SOURCE: Introduction to Celtic Mythology, The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, 1970, pp. 11-18.

In the following excerpt, MacCana explores the combination of unity and diversity found in the various branches of Celtic mythology.

The Sources

The earliest sources [of Celtic Mythology] are those relating to the Celts of the continent—mainly Gaul—and of Romanised Britain. Unfortunately they have serious shortcomings. Gaulish literature, being purely oral, disappeared with the Gaulish language: we have it on Caesar's authority that the druids of Gaul considered it improper to commit their learning to writing, and on this point he is substantially borne out by the Irish evidence. As a result, since mythology implies narrative of some sort or other, Gaulish mythology, properly speaking, is lost beyond recovery. There remains, of course, a considerable body of residual evidence, but, since by its very nature it is allusive rather than descriptive, or else is...