Second paragraph of third chapter:

After two hundred years of scholarship, the Gaulish language is better known today than it was at the end of the Roman empire. The literal sense of the word ‘Mediolanum’ is now well established. The Gaulish dictionary compiled by Xavier Delamarre defines it as ‘a term of sacred geography: ‘a holy centre… perhaps a central point of reference on the vertical axis of the three worlds – upper, middle and lower’. For students of the Celts, this is familiar ground. In Celtic mythology, ‘middle’ was a three-dimensional term. It referred not only to the earth that lies between the upper and the lower worlds, but also to the intersection of lines based on the cardinal points. According to Celtic legend, Ireland was divided in the first century AD into four kingdoms, each of which gave a part of itself to form a fifth, central kingdom called Mide (or Meath), signifying ‘middle’. This is the cruciform pattern that can be seen on the ceremonial Celtic bronze spoons which began to appear all over Europe in about 800 c. It usually takes the form of two perpendicular lines with a circle at the centre. The so-called Celtic cross of the early Christian Church is probably a direct descendant of those designs.

I was intrigued by this book which offered to unfold the Celtic geographies of Europe, but unfortunately it is all crank stuff, written by someone who spent too long thinking deep thoughts while on long bike trips and then staring into the Internet, and not enough time talking to actual experts or reading up on the scholarship. You can get it here, but I wouldn’t bother.

This was my top unread book acquired in 2022, and would also have been next in line as my top unread non-fiction book if I had finished The Burgundians first, but I didn’t. Next on those piles respectively are The Master, by Louise Cooper, and The Bone Woman, by Clea Koff.