This book examines the creative uses of "Celtic" myth in contemporary fantasy written for children or young adults from the 1960s to the 2000s. Its scope ranges from classic children's fantasies such as Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain and Alan Garner's The Owl Service, to some of the most recent, award-winning fantasy authors of the last decade, such as Kate Thompson (The New Policeman) and Catherine Fisher (Darkhenge). The book focuses on the ways these fantasy works have appropriated and adapted Irish and Welsh medieval literature in order to highlight different perceptions of "Celticity." The term "Celtic" itself is interrogated in light of recent debates in Celtic studies, in order to explore a fictional representation of a national past that is often romanticized and political.

Autorentext

Dimitra Fimi is Senior Lecturer in English at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales, UK. Her monograph Tolkien, Race and Cultural History won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies. She is co-editor A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages. She lectures on fantasy, children's literature, and medievalism.

Klappentext

This book examines the creative uses of Celtic myth in contemporary fantasy written for children or young adults from the 1960s to the 2000s. Its scope ranges from classic children's fantasies such as Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain and Alan Garner's The Owl Service, to some of the most recent, award-winning fantasy authors of the last decade, such as Kate Thompson (The New Policeman) and Catherine Fisher (Darkhenge). The book focuses on the ways these fantasy works have appropriated and adapted Irish and Welsh medieval literature in order to highlight different perceptions of Celticity. The term Celtic itself is interrogated in light of recent debates in Celtic studies, in order to explore a fictional representation of a national past that is often romanticized and political.

Zusammenfassung

Runner-up of the Katherine Briggs Folklore Award 2017

Winner of the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth & Fantasy Studies 2019

This book examines the creative uses of Celtic myth in contemporary fantasy written for children or young adults from the 1960s to the 2000s. Its scope ranges from classic children's fantasies such as Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain and Alan Garner's The Owl Service, to some of the most recent, award-winning fantasy authors of the last decade, such as Kate Thompson (The New Policeman) and Catherine Fisher (Darkhenge). The book focuses on the ways these fantasy works have appropriated and adapted Irish and Welsh medieval literature in order to highlight different perceptions of Celticity. The term Celtic itself is interrogated in light of recent debates in Celtic studies, in order to explore a fictional representation of a national past that is often romanticized and political.

Inhalt
1.Introduction.- Part I. Irish Myth.- 2. Otherworldly Ireland.- 3. Celticity and the Irish Diaspora.- Part II. Welsh Myth.- 4. Lloyd Alexander's 'The Chronicles of Prydain'.- 5. Welsh Heritage for Teenagers.- 6. Susan Cooper and the Arthur of the Welsh.- 7. Conclusion.- Bibliography.- Index.