Celtic Love: Ten Enchanted Stories

“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.