Druidism
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Transcript of Druidism
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A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britannia, Ireland and Gaul and possibly
other parts of Celtic western Europe during the Iron Age. Very little is currently known
about the ancient druids as they left no written accounts about themselves, and the only
evidence of them are a few descriptions left by Greek and Roman authors, and stories
created by later mediaeval Irish writers.[2] While archaeological evidence has been
uncovered pertaining to the religious practices of the Iron Age people, "not one single
artefact or image has been unearthed that can undoubtedly be connected with the ancient
Druids."[3] Various recurring themes emerge in a number of the Greco-Roman accounts of
the druids, including that they performed human sacrifice, believed in a form of
reincarnation, and that they held a high position in Gaulish society. Next to nothing is
known about their cultic practice, except for the ritual of oak and mistletoe as described by
Pliny the Elder.
The earliest known reference to the druids dates to 200 BCE, although the oldest actual
description comes from the Roman military general Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de
Bello Gallico (50s BCE). Later Greco-Roman writers also described the druids, including
Cicero,[4] Tacitus[5] and Pliny the Elder.[6] Following the invasion of Gaul by the Roman
Empire, druidism was suppressed by the Roman government under the 1st-century
emperors Tiberius and Claudius, and it disappeared from the written record by the 2nd
century, although there were likely later survivals in the British Isles.[7 ]
The druids then also appear in some of the mediaeval tales from Christianised Ireland like
the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the
coming of Christianity.[8]
In the wake of the Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, fraternal and
Neopagan groups were founded based upon the ideas about the ancient druids, a
movement which is known as Neo-druidry.[9]
[edit] Etymology
The modern English word druid derives from the Latin druides (pronounced /druˈides/),
which itself was considered by ancient Roman writers to come from the native Celtic
Gaulish word for these figures.[10][11][12] Other Roman texts also employ the form
druidae, while the same term was used by Greek ethnographers as δρυΐδης
(druidēs).[13][14] Although no extant Romano-Celtic inscription is known to contain the
form,[10] the word is cognate with the later insular Celtic words, Old Irish druí ("druid,
sorcerer") and early Welsh dryw ("seer").[12] Based on all available forms, the hypothetical
proto-Celtic word may then be reconstructed as *dru-wid-s (pl. *druwides) meaning "oak-
knower". The two elements go back to the Proto-Indo-European roots *deru-[15] and
*weid- "to see".[16] The sense of "oak-knower" (or "oak-seer") is confirmed by Pliny the
Elder,[12] who in his Natural History etymologised the term as containing the Greek noun
δρύς (drus), "oak-tree"[17 ] and the Greek suffix -ιδης.[18] The modern Irish word for Oak
is Dara, as it derives to anglicised placenames like Derry, and Kildare (literally the "church
of oak"). There are many stories and lore about saints, heroes, and oak trees, and also
many local stories and superstitions (called pishogues) about trees in general, which still
survive in rural Ireland. Both Irish druí and Welsh dryw could also refer to the wren,[12]
possibly connected with an association of that bird with augury bird in Irish and Welsh
tradition (see also Wren Day).[12][19]
[edit] Practices and doctrines
According to Ronald Hutton, "we can know virtually nothing of certainty about the ancient
Druids, so that - although they certainly existed - they function more or less as legendary
figures."[20] - the sources provided about them by ancient and mediaeval writers, coupled
with archaeological evidence, can give us an idea of what they might have performed as a
part of their religious duties.
[edit] Societal Role and Training
One of the few things that both the Greco-Roman and the vernacular Irish sources agree
on about the druids was that they played an important part in pagan Celtic society. In his
description, Julius Caesar claimed that they acted as judges in Gaul, and that they were one
of the two most important social groups in the region, alongside the equites, or nobles,
responsible for organising worship and sacrifices, divination and judicial procedure in
Gaulish and British society.[21] He also claimed that they were exempt from military
service and from the payment of taxes, and that they had the power to excommunicate
people from religious festivals, making them social outcasts.[21] Two other classical writers,
Diodorus Siculus and Strabo also wrote about the role of druids in Gallic society, claiming
that the druids were held in such respect that if they intervened between two armies they
could stop the battle.[22]
Pomponius Mela[23] is the first author who says that the druids' instruction was secret, and
was carried on in caves and forests. Druidic lore consisted of a large number of verses
learned by heart, and Caesar remarked that it could take up to twenty years to complete
the course of study. There is no historic evidence during the period when Druidism was
flourishing to suggest that Druids were other than male.[24] What was taught to Druid
novices anywhere is conjecture: of the druids' oral literature, not one certifiably ancient
verse is known to have survived, even in translation. All instruction was communicated
orally, but for ordinary purposes, Caesar reports,[25] the Gauls had a written language in
which they used Greek characters. In this he probably draws on earlier writers; by the
time of Caesar, Gaulish inscriptions had moved from the Greek script to the Latin script.
[edit] Sacrifice
An 18th century illustration of a wicker man, the form of execution that Caesar alleged
the druids used for human sacrifice. From the "Duncan Caesar", Tonson, Draper, and
Dodsley edition of the Commentaries of Caesar translated by William Duncan published in
1753.
Greek and Roman writers frequently made reference to the druids as practitioners of
human sacrifice, a trait they themselves reviled, believing it to be barbaric. Such reports of
druidic human sacrifice are found in the works of Lucan, Julius Caesar, Suetonius and
Cicero.[26] Caesar claimed that the sacrifice was primarily of criminals, but at times
innocents would also be used, and that they would be burned alive in a large wooden effigy,
now often known as a wicker man. A differing account came from the 10th-century
Commenta Bernensia, which claimed that sacrifices to the deities Teutates, Esus and
Taranis were by drowning, hanging and burning, respectively (see threefold death).
Diodorus Siculus asserts that a sacrifice acceptable to the Celtic gods had to be attended by
a druid, for they were the intermediaries between the people and the divinities. He
remarked upon the importance of prophets in druidic ritual:
"These men predict the future by observing the flight and calls of birds and by the
sacrifice of holy animals: all orders of society are in their power... and in very
important matters they prepare a human victim, plunging a dagger into his chest; by
observing the way his limbs convulse as he falls and the gushing of his blood, they are
able to read the future."
There is archaeological evidence from western Europe that has been widely used to back
up the idea that human sacrifice was performed by the Iron Age Celts. Mass graves found
in a ritual context dating from this period have been unearthed in Gaul, at both Gournay-
sur-Aronde and Ribemont-sur-Ancre in what was the region of the Belgae chiefdom. The
excavator of these sites, Jean-Louis Brunaux, interpreted them as areas of human sacrifice
in devotion to a war god,[27 ][28] although this view was criticised by another archaeologist,
Martin Brown, who believed that the corpses might be those of honoured warriors buried
in the sanctuary rather than sacrifices.[29] Bog bodies are also known from Great Britain
and Ireland, such as the "Lindow Man", found in Lindow, Cheshire.[30]
Some historians have questioned whether the Greco-Roman writers were accurate in their
claims. J. Rives remarked that it was "ambiguous" whether the druids ever performed
such sacrifices, for the Romans and Greeks were known to project what they saw as
barbarian traits onto foreign peoples including not only druids but Jews and Christians as
well, thereby confirming their own "cultural superiority" in their own minds.[31] Taking a
similar opinion, Ronald Hutton summarised the evidence by stating that "the Greek and
Roman sources for Druidry are not, as we have received them, of sufficiently good quality
to make a clear and final decision on whether human sacrifice was indeed a part of their
belief system."[32]Peter Berresford Ellis, a Celtic nationalist who authored The Druids
(1994), believed them to be the equivalents of the Indian Brahmin caste, and considered
accusations of human sacrifice to remain unproven,[unreliable source?][33] whilst an expert
in mediaeval Welsh and Irish literature, Nora Chadwick, who believed them to be great
philosophers, fervently purported the idea that they had not been involved in human
sacrifice, and that such accusations were imperialist Roman propaganda.[34]
[edit] Philosophy
Alexander Cornelius Polyhistor referred to the Druids as philosophers and called their
doctrine of the immortality of the soul and reincarnation or metempsychosis
"Pythagorean":
"The Pythagorean doctrine prevails among the Gauls' teaching that the souls of men
are immortal, and that after a fixed number of years they will enter into another
body."
Caesar remarks: "The principal point of their doctrine is that the soul does not die and that
after death it passes from one body into another" (see metempsychosis). Caesar wrote:
"With regard to their actual course of studies, the main object of all education
is, in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the
indestructibility of the human soul, which, according to their belief, merely
passes at death from one tenement to another; for by such doctrine alone,
they say, which robs death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human
courage be developed. Subsidiary to the teachings of this main principle, they
hold various lectures and discussions on astronomy, on the extent and
geographical distribution of the globe, on the different branches of natural
philosophy, and on many problems connected with religion".
—Julius Caesar, "De Bello Gallico", VI, 13
Diodorus Siculus, writing in 36 BCE, described how the druids followed "the Pythagorean
doctrine", that human souls "are immortal and after a prescribed number of years they
commence a new life in a new body."[35] One modern scholar has speculated that Buddhist
missionaries had been sent by the Indian king Ashoka.[36] Others have invoked common
Indo-European parallels.[37 ] Caesar noted the druidic doctrine of the original ancestor of
the tribe, whom he referred to as Dispater, or Father Hades.
[edit] Sources on druidism
[edit] Greek and Roman records
The earliest recorded mention of the druids comes from circa 200 BCE, when two Greek
texts, one of which was a history of philosophy written by Sotion of Alexandria, and the
other which was a study of magic that was widely albeit incorrectly attributed to Aristotle,
mentioned the existence of Druidas, or wise men belonging to the Keltois (Celts) and
Galatias (either the Galatians or the Gauls).[38] While both of these texts are now lost,
they were quoted in the 2nd century CE work Vitae by Diogenes Laertius.[39] Meanwhile,
there were also references in Greek and Roman texts during the ensuing century to
"barbarian philosophers",[40] a possible reference to the Gaulish druids.
[edit] Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar, the Roman general and later dictator, who wrote the "fullest" and
"earliest original text" to describe the druids.[38]
The first known text that actually describes the druids was Julius Caesar's Commentarii de
Bello Gallico, book VI, which had been published in the 50s or 40s BCE. A military general
who was intent on conquering Gaul and Britain, Caesar described the druids as being
concerned with "divine worship, the due performance of sacrifices, private or public, and
the interpretation of ritual questions." He claimed that they played an important part in
Gaulish society, being one of the two respected classes along with the equites (a term
meaning 'horsemen' which has been usually interpreted as referring to warriors) and that
they performed the function of judges. He claimed that they recognised the authority of a
single leader, who would rule till their death, when a successor would be chosen by vote or
through conflict. He also remarked that they met annually at a sacred place in the region
owned by the Carnute tribe in Gaul, while they viewed Britain as the centre of druidic
study, and that they were not found amongst the German tribes to the east of the Rhine.
According to Caesar, many young men were trained to be druids, during which they had to
learn all the associated lore off by heart. He also claimed that their main teaching was "that
souls do not perish, but after death pass from one to another" but that they were also
concerned with "the stars and their movements, the size of the cosmos and the earth, the
world of nature, the powers of deities", indicating that they were involved with such
common aspects of religion as theology and cosmology, but also astronomy. Caesar also
held that they were "administrators" during rituals of human sacrifice, for which criminals
were usually used, and that the method was through burning in a wicker man.[21]
While he would have had first hand experience with Gaulish people, and therefore likely
with druids, Caesar's account has been widely criticised by modern historians as being
inaccurate. One issue that had been raised by such historians as Fustel de Coulanges[41]
and Ronald Hutton was that while Caesar described the druids as a significant power within
Gaulish society, he did not mention them even once in his accounts of his Gaulish
conquests, and nor did Aulus Hirtius, who continued Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars
following the latter's death. Hutton believed that Caesar had manipulated the idea of the
druid so that they would appear both civilised (being learned and pious) and barbaric
(performing human sacrifice) to Roman readers, thereby representing both "a society
worth including in the Roman Empire" and one that required civilising with Roman rule and
values, thus justifying his wars of conquest.[42] Sean Dunham suggested that Caesar had
simply taken the Roman religious functions of senators and applied them to the druids. [43]
Daphne Nash believed it "not unlikely" that he "greatly exaggerates" both the centralised
system of druidic leadership and its connection to Britain.[44]
Other historians have accepted the possibility of Caesar's account being more accurate.
Norman J. DeWitt surmised that Caesar's description of the role of druids in Gaulish society
may report an idealised tradition, based on the society of the 2nd Century BCE, before the
pan-Gallic confederation led by the Arverni was smashed in 121 BCE, followed by the
invasions of Teutones and Cimbri, rather than on the demoralised and disunited Gaul of his
own time.[45] John Creighton has speculated that in Britain, the druidic social influence was
already in decline by the mid-1st century BCE, in conflict with emergent new power
structures embodied in paramount chieftains.[46] Other scholars see the main reason for
the decline of druidism in the Roman conquest itself.[47 ]
[edit] Cicero, Diodorus Sicilus, Strabo and Tacitus
It would not only be Caesar, but other Greco-Roman writers who would subsequently
comment on the druids and their practices, although none of them would go into as much
detail as he. Caesar's contemporary, Marcus Tullius Cicero, noted that he had met a Gallic
druid, Divitiacus, who was a member of the Aedui tribe. Divitiacus was supposedly knew
much about the natural world and performed divination through augury.[4] Whether
Diviaticus was genuinely a druid can however be disputed, for Caesar also knew this figure,
and also wrote about him, calling him by the more Gaulish-sounding (and thereby
presumably the more authentic) Diviciacus, but never referred to him as a druid and
indeed presented him as a political and military leader.[48]
Another classical writer to take up describing the druids not too long after was Diodorus
Siculus, who published this description in his Bibliotheca historicae in 36 BCE. Alongside
the druids, or as he called them, drouidas, whom he viewed as philosophers and
theologians, he also remarked how there were poets and singers in Celtic society whom he
called bardous, or bards.[35] Such an idea was expanded on by Strabo, writing in the 20s
CE, who declared that amongst the Gauls, there were three types of honoured figures: the
poets and singers known as bardoi, the diviners and specialists in the natural world known
as o'vateis, and those who studied "moral philosophy", the druidai.[49] Nonetheless, the
accuracy of these writers has been brought into question, with Ronald Hutton stating that
"All that can be concluded is that we have absolutely no secure knowledge of the sources
used by any of these authors for their comments on Druids, and therefore of their date,
their geographical framework or their accuracy."[50]
The Roman writer Tacitus, himself a senator and a historian, described how when the
Roman army, led by Suetonius Paulinus, attacked the island of Mona (Anglesey, Ynys Môn
in Welsh), the legionaries were awestruck on landing by the appearance of a band of druids,
who, with hands uplifted to the sky, poured forth terrible imprecations on the heads of the
invaders. He states that these "terrified our soldiers who had never seen such a thing
before..." The courage of the Romans, however, soon overcame such fears, according to the
Roman historian; the Britons were put to flight, and the sacred groves of Mona were cut
down.[51] Tacitus is also the only primary source that gives accounts of druids in Britain,
but maintains a hostile point of view, seeing them as ignorant savages.[52] Ronald Hutton
meanwhile points out that there "is no evidence that Tacitus ever used eye-witness
reports" and casts doubt upon the reliability of Tacitus's report.[53]
[edit] Irish and Welsh records
During the Middle Ages, after Ireland and Wales were Christianised, druids appeared in a
number of written sources, namely tales and stories such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge, but also
in the hagiographies of various saints. These were all written by Christian monks "who may
not merely have been hostile to the earlier paganism but actually ignorant of it" and so
would not have been particularly reliable, but at the same time may provide clues as to the
practices of druids in Ireland and to a lesser extent Wales.[54]
[edit] Irish literature and law codes
The Irish passages referring to druids in such vernacular sources were "more numerous
than those on the classical texts" of the Greeks and Romans, and paint a somewhat
different picture of them. The druids in Irish literature - for whom words such as drui,
draoi, drua and drai are used - are sorcerers with supernatural powers, who are respected
in society, particularly for their ability to perform divination. They can cast spells and turn
people into animals or stones, or curse peoples’ crops to be blighted. At the same time, the
term druid is sometimes used to refer to any figure who uses magic, for instance in the
Fenian Cycle, both giants and warriors are referred to as druids when they cast a spell,
even though they are not usually referred to as such; as Ronald Hutton noted, in mediaeval
Irish literature, "the category of Druid [is] very porous."[55]
When druids are portrayed in early Irish sagas and saints' lives set in the pre-Christian
past of the island, they are usually accorded high social status. The evidence of the law-
texts, which were first written down in the 7th and 8th centuries, suggests that with the
coming of Christianity the role of the druid in Irish society was rapidly reduced to that of a
sorcerer who could be consulted to cast spells or practise healing magic and that his
standing declined accordingly.[56] According to the early legal tract Bretha Crólige, the
sick-maintenance due to a druid, satirist and brigand (díberg) is no more than that due to a
bóaire (an ordinary freeman). Another law-text, Uraicecht Becc (‘Small primer’), gives the
druid a place among the dóer-nemed or professional classes which depend for their status
on a patron, along with wrights, blacksmiths and entertainers, as opposed to the fili, who
alone enjoyed free nemed-status.[57 ]
[edit] Welsh literature
Whilst druids featured prominently in many mediaeval Irish sources, they were far rarer in
their Welsh counterparts. Unlike the Irish texts, the Welsh term commonly seen as
referring to the druids, dryw, was used to refer purely to prophets and not to sorcerers or
pagan priests. Historian Ronald Hutton noted that there were two explanations for the use
of the term in Wales: the first was that it was a survival from the pre-Christian era, when
dryw had been ancient priests, whilst the second was that the Welsh had borrowed the
term from the Irish, as had the English (who used the terms dry and drycraeft to refer to
magicians and magic respectively, most probably influenced by the Irish terms.)[58]
[edit] Archaeology
As the historian Jane Webster stated, "individual druids... are unlikely to be identified
archaeologically",[59] a view which was echoed by Ronald Hutton, who declared that "not
one single artefact or image has been unearthed that can undoubtedly be connected with
the ancient Druids."[3] A.P. Fitzpatrick, in examining what he believed to be astral
symbolism on Late Iron Age swords has expressed difficulties in relating any material
culture, even the Coligny calendar, with druidic culture.[60] Nonetheless, some
archaeologists have attempted to link certain discoveries with written accounts of the
druids, for instance the archaeologist Anne Ross linked what she believed to be evidence of
human sacrifice in Celtic pagan society - such as the Lindow Man bog body - to the Greco-
Roman accounts of human sacrifice being officiated over by the druids.[61][62]
[edit] History of reception
[edit] Prohibition and decline under Roman rule
During the Gallic Wars of 58 to 51 BCE, the Roman army, led by Julius Caesar, conquered
the many tribal chiefdoms of Gaul, and annexed it as a part of the Roman Empire.
According to accounts produced in the following centuries, the new rulers of Roman Gaul
subsequently introduced measures to wipe out the druids from that country. According to
Pliny the Elder, writing in the 70s CE, it was the emperor Tiberius (who ruled from 14 to 37
CE), who introduced laws banning not only druidism, but also other native soothsayers and
healers, a move which Pliny applauded, believing that it would end human sacrifice in
Gaul.[63] A somewhat different account of Roman legal attacks on druidism was made by
Suetonius, writing in the 2nd century CE, when he claimed that Rome's first emperor,
Augustus (who had ruled from 27 BCE till 14 CE), had decreed that no-one could be both a
druid and a Roman citizen, and that this was followed by a law passed by the later Emperor
Claudius (who had ruled from 41 to 54 CE) which "thoroughly suppressed" the druids by
banning their religious practices.[64]
[edit] Possible late survival of Insular druidism
The best evidence of a druidic tradition in the British Isles is the independent cognate of
the Celtic *druwid- in Insular Celtic: The Old Irish druídecht survives in the meaning of
"magic", and the Welsh dryw in the meaning of "seer". Although there are no
contemporary records of Insular druidism in antiquity other than the account by Tacitus,
there is some evidence that the druidic tradition in Ireland may have survived until as late
as the 7th century: in the De Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae of Augustinus Hibernicus (f.
655), there is mention of local magi who teach a doctrine of trans-migration in the form of
birds. The word magus was often used in Hiberno-Latin works for a translation of
druid.[65]
While the druids as a priestly caste were extinct with the Christianization of Wales,
complete by the 7th century at the latest, the offices of bard and of "seer" (Welsh: dryw)
persisted in medieval Wales into the 13th century.
Phillip Freeman, a classics professor, discusses a later reference to Dryades, which he
translates as Druidesses, writing that "The fourth century A.D. collection of imperial
biographies known as the Historia Augusta contains three short passages involving Gaulish
women called "Dryades" ("Druidesses")." He points out that "In all of these, the women
may not be direct heirs of the Druids who were supposedly extinguished by the Romans —
but in any case they do show that the druidic function of prophesy continued among the
natives in Roman Gaul."[66] However, the Historia Augusta is frequently interpreted by
scholars as a largely satirical work, and such details might have been introduced in a
humorous fashion. Additionally, Druidesses are mentioned in later Irish mythology,
including the legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill, who, according to the 12th century The
Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, is raised by the druidess Bodhmall and a wise-woman.[67 ][68]
[edit] Christian historiography and hagiography
The story of Vortigern, as reported by Nennius, provides one of the very few glimpses of
possible druidic survival in Britain after the Roman conquest: unfortunately, Nennius is
noted for mixing fact and legend in such a way that it is now impossible to know the truth
behind his text. He wrote that after being excommunicated by Germanus, the British
leader Vortigern invited twelve druids to assist him.
In the lives of saints and martyrs, the druids are represented as magicians and diviners. In
Adamnan's vita of Columba, two of them act as tutors to the daughters of Lóegaire mac
Néill, the High King of Ireland, at the coming of Saint Patrick. They are represented as
endeavouring to prevent the progress of Patrick and Saint Columba by raising clouds and
mist. Before the battle of Culdremne (561) a druid made an airbe drtiad (fence of
protection?) round one of the armies, but what is precisely meant by the phrase is unclear.
The Irish druids seem to have had a peculiar tonsure. The word druí is always used to
render the Latin magus, and in one passage St Columba speaks of Christ as his druid.
Similarly, a life of St Beuno states that when he died he had a vision of 'all the saints and
druids'.
Sulpicius Severus' Vita of Martin of Tours relates how Martin encountered a peasant
funeral, carrying the body in a winding sheet, which Martin mistook for some druidic rites
of sacrifice, "because it was the custom of the Gallic rustics in their wretched folly to carry
about through the fields the images of demons veiled with a white covering." So Martin
halted the procession by raising his pectoral cross: "Upon this, the miserable creatures
might have been seen at first to become stiff like rocks. Next, as they endeavoured, with
every possible effort, to move forward, but were not able to take a step farther, they began
to whirl themselves about in the most ridiculous fashion, until, not able any longer to
sustain the weight, they set down the dead body." Then discovering his error, Martin
raised his hand again to let them proceed: "Thus," the hagiographer points out," he both
compelled them to stand when he pleased, and permitted them to depart when he thought
good."[69]
[edit] Romanticism and modern revivals
"Arch-Druid in his full Judicial Costume" etching from Charles Knight, Old England: A
Pictorial Museum (1845)
From the 18th century, England and Wales experienced a revival of interest in the druids.
John Aubrey (1626–1697) had been the first modern writer to connect Stonehenge and
other megalithic monuments with the druids; since Aubrey's views were confined to his
notebooks, the first wide audience for this idea were readers of William Stukeley (1687–
1765).[7 0] John Toland (1670–1722) shaped ideas about the druids current during much of
the 18th and 19th centuries. He founded the Ancient Druid Order in London which existed
from 1717 until it split into two groups in 1964. The order never used ( and still does not
use ) the title "Archdruid" for any member, but in retrospect credited William Blake as
having been its "Chosen Chief" from 1799 to 1827, without corroboration in Blake's
numerous writings or among modern Blake scholars. Blake's bardic mysticism derives
instead from the pseudo-Ossianic epics of Macpherson; his friend Frederick Tatham's
depiction of Blake's imagination, "clothing itself in the dark stole of mural sanctity"— in the
precincts of Westminster Abbey— "it dwelt amid the Druid terrors", is generic rather than
specifically neo-Druidic.[7 1] John Toland was fascinated by Aubrey's Stonehenge theories,
and wrote his own book about the monument without crediting Aubrey.
The 19th-century idea, gained from uncritical reading of the Gallic Wars, that under
cultural-military pressure from Rome the druids formed the core of 1st-century BCE
resistance among the Gauls, was examined and dismissed before World War II,[7 2] though
it remains current in folk history.
Druids began to figure widely in popular culture with the first advent of Romanticism.
Chateaubriand's novel Les Martyrs (1809) narrated the doomed love of a druid priestess
and a Roman soldier; though Chateaubriand's theme was the triumph of Christianity over
Pagan druids, the setting was to continue to bear fruit. Opera provides a barometer of well-
informed popular European culture in the early 19th century: in 1817 Giovanni Pacini
brought druids to the stage in Trieste with an opera to a libretto by Felice Romani about a
druid priestess, La Sacerdotessa d'Irminsul ("The Priestess of Irminsul"). The most
famous druidic opera, Vincenzo Bellini's Norma was a fiasco at La Scala, when it premiered
the day after Christmas, 1831; but in 1833 it was a hit in London. For its libretto, Felice
Romani reused some of the pseudo-druidical background of La Sacerdotessa to provide
colour to a standard theatrical conflict of love and duty. The story was similar to that of
Medea, as it had recently been recast for a popular Parisian play by Alexandre Soumet: the
diva of Norma's hit aria, "Casta Diva", is the moon goddess, being worshipped in the "grove
of the Irmin statue".
A central figure in 19th century Romanticist Neo-Druidism is the Welshman Edward
Williams, better known as Iolo Morganwg. His writings, published posthumously as The
Iolo Manuscripts (1849) and Barddas (1862), are not considered credible by
contemporary scholars. Williams claimed to have collected ancient knowledge in a "Gorsedd
of Bards of the Isles of Britain" he had organized. Many scholars deem part or all of
Williams's work to be fabrication, and purportedly many of the documents are of his own
fabrication, but a large portion of the work has indeed been collected from meso-pagan
sources dating from as far back as 600 A.D.[citation needed] Regardless, it has become
impossible to separate the original source material from the fabricated work, and while bits
and pieces of the Barddas still turn up in some "Neo-druidic" works, the documents are
considered irrelevant by most serious scholars.
T.D. Kendrick's dispelled (1927) the pseudo-historical aura that had accrued to druids,[7 3]
asserting that "a prodigious amount of rubbish has been written about druidism";[7 4] Neo-
druidism has nevertheless continued to shape public perceptions of the historical druids.
The British Museum is blunt:
Modern Druids have no direct connection to the Druids of the Iron Age. Many
of our popular ideas about the Druids are based on the misunderstandings
and misconceptions of scholars 200 years ago. These ideas have been
superseded by later study and discoveries.[7 5]
Some strands of contemporary Neodruidism are a continuation of the 18th-century revival
and thus are built largely around writings produced in the 18th century and after by
second-hand sources and theorists. Some are monotheistic. Others, such as the largest
Druid group in the world, The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids draw on a wide range of
sources for their teachings. Members of such Neo-druid groups may be Neopagan,
occultist, Reconstructionist, Christian or non-specifically spiritual.
[edit] Modern scholarship
In the 20th century, as new forms of textual criticism and archaeological methods were
developed, allowing for greater accuracy in understanding the past, various historians and
archaeologists published books on the subject of the druids and came to their own
conclusions. The archaeologist Stuart Piggott, author of The Druids (1968), accepted the
Greco-Roman accounts and considered the druids to be a barbaric and savage priesthood
who performed human sacrifices.[7 6] This view was largely supported by another
archaeologist, Anne Ross, author of Pagan Celtic Britain (1967) and The Life and Death of
a Druid Prince (1989), although she believed that they were essentially tribal priests,
having more in common with the shamans of tribal societies than with the classical
philosophers.[7 7 ] Ross' views were largely accepted by two other prominent archaeologists
to write on the subject, Miranda Aldhouse-Green[7 8] - author of The Gods of the Celts
(1986), Exploring the World of the Druids (1997) and Caesar's Druids: Story of an Ancient
Priesthood (2010) - and Barry Cunliffe, author of Iron Age Communities in Britain (1991)
and The Ancient Celts (1997).[7 9]
[edit] References
1. ^ Antiquitas explanatione et schematibus illustrata vol. ii, part ii, book v. (p. 436).
Montfaucon claims that he is reproducing a bas-relief found at Autun, Burgundy.
2. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain.
Yale University Press. Page 01.
3. ^ a b Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in
Britain. Yale University Press. Page 23.
4. ^ a b Cicero. De divinatione. I.XVI.90.
5. ^ Tacitus. Annales. XIV.30.
6. ^ Pliny. Historiae naturalis. XVI.249.
7. ^ mention of Irish druí "druid" in a Christianized context as late as the 8th century in
the poems of Blathmac. Mac Mathúna, Liam (1999) "Irish Perceptions of the Cosmos"
Celtica vol. 23 (1999), 174-187 (p. 181).
8. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain.
Yale University Press. Page 32-37.
9. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2007). The Druids. London: Hambledon Continuum.
10. ^ a b Piggott, Stuart (1968). The Druids. London: Thames & Hudson. Page 89.
11. ^ Druides, Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, on Perseus project
12. ^ a b c d e Caroline aan de Wiel, "druids [3] the word", in Celtic Culture.
13. ^ Δρουίδης, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on
Perseus
14. ^ Pokorny's Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, see also American
Heritage Dictionary (4th ed.), Δρυίδης
15. ^ Proto-IE *deru-, a cognate to English tree, is the word for "oak", though the root
has a wider array of meanings related to "to be firm, solid, steadfast" (whence e.g.
English true). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Fourth
Edition, 2000 Indo-European Roots: deru-.
16. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, 2000
Indo-European Roots: weid-.
17. ^ δρῦς, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
project
18. ^ List of ancient Greek words ending in -ιδης, on Perseus
19. ^ See further Brian Ó Cuív, "Some Gaelic traditions about the wren". Éigse 18
(1980): pp. 43-66.
20. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2007). The Druids London: Hambledon Continuum. p. xi
21. ^ a b c Caesar, Julius. De bello gallico. VI.13-18.
22. ^ Hutton, Ronald, The Druids (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007 p44–45
23. ^ Pomponius Mela iii.2.18-19.
24. ^ Hutton, Ronald (1993). The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their
Nature and Legacy. ISBN 0-631-18946-7 p.171
25. ^ Gallic Wars vi.14.3.
26. ^ Lucan, Pharsalia i.450-58; Caesar, Gallic Wars vi.16, 17.3-5; Suetonius, Claudius
25; Cicero, Pro Font. 31; Cicero, De Rep. 9 (15);cited after Norman J. DeWitt, "The
Druids and Romanization" Transactions and Proceedings of the American
Philological Association 69 (1938:319-332) p 321 note 4
27. ^ Brunaux, Jean-Louis (2001). "Gallic Blood Rites" in Archaeology 54.2.
28. ^ Brunaux, Jean-Louis (2002). "Le Santuaire gaulois de Gournay-sur-Aronde" in
Bulletin 56 of the Archaeological and Historical Company of Boulounge-Conchy-
Hainvillers.
29. ^ Hutton, Ronald, The Druids (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007 pp.133-134
30. ^ Hutton, Ronald, The Druids (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007, 132;
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0117_060117_irish_bogmen.html
31. ^ Rives, J. (1995). "Human Sacrifice among Pagans and Christians" in Journal of
Roman Studies 85.
32. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain.
Yale University Press. pp. 4-5, 17.
33. ^ Ellis, Peter Berresford (1994). The Druids. London: Constable. passim
34. ^ Chadwick, Nora (1966). The Druids. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Pages xviii,
28, 91.
35. ^ a b Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historicae. V.21-22.
36. ^ Donald A.Mackenzie, Buddhism in pre-Christian Britain (1928:21).
37. ^ Isaac Bonewits, Bonewits's Essential Guide to Druidism, Citadel, 2006.
38. ^ a b Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in
Britain. Yale University Press. Page 02.
39. ^ Diogenes Laertius. Vitae. Introduction, section 1.
40. ^ Twenty references were presented in tabular form by Jane Webster, "At the End
of the World: Druidic and Other Revitalization Movements in Post-Conquest Gaul
and Britain" Britannia 30 (1999:1-20):2-4.
41. ^ de Coulanges, Fustel (1891). La Gaule romaine. Paris. Page 03.
42. ^ Hutton (2009), p. 4-5.
43. ^ Dunham, Sean B. (1995). "Caesar's Perception of Gallic Social Structures" in Celtic
Chiefdom, Celtic State (Eds: Bettina Arnold and D. Blair Gibson). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press; endorsed by Maier, Bernhard (2003). The Celts.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Page 65-66.
44. ^ Nash, Daphne (1976). "Reconstructing Posidonius's Celtic Ethnography" in
Britannia 7. Page 126.
45. ^ DeWitt 1938:324f.
46. ^ Creighton, "Visions of power: imagery and symbols in Late Iron Age Britain"
Britannia 26 (1995:285-301) especially p 296f.
47. ^ e.g. Jane Webster, in "At the End of the World: Druidic and Other Revitalization
Movements in Post-Conquest Gaul and Britain" Britannia 30 (1999:1-20 and full
bibliography).
48. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain.
Yale University Press. Page 05.
49. ^ Strabo. Geographica. IV.4.4-5.
50. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain.
Yale University Press. Page 10.
51. ^ Tacitus. Annals. 14.30.
52. ^ Rutherford, Ward (1978). The Druids and their Heritage. London: Gordon &
Cremonesi. Page 45.
53. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2007). The Druids. London: Hambledon Continuum. pp.3-5
54. ^ Hutton, Ronald (1991). The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their
Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK and Cambridge, USA: Blackwell. Page 148.
55. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain.
Yale University Press. Page 32-33.
56. ^ Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law, pp. 59-60.
57. ^ Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law, p. 60.
58. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain.
Yale University Press. Page 47.
59. ^ Webster 1999:6.
60. ^ Fitzpatrick, A.P. (1996). "Night and Day: the symbolism of astral signs on Late Iron
Age anthropomorphic short swords". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 62:
373–98.
61. ^ Anne Ross (1986). "Lindow Man and the Celtic tradition", in Lindow Man; The
Body in the Bog (eds: I.M. Stead, J.B. Bourke and D. Brothwell), page162-69.
62. ^ Anne Ross and Don Robins (1989) The Life and Death of a Druid Prince.
63. ^ Pliny. Historia naturalis. XXX.13
64. ^ Suetonius. Claudius. XXV.5
65. ^ Augustinus Hibernicus. "De Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae". King of Mysteries:
Early Irish Religious Writings edited by John Carey. Dublin: Four Courts Press,
2000.
66. ^ Freeman, Phillip,War, Women & Druids: Eyewitness Reports and Early Accounts,
University of Texas Press, ISBN 978-0-292-72545-4 pp. 49-50
67. ^ Jones, Mary. "The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn mac Cumhaill". From maryjones.us.
Retrieved July 22, 2008.
68. ^ Parkes, "Fosterage, Kinship, & Legend", Cambridge University Press, Comparative
Studies in Society and History (2004), 46: 587-615
69. ^ Hagiography.
70. ^ The modern career of this imagined connection of druids and Stonehenge was
traced and dispelled in T.D. Kendrick, The Druids: A Study in Keltic Prehistory
(London: Methuen) 1927.
71. ^ Tatham is quoted by C. H. Collins Baker, "William Blake, Painter", The Huntington
Library Bulletin, No. 10 [October 1936:135-148] p. 139.
72. ^ Norman J. DeWitt, "The Druids and Romanization" Transactions and Proceedings
of the American Philological Association 69 (1938:319-332): "Few historians now
believe that the Druids, as a corporation, constituted an effective anti-Roman element
during the period of Caesar's conquests and in the period of early Roman Gaul;" his
inspection of the seemingly contradictory literary sources reinforced the stated
conclusion.
73. ^ T.D. Kendrick, The Druids: A Study in Keltic Prehistory (London: Methuen) 1927.
74. ^ Kendrick 1927:viii
75. ^ "Explore/". The British Museum.
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/explore/highlights/article_index/d/the_druids.aspx
Retrieved 2007-12-02.
76. ^ Piggott, Stuart (1968). The Druids. London: Thames & Hudson. Page 92-98.
77. ^ Ross, Anne (1967). Pagan Celtic Britain. London: Routledge. Page 52-56.
78. ^ Aldhouse-Green, Miranda (1997). Exploring the World of the Druids. London:
Thames and Hudson. Page 31-33.
79. ^ Cunliffe, Barry (1991). Iron Age Communities in Britain. London: Routledge. Page
518-520.
[edit] Secondary sources
Kelly, Fergus (1988). A Guide to Early Irish Law. Early Irish Law Series 3. Dublin:
DIAS. ISBN 0901282952.
Wiel, Caroline aan de. "druids [3] the word." In Celtic Culture. A Historical
Encyclopaedia, ed. John T. Koch. 2006. pp. 615–6.
[edit] Further reading
Aldhouse-Green, Miranda J., Exploring the World of the Druids (London: Thames
and Hudson, 1997)
Aldhouse-Green, Miranda J., Caesar's Druids: Story of an Ancient Priesthood (Yale
University Press; 2010) 338 pages; documents the role of Druids as priests, judges,
healers, scientists, and power brokers in British and Gallic society in the 1st centuries
BC and AD.
Ellis, Peter, B., "The Druids" (William B. Eerdmans, 1994)
Fitzpatrick, A. P,. Who were the Druids? (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997)
Hutton, Ronald, The Druids: A History (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2008)
Hutton, Ronald, Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain (Yale
University Press, 2009)
Piggott, Stuart, The Druids (London: Thames and Hudson, 1975)
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Druidism". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.).
Cambridge University Press.
Barnicle, Bob, "The Art of the Druid" (Melbourne: The Australian, 2009)