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 work with those that have received less critical attention, including French and Gaelic fantastic 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, Kate Moss’s Sepulchre and Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors, as well as An Sgoil Dhubh by Iain F. MacLeòid and Vertigen and Frontier by Léa Silhol. Lively and covering new ground, the collection examines topics such as fairy magic, place and person, family and heroes, 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 or 'Celticism' as it has been informed by recent debates in Celtic studies, this comprehensive and provocative book shows how modern fantasy is indebted to classical sources, Iron Age archaeology and the medieval texts that has come before it.

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