Celtic Love: Ten Enchanted Stories

Matthews introduces each love story with a brief historical context, explaining her interpretations and sources. Of course this information helps readers immensely, but it is the lilting language of the stories that captivates readers, carrying them off into "faery" kingdoms, maidens' bedrooms, enchanted worlds of "seers," and black cauldron oracles, as well as the forbidden love triangles among kings, queens, and lovers. These earthly, fleshy, mystical, and erotic stories are bound to stir the embers of passion as well as the soul. Selections include, "The Blood in the Snow--of Deirdriu and Naosi," "Hold Me Fast and Fear Me Not--of Janet and Tam Lin," and "A Harp of Stone--of Liadain and Cuirither." --Gail Hudson

Book Description

"Here are faithful lovers, women who entice or endure, couples who contend or who are contented, eternal triangles that evolve around the marriage of May to December and the younger man, lovers lost and found, emotions that are harmonious or touched by the fiery sear of jealousy. Erotic and secretive or blatantly celebrated, here the love stories come from the heart of passionate Celtic tradition."
-- from the Introduction

In ten beautifully written tales of devotion, Celtic Love shares "the one story worth the telling," the one that strikes most nearly to the heart, the one we most with to hear. Evoking the passion and longing of Celtic tradition and history, Caitlin Matthews captures the untamed natures and amorous yearning of these age-old stories. Throughout this collection, the desire of the lover for the beloved is fanned "by restraint, by absence, by whisper or glance, by stolen kiss, by secret embrace, by song, poem, and story."

Matthews recounts stories of love defeated, and love triumphant, in the tongue-in-cheek parable of Mongan and the forgotten British myth of Fflur, the Flower Bride. "The Casket of Memory" travels through worlds and lifetimes in Midir's faithful search for his beloved Etain. The final story, "What Women Most Desire," told by the street-wise faery Ragnell, puts true love to the ultimate test.

I love this book because it takes you to the world in which the writer, Caitlin Matthews, is in when she writes the book, and to where the lovers are when the plot is taking its place.