Book excerpt: "The Mary of the Celts is essential reading for anyone interested in the reality of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Celtic spirituality. The book explores themes and images associated with the Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion, and Assumption, as also the Blessed Virgin's Joys and Sorrows, through a detailed study of poetry on Mary from the Celtic regions of medieval Britain and Ireland." "There are haunting images such as the Blessed Virgin Mary as daughter of her Son and as the chamber of the Trinity, with her virginity remaining as unstained and pure as glass pierced by a beam of light, as well as references to popular apocryphal legends, including those of the Instantaneous Harvest that grew while Mary and her child were fleeing into Egypt from Herod's men, and of the girdle thrown down by the Virgin to St Thomas at the Assumption." "Indeed, The Mary of the Celts has been written as a guide to Marian iconography. It will be useful for students of medieval European literature and art, as well as for specialists in early Irish and Welsh, all of whom will End in it much that is new. It should make readers aware of the wealth of Marian material to be found in Celtic Ireland and Britain, not all of which has had the attention it deserves beyond the Celtic lands."--BOOK JACKET.