Ten Thousand Saints: A Study in Irish and European Origins

When it was first published in 1972, Hubert Butler's pioneering masterwork was received with skepticism by his contemporaries. He used linguistics to trace the origins of myths and saints back to pre-Celtic Ireland and Europe, and showed how these stories and names - ancestors of half-forgotten tribes - became absorbed by Christian mythology. This new edition, amplified and updated, demonstrates ingeniously coded histories - via place names, legends, hero-figures, saints, and ancestors - that relate to the wanderings and minglings of all the great tribes of Europe, extending back to Neolithic times.