Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy

Focusing on representations of Celtic motifs and traditions in post-1980s adult fantasy literature, this book illuminates how the historical, the mythological and the folkloric have served as inspiration for the fantastic in modern and popular culture of the western world. Bringing together both highly-acclaimed works with those that have received less critical attention, including French and Gaelic fantasy literature, Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy explores such texts as Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Alan Garner's Weirdstone trilogy, the Irish fantasies of Jodi McIsaac, David Gemmell's Rigante novels, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison Keltiad books, as well as An Sgoil Dhubh by Iain F. MacLeòid and the Vertigen and Frontier series by Léa Silhol. Lively and covering new ground, the collection examines topics such as fairy magic, Celtic-inspired worldbuilding, heroic patterns, classical ethnography and genre tropes alongside analyses of the Celtic Tarot in speculative fiction and Celtic appropriation in fan culture. Introducing a nuanced understanding of the Celtic past, as it has been informed by recent debates in Celtic studies, this wide-ranging and provocative book shows how modern fantasy is indebted to medieval Celtic-language texts, folkloric traditions, as well as classical sources.

Dimitra Fimi is Senior Lecturer in Fantasy and Children's Literature at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. She has published monographs on J.R.R. Tolkien and Celtic-inspired children's Fantasy, as well as articles and essays on myth and Fantasy, medievalism, world-building, adaptation, artlangs, and visual culture. She has co-edited Tolkien's manuscripts on invented languages, and has won awards for her books and essays. She sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Tolkien Research and co-edits the Perspectives on Fantasy series.

Matthew Sangster is Senior Lecturer in Romantic Studies, Fantasy and Cultural History at the University of Glasgow. He has published widely on authorship, literary institutions, city writing, media culture, and digital humanities. He is particularly interested in Fantasy histories, communities and transmedia. He is external curator for the British Library's 2022 Fantasy exhibition.

Alistair Sims is an independent scholar, bookseller and publisher at Books on the Hill, Clevedon, with a PhD in archaeology from Bangor University (2014). He has published on fantasy literature and archaeology in Fantasy Art and Studies (2019) and Proceedings of the 2nd European Symposium in Celtic Studies (2017).

Brian Attebery is Professor of English at Idaho State University, USA and Editor or the Journal of the Fantastic in Art. His publications include Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth (2019) and Ursula K. Le Guin: Always Coming Home (2019). In 2019 he was Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Fantasy at the University of Glasgow.