TWIB-III 5
Nov. 17th, 2008 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanReally, I should be working on Thursday's presentations. Instead, I give you my thoughts on the single book I read last week.
1) A Celtic Miscellany - Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson (trans)
A Celtic Miscellany's greatest value lies in the fact that many of its translations (which are drawn from all six of the modern Celtic languages) are both unique to the volume and cover several neglected genres as well. The book is also valuable for its extensive notes and its maps of Ireland and Wales--the two areas from which it draws the greatest number of its entries. On the downside, the entries organized by theme, not language or chronological order, which makes it nearly impossible to gain any sort of understanding of literary developments within a given language or period, and the notes are divided into two appendices (placed in the back), while the maps are in the front...and many entries have footnotes as well. Practically, this means that readers often end up having to reference four separate sections of the anthology during the course of a single paragraph, which does not make for a particularly smooth reading experience. Some of Jackson's footnoting decisions are questionable as well; most readers should be able to catch references to judgment day or natural phenomenon themselves, but might not be familiar with certain mythological or historical personages. Yet Jackson often chooses to footnote the former and not the latter.
Those caveats aside, the translations read fluidly while still capturing the spirit of the original, and the many examples of Welsh and Irish poetry with be of interest to anyone tired of the Tain or Mabinogion. In sum, although it's not without its faults, A Celtic Miscellany is well worth the read for fans of Celtic languages, literatures, or history.
That will be all.
1) A Celtic Miscellany - Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson (trans)
A Celtic Miscellany's greatest value lies in the fact that many of its translations (which are drawn from all six of the modern Celtic languages) are both unique to the volume and cover several neglected genres as well. The book is also valuable for its extensive notes and its maps of Ireland and Wales--the two areas from which it draws the greatest number of its entries. On the downside, the entries organized by theme, not language or chronological order, which makes it nearly impossible to gain any sort of understanding of literary developments within a given language or period, and the notes are divided into two appendices (placed in the back), while the maps are in the front...and many entries have footnotes as well. Practically, this means that readers often end up having to reference four separate sections of the anthology during the course of a single paragraph, which does not make for a particularly smooth reading experience. Some of Jackson's footnoting decisions are questionable as well; most readers should be able to catch references to judgment day or natural phenomenon themselves, but might not be familiar with certain mythological or historical personages. Yet Jackson often chooses to footnote the former and not the latter.
Those caveats aside, the translations read fluidly while still capturing the spirit of the original, and the many examples of Welsh and Irish poetry with be of interest to anyone tired of the Tain or Mabinogion. In sum, although it's not without its faults, A Celtic Miscellany is well worth the read for fans of Celtic languages, literatures, or history.
That will be all.