turn of the century, thanks to French and German
Celticists and, in the isles, to Matthew Arnold, who had promoted their study against the reigning, philistine disdain for anything that mitigated the pan-insular dominance of the English language.
On the face of it, the meeting provided an opportunity for musicians, the musically interested, Folklore Society members, Irish Unionists, and
Celticists to come together, to pool resources, and to promote a common interest.
This massive collection of over 40 papers celebrates the life and work of Gearoid mac Eoin, one of the leading
Celticists in Ireland today.
In short, this study has the potential to empower students of modern Anglo-Irish writing and culture to respond to Kiberd's call for a linguistically and culturally "united Ireland," allowing us to realign whole areas of Irish studies relative to an early modern Gaelophone Ireland freed at last from the reductive anglocentric frames that we have inherited from Spenser and Swift on the one hand, and from the antiquarianists and
Celticists whose work preserved but also reified so much of the Gaelophone literary inheritance.
I recommend this book as a starting point for anyone new to such issues to begin research; however, it is clear that the highly specific nature of this publication would indicate that its intended audience lies among
Celticists, historians, and policy planners interested in Scottish Gaelic and its revitalization.
In addition, the works and teachings of nationalist German
Celticists of the twentieth century (such as Julius Pokorny, Rudolf Thurneysen, Kuno Meyer, and Ludwig Muhlhausen) brought about a fundamental change in German (political) perceptions of the Irish, and played a prominent part in influencing German conservative and National Socialist views of the Irish as related to the "German race." (3) Indeed, the Nazis took a great academic interest in all matters Celtic--promoted, funded, and evaluated by the Office for Ancestral Heritage (the SS [Protection Squadron]-Wissenschaftsamt Ahnenerbe), which was set up and run by SS-leader Heinrich Himmler as early as 1935.
He touches on some of the ongoing debates among
Celticists, most notably the question of whether a unique Celtic Church ever truly existed.
Editions, as a result, have been few; those produced by nineteenth-century
Celticists have to be pursued through journals often hard of access or in monographs rarer still, while those by their modern counterparts have in some cases not seen print at all.
These debates resurrected underlying ideological allegiances: between nationalist and revisionist historians, between
Celticists and Gaelicizers, between dedicated language activists and the bureaucrats in the Department of Education, and between Gaeltacht residents and its would-be benefactors.
Lloyd-Morgan begins by (rightly) criticizing non-Celticists who rely on work long discredited amongst
Celticists, above all the writings of R.
