An amazing treasure trove. (The Creatures of Celtic Myth - Bob Curran)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	The Creatures of Celtic Myth - Bob Curran
Date:	17/07/02 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great stories, well researched support material, lovely illustrations

Disadvantages: hard to find.

"The Creatures of Celtic Myth" is a hard book to define because it mixes tales from folklore with observations about the history, traditions and origins of various creatures and tales. One thing I can say is that this is a book for adults interested in mythology and folklore, in no way is it suitable for young children - there's sex and violence aplenty and the writing style is unsuitable for younger readers.

The book deals, as the title suggests, with the creatures of celtic folktale - from around the Uk and from Europe. The creatures are discussed in sections - giants, demons, fairies, merfolk, monsters, halflings, witches & wizards, anient heros. (not all are strictly speaking 'creatures') In each section you get a few pages about the nature of the creature and its representation in folklore, some outlines of other sources of tales and the like. You then get a few typical stories about the creature - these are based on folklore, but have been written up by Bob Curran, so you do get a consistent writing style.

On the whole, the writing style and choice of material are excellent, giving a broad spectrum of celtic creatures and offering tales that illustrate a range of types. There are some quite well known tales in here - an arthurian piece, and the green children, but many pieces will be less familair or new to most readers.

What really elevates this book and makes it desirable is the illustration. Andrew Whitson's pencil sketches are superb, bringing each tale to life and making the book a visual treat.

This is a lovely book to dip in and out of - the stories are good, and the background information fascinating for anyone actually interested in going into a bit more detail about origins, symbolism and the like.

There is one downside, I've only seen copies of this in Publisher's outlets, it isn't easy to come by. The ISBN is 0-304-35898-3 which might help you track it down.

Summary: