Epic feats, ribald verse, tales of Celtic magic, descriptive passages, Bardic poems, laments and poems of love and nature — these carefully chosen selections reveal the full and brilliant spectrum of the Celtic imagination. Drawing on ancient sources written in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton, Jackson's fresh and accurate translations cover the whole of the Celtic literatures, encompassing six languages and thirteen centuries. Celtic literature began in early times and continued into the Middle Ages as the principal form of entertainment for an aristocratic social system; both prose and verse were composed by a professional class of literary men. Setting aside the Romantic image of the Celtic mind as mysterious and filled with the darkness of the supernatural, Jackson has chosen and translated these pieces to illustrate the entire literature of the Celtic peoples as we see it today. Arranged in sections on "Hero-Tale and Adventure", "Nature", "Love", "Epigram", "Celtic Magic", "Description", "Humor and Satire", "Bardic Poetry", "Elegy and Religion", "A Celtic Miscellany" presents both general characteristics and a detailed, literary exploration into popular and obscure source material. Each section is prefaced by an introductory note that covers that particular genre, and at the end of each selection the original language, author’s name and approximate date are given (whenever available).