From the Iron Age to the High Middle Ages, the ancient Celts were an engine of change for the whole of Europe. Here, Simon Young travels back in time to the moments when this ancient people defined indelibly the ancient, medieval and modern world. On this entertaining voyage, the reader will visit the hills of ancient Rome in the company of violent mohicaned warbands, pass into Dark-Age Christendom and witness Celtic monks' peculiar customs of curses and talking to animals. And move on to later medieval France, Germany and England where the ruthless vagabond-hero Arthur was to cast his spell over Britain's and Europe's aristocracy. While modern Celtic culture is an eighteenth-century invention, Simon Young shows that the real Celts turned upside down an area from the New World to Turkey and beyond. Leaving their mark on history, they were no less important than the Romans, Greeks and Etruscans.