Reviews for Ireland and the Grail

The average rating for Ireland and the Grail based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-03-23 00:00:00 Richard Hoodenpyle Hrmmm...what to say about this one. It started out so promising, but my eyes were glazing over by the end of it. And this is coming from a Celticist-in-training; I wouldn't recommend anyone looking for a casual encounter with Celtic literature to pick this one up. It may have something to do with the fact that I'm not familiar with the primary sources that he analyzes. Grail studies have never really captivated me, so I never really explored the late medieval French romances. Many of Carey's conclusions also seem a bit wayward and incomplete, but again this might be due to a lack of interest in the primary sources on my part, and I may have simply glossed over the important supporting evidence. There was some significant overlap with my own research in the discussions of Irish and Welsh sources, and some new possibilities to explore, but again I zoned out when I reached the French material and this ruined the book for me. Maybe it's just not my bag, baby. One thing that really stood out appeared in the last pages of the Afterward. In speaking about the mysteries of Ireland's past, Carey writes "At Tara, symbolic locus of the island's sovereignty, a sacred landscape first configured in the Stone Age is about to be sliced open by a giant motorway, spawned by the 'Celtic tiger' and by the demands of Meath's Dublin-bound commuters." This, as some of you know, is a cause very close to my heart: the destruction of Ireland's ancient archaeological sites by the construction of the new M-3 motorway. The motorway is going ahead as planned; there is little hope of halting the project. It is comforting to see that someone as respected as John Carey in the world of Celtic Studies is paying attention and mourning this horrific loss. And, if he had sustained this kind of colorful writing in his approach to the literary sources throughout the rest of the book, this would probably be a four-star review. Previous Review: John Carey is my kindred spirit in the (tiny) world of Celtic-Arthurian scholars. Although he focuses on the grail legend where I focus on Avalon, we think very similarly and draw from the same primary material to support our arguments for the borrowing of Irish material in the development of Arthurian legend. There are so many parallels here with my thesis, it's uncanny! I had used Carey's publications as secondary sources for my research, but this book was published after I had finished the writing process. It feels so great to know that I can produce thesis work that is on the same caliber as John Carey!!

Review # 2 was written on 2019-06-03 00:00:00 Moses Killulark Please read about my experience at Celtic Scholar's Reviews and Opinions