Druid
For other uses, see Druid (disambiguation).
Druidess redirects here. For other uses, see Druidess
(disambiguation).
A druid (Irish: Dru; Welsh: Derwydd) was a member
Two druids, 19th-century engraving based on a 1719 illustra-
tion by Bernard de Montfaucon.[1]
of the educated, professional class among the Celtic peo-
ples of Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and possibly elsewhere dur-
ing the Iron Age. The druid class included law-speakers,
poets and doctors, among other learned professions, al-
though the best known among the druids were the reli-
gious leaders.
Very little is known about the ancient druids. They left
no written accounts of themselves, and the only evidence
is a few descriptions left by Greek, Roman, and various
scattered authors and artists, as well as stories created
by later medieval Irish writers.[2] While archaeological
evidence has been uncovered pertaining to the religious
practices of the Iron Age people, not one single arte-
fact or image has been unearthed that can undoubtedly
be connected with the ancient Druids.[3] Various recur-
ring themes emerge in a number of the Greco-Roman
accounts of the druids, including that they performed
animal and even human sacrice, believed in a form of
reincarnation, and held a high position in Gaulish soci-
1
ety. Next to nothing is known for certain about their cul-
tic 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
Roman invasion of Gaul, druidism was suppressed by the
Roman government under the 1st century CE emperors
Tiberius and Claudius, and it had disappeared from the
written record by the 2nd century.
In about 750 CE the word druid appears in a poem by
Blathmac, who wrote about Jesus, saying that he was "...
better than a prophet, more knowledgeable than every
druid, a king who was a bishop and a complete sage.[7]
The druids then also appear in some of the medieval tales
from Christianized Ireland like the "Tin B Cailnge",
where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who op-
posed the coming of Christianity.[8] In the wake of the
Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, frater-
nal and Neopagan groups were founded based on ideas
about the ancient druids, a movement known as Neo-
Druidism.
1 Etymology
The modern English word druid derives from the Latin
druides (pronounced [druides]), which was considered
by ancient Roman writers to come from the native Celtic
Gaulish word for these gures.[9][10][11] Other Roman
texts also employ the form druidae, while the same
term was used by Greek ethnographers as
(druids).[12][13] Although no extant Romano-Celtic in-
scription is known to contain the form,[9] the word is
cognate with the later insular Celtic words, Old Irish
dru (druid, sorcerer) and early Welsh dryw (seer).[11]
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 ele-
ments go back to the Proto-Indo-European roots *deru-
[14]
and *weid- to see.[15] The sense of oak-knower
(or oak-seer) is supported by Pliny the Elder,[11] who
in his Natural History considered the word to contain the
Greek noun (drus), oak-tree[16] and the Greek
sux - (-ids).[17] The modern Irish word for Oak is
Dair, which occurs in anglicized placenames like Derry
2 2
Doire, and Kildare Cill Dara (literally the church of
oak). There are many stories about saints, heroes, and
oak trees, and also many local stories and superstitions
(called pishogues) about trees in general, which still sur-
vive in rural Ireland. Both Irish dru and Welsh dryw
could also refer to the wren,[11] possibly connected with
an association of that bird with augury bird in Irish and
Welsh tradition (see also Wren Day).[11][18]
2 Practices and doctrines
According to historian Ronald Hutton, we can know
virtually nothing of certainty about the ancient Druids,
so thatalthough they certainly existedthey function
more or less as legendary gures.[19] However, the
sources provided about them by ancient and medieval
writers, coupled with archaeological evidence, can give
us an idea of what they might have performed as a part of
their religious duties.
2.1 Societal role and training
Imaginative illustration of 'An Arch Druid in His Judicial Habit',
from The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Is-
lands by S.R. Meyrick and C.H. Smith (1815), the gold gorget
collar copying Irish Bronze Age examples.[20]
One of the few things that both the Greco-Roman and
the vernacular Irish sources agree on about the druids is
that they played an important part in pagan Celtic society.
In his description, Julius Caesar claimed that they were
one of the two most important social groups in the region
(alongside the equites, or nobles) and were responsible for
PRACTICES AND DOCTRINES
organizing worship and sacrices, divination, and judicial
procedure in Gaulish, British and Irish 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, mak-
ing 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 rst 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 ourishing 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 certiably 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.
2.2 Sacrice
Further information: Celts and human sacrice,
Threefold death and Ritual of oak and mistletoe
Greek and Roman writers frequently made reference to
the druids as practitioners of human sacrice, a trait they
themselves reviled, believing it to be barbaric.[26] Such
reports of druidic human sacrice are found in the works
of Lucan, Julius Caesar, Suetonius and Cicero.[27] Cae-
sar claimed that the sacrice was primarily of criminals,
but at times innocents would also be used, and that they
would be burned alive in a large wooden egy, now often
known as a wicker man. A diering account came from
the 10th-century Commenta Bernensia, which claimed
that sacrices to the deities Teutates, Esus and Taranis
were by drowning, hanging and burning, respectively (see
threefold death).
Diodorus Siculus asserts that a sacrice 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
ight and calls of birds and by the sacrice 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
2.3 Philosophy 3

for Druidry are not, as we have received them, of su-

ciently good quality to make a clear and nal decision on
whether human sacrice was indeed a part of their belief
system.[32] Nora Chadwick, an expert in medieval Welsh
and Irish literature, who believed the Druids to be great
philosophers, has also supported the idea that they had
not been involved in human sacrice, and that such accu-
sations were imperialist Roman propaganda.[33] National
Geographic recently revealed evidence that "[suggests]
that Druids possibly committed cannibalism and ritual
human sacrice. But Mark Horton, an archaeologist at
the University of Bristol associated with these recent nd-
ings, states that if cannibalism was practised it was prob-
ably extremely rare; it may be evidence of increasing
hunger and desperation as Roman invaders closed in, or
even the result of battle atrocities.[34] Guy G. Stroumsa, as
well as Thomas Hartwell Horne, states that these practices
were eventually halted with the introduction and spread of
Christianity in Europe, as well as in the Mediterranean
region.[35][36]

2.3 Philosophy
Alexander Cornelius Polyhistor referred to the Druids
as philosophers and called their doctrine of the immor-
An 18th century illustration of a wicker man, the form of exe- tality of the soul and reincarnation or metempsychosis
cution that Caesar alleged the druids used for human sacrice. "Pythagorean":
From the Duncan Caesar, Tonson, Draper, and Dodsley edi-
tion of the Commentaries of Caesar translated by William Dun-
The Pythagorean doctrine prevails among the
can published in 1753.
Gauls teaching that the souls of men are im-
mortal, and that after a xed number of years
his chest; by observing the way his limbs con- they will enter into another body.
vulse as he falls and the gushing of his blood,
they are able to read the future. 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). Cae-
There is archaeological evidence from western Europe sar wrote:
that has been widely used to back up the idea that hu-
man sacrice was performed by the Iron Age Celts. Mass With regard to their actual course of
graves found in a ritual context dating from this pe- studies, the main object of all education is,
riod have been unearthed in Gaul, at both Gournay-sur- in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with
Aronde and Ribemont-sur-Ancre in what was the region a rm belief in the indestructibility of the
of the Belgae chiefdom. The excavator of these sites, human soul, which, according to their belief,
Jean-Louis Brunaux, interpreted them as areas of hu- merely passes at death from one tenement
man sacrice in devotion to a war god,[28][29] although to another; for by such doctrine alone, they
this view was criticized by another archaeologist, Mar- say, which robs death of all its terrors, can
tin Brown, who believed that the corpses might be those the highest form of human courage be de-
of honoured warriors buried in the sanctuary rather than veloped. Subsidiary to the teachings of this
sacrices.[30] Some historians have questioned whether main principle, they hold various lectures and
the Greco-Roman writers were accurate in their claims. discussions on astronomy, on the extent and
J. Rives remarked that it was ambiguous whether the geographical distribution of the globe, on the
druids ever performed such sacrices, for the Romans dierent branches of natural philosophy, and
and Greeks were known to project what they saw as on many problems connected with religion.
barbarian traits onto foreign peoples including not only Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, VI, 13
druids but Jews and Christians as well, thereby conrm-
ing their own cultural superiority in their own minds.[31]
Taking a similar opinion, Ronald Hutton summarized the Diodorus Siculus, writing in 36 BCE, described how the
evidence by stating that the Greek and Roman sources druids followed the Pythagorean doctrine, that human
4 3 SOURCES ON DRUIDISM

souls are immortal and after a prescribed number of
years they commence a new life in a new body.[37] In
1928, folklorist Donald A. Mackenzie speculated that
Buddhist missionaries had been sent by the Indian king
Ashoka.[38] Others have invoked common Indo-European
parallels.[39] Caesar noted the druidic doctrine of the
original ancestor of the tribe, whom he referred to as
Dispater, or Father Hades.
3 Sources on druidism
3.1 Greek and Roman records
counts of the druids into two groups, distinguished by
their approach to the subject as well as their chronologi-
cal contexts. She refers to the rst of these groups as the
Posidonian tradition after one of its primary exponents,
Posidonious, and notes that it takes a largely critical atti-
tude towards the Iron Age societies of Western Europe
that emphasizes their barbaric qualities. The second of
these two groups is termed the Alexandrian group, be-
ing centred on the scholastic traditions of Alexandria in
Egypt; she notes that it took a more sympathetic and ide-
alized attitude towards these foreign peoples.[41] Piggott
drew parallels between this categorisation and the ideas
of hard primitivism and soft primitivism identied by
historians of ideas A.O. Lovejoy and Franz Boas.[42]
One school of thought within historical scholarship has
suggested that all of these accounts are inherently unreli-
able, and might be entirely ctional. They have suggested
that the idea of the druid might have been a ction created
by Classical writers to reinforce the idea of the barbaric
other who existed beyond the civilized Greco-Roman
world, thereby legitimising the expansion of the Roman
Empire into these areas.[43]
The earliest record of the druids comes from two Greek
texts of c. 300 BCE: one was a history of philosophy
written by Sotion of Alexandria, and the other a study
of magic that was widely albeit incorrectly attributed to
Aristotle. These mention the existence of Druidas, or
wise men belonging to the Keltois (Celts) and Galatias
(the Galatians or the Gauls).[44] Both texts are now lost,
but were quoted in the 2nd century CE work Vitae by
Diogenes Laertius.[45]

Some say that the study of philosophy

originated with the barbarians. In that among
the Persians there existed the Magi, and among
the Babylonians or Assyrians the Chaldaei,
among the Indians the Gymnosophistae, and
Druids Inciting the Britons to Oppose the Landing of the Romans among the Celts and Gauls men who were
- from Cassells History of England, Vol. I - anonymous author called Druids and Semnothei, as Aristotle
and artists relates in his book on Magic, and Sotion in
the twenty-third book of his Succession of
The earliest surviving literary evidence of the druids Philosophers.
emerges from the classical world of Greece and Rome. Diogenes Laertius , Vitae, Introduction,
The archaeologist Stuart Piggott compared the attitude Section 1[46]
of the Classical authors towards the druids as being sim-
ilar to the relationship that had existed in the 15th and
18th centuries between Europeans and the societies that Subsequent Greek and Roman texts from the third cen-
they were just encountering in other parts of the world, tury BCE refer to "barbarian philosophers,[47] possibly
such as the Americas and the South Sea Islands. In do- in reference to the Gaulish druids.
ing so, he highlighted that both the attitude of the Early
Modern Europeans and the Classical authors was that
3.1.1 Julius Caesar
of "primitivism", viewing these newly encountered soci-
eties as primitive because of their lesser technological de-
The rst known text that describes the druids is Julius
velopment and perceived backwardness in socio-political Caesars Commentarii de Bello Gallico, book VI, written
development.[40] in the 50s or 40s BCE. A military general who was in-
The historian Nora Chadwick, in a categorization sub- tent on conquering Gaul and Britain, Caesar described
sequently adopted by Piggott, divided the Classical ac- the druids as being concerned with divine worship, the
3.1 Greek and Roman records
Julius Caesar, the Roman general and later dictator, who wrote
the fullest and earliest original text to describe the druids.[44]
due performance of sacrices, 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 (in
Rome the name for members of a privileged class above
the common people, but also horsemen) and that they
performed the function of judges. He claimed that they
recognized the authority of a single leader, who would
rule until his death, when a successor would be chosen
by vote or through conict. He also remarked that they
met annually at a sacred place in the region occupied 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. Ac-
cording to Caesar, many young men were trained to be
druids, during which time they had to learn all the asso-
ciated lore by heart. He also claimed their main teaching
was the souls do not perish, but after death pass from one
to another. They were also concerned with the stars and
their movements, the size of the cosmos and the earth,
the world of nature, and the powers of deities, indicating
they were involved with not only such common aspects of
religion as theology and cosmology, but also astronomy.
Caesar also held that they were administrators during
rituals of human sacrice, for which criminals were usu-
5
ally used, and that the method was through burning in a
wicker man.[21]
Although he had rst-hand experience of Gaulish peo-
ple, and therefore likely with druids, Caesars account
has been widely criticized by modern historians as in-
accurate. One issue raised by such historians as Fustel
de Coulanges[48] and Ronald Hutton was that while Cae-
sar described the druids as a signicant power within
Gaulish society, he did not mention them even once in
his accounts of his Gaulish conquests. Nor did Aulus
Hirtius, who continued Caesars account of the Gallic
Wars following Caesars death. Hutton believed that
Caesar had manipulated the idea of the druids so they
would appear both civilized (being learned and pious) and
barbaric (performing human sacrice) to Roman read-
ers, thereby representing both a society worth includ-
ing in the Roman Empire" and one that required civiliz-
ing with Roman rule and values, thus justifying his wars
of conquest.[49] Sean Dunham suggested that Caesar had
simply taken the Roman religious functions of senators
and applied them to the druids.[50] Daphne Nash believed
it not unlikely that he greatly exaggerates both the
centralized system of druidic leadership and its connec-
tion to Britain.[51]
Other historians have accepted that Caesars account
might be more accurate. Norman J. DeWitt surmised
that Caesars description of the role of druids in Gaul-
ish society may report an idealized 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 demoralized and disunited
Gaul of his own time.[52] John Creighton has speculated
that in Britain, the druidic social inuence was already
in decline by the mid-1st century BCE, in conict with
emergent new power structures embodied in paramount
chieftains.[53] Other scholars see the Roman conquest it-
self as the main reason for the decline of druidism.[54]
Archaeologist Miranda Aldhouse-Green (2010) asserted
that Caesar oered both our richest textual source re-
garding the druids, and one of the most reliable. She de-
fended the accuracy of his accounts by highlighting that
while he may have embellished some of his accounts to
justify Roman imperial conquest, it was inherently un-
likely that he constructed a ctional class system for Gaul
and Britain, particularly considering that he was accom-
panied by a number of other Roman senators who would
have also been sending reports on the conquest to Rome,
and who would have challenged his inclusion of serious
falsications.[55]
3.1.2 Cicero, Diodorus Siculus, 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. Caesars contemporary, Marcus
6 3 SOURCES ON DRUIDISM

but maintains a hostile point of view, seeing them as igno-

rant savages.[61] Ronald Hutton meanwhile points out that
there is no evidence that Tacitus ever used eye-witness
reports and casts doubt upon the reliability of Tacituss
account of events.[62]

3.2 Irish and Welsh records

During the Middle Ages, after Ireland and Wales were

Crown of the "Deal Warrior, possibly worn by druids, 200150 Christianized, druids appeared in a number of written
BCE, British Museum[56] sources, mainly tales and stories such as the Tin B
Cailnge, but also in the hagiographies of various saints.
These were all written by Christian monks, who, accord-
ing to Ronald Hutton, may not merely have been hostile
Tullius Cicero, noted that he had met a Gallic druid,
to the earlier paganism but actually ignorant of it and so
Divitiacus, who was a member of the Aedui tribe. Diviti-
would not have been particularly reliable, but at the same
acus supposedly knew much about the natural world and
time may provide clues as to the practices of druids in
performed divination through augury.[4] Whether Divi-
Ireland, and to a lesser extent, Wales.[63]
aticus was genuinely a druid can however be disputed, for
Caesar also knew this gure, and also wrote about him,
calling him by the more Gaulish-sounding (and thereby
presumably the more authentic) Diviciacus, but never re- 3.2.1 Irish literature and law codes
ferred to him as a druid and indeed presented him as a
political and military leader.[57] The Irish passages referring to druids in such vernacular
Another classical writer to take up describing the druids sources were more numerous than those on the classical
not too long after was Diodorus Siculus, who published texts of the Greeks and Romans, and paint a somewhat
this description in his Bibliotheca historicae in 36 BCE. dierent picture of them. The druids in Irish literature
Alongside the druids, or as he called them, drouidas, for whom words such as drui, draoi, drua and drai are
whom he viewed as philosophers and theologians, he also usedare sorcerers with supernatural powers, who are
remarked how there were poets and singers in Celtic so- respected in society, particularly for their ability to per-
ciety whom he called bardous, or bards.[37] Such an idea form divination. They can cast spells and turn people into
was expanded on by Strabo, writing in the 20s CE, who animals or stones, or curse peoples crops to be blighted.
declared that amongst the Gauls, there were three types of At the same time, the term druid is sometimes used to
honoured gures: the poets and singers known as bardoi, refer to any gure who uses magic, for instance in the
the diviners and specialists in the natural world known Fenian Cycle, both giants and warriors are referred to as
as o'vateis, and those who studied moral philosophy, druids when they cast a spell, even though they are not
the druidai.[58] Nonetheless, the accuracy of these writ- usually referred to as such; as Ronald Hutton noted, in
ers has been brought into question, with Ronald Hutton medieval Irish literature, the category of Druid [is] very
stating that All that can be concluded is that we have ab- porous.[64]
solutely no secure knowledge of the sources used by any When druids are portrayed in early Irish sagas and saints
of these authors for their comments on Druids, and there- lives set in the pre-Christian past of the island, they are
fore of their date, their geographical framework or their usually accorded high social status. The evidence of the
accuracy.[59] law-texts, which were rst written down in the 7th and 8th
The Roman writer Tacitus, himself a senator and a centuries, suggests that with the coming of Christianity
historian, described how when the Roman army, led the role of the druid in Irish society was rapidly reduced
by Suetonius Paulinus, attacked the island of Mona to that of a sorcerer who could be consulted to cast spells
(Anglesey, Ynys Mn in Welsh), the legionaries were or practise healing magic and that his standing declined
awestruck on landing by the appearance of a band of accordingly.[65] According to the early legal tract Bretha
druids, who, with hands uplifted to the sky, poured forth Crlige, the sick-maintenance due to a druid, satirist and
terrible imprecations on the heads of the invaders. He brigand (dberg) is no more than that due to a baire
states that these terried our soldiers who had never seen (an ordinary freeman). Another law-text, Uraicecht Becc
such a thing before... The courage of the Romans, how- (Small primer), gives the druid a place among the der-
ever, soon overcame such fears, according to the Roman nemed or professional classes which depend for their sta-
historian; the Britons were put to ight, and the sacred tus on a patron, along with wrights, blacksmiths and en-
groves of Mona were cut down.[60] Tacitus is also the only tertainers, as opposed to the li, who alone enjoyed free
primary source that gives accounts of druids in Britain, nemed-status.[66]
4.2 Possible late survival of Insular druidism
3.2.2 Welsh literature
While druids featured prominently in many medieval
Irish sources, they were far rarer in their Welsh counter-
parts. 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 ex-
planations for the use of the term in Wales: the rst was
that it was a survival from the pre-Christian era, when
dryw had been ancient priests, while 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 re-
fer to magicians and magic respectively, most probably
inuenced by the Irish terms.)[67]
3.3 Archaeology
As the historian Jane Webster stated, individual druids...
are unlikely to be identied archaeologically,[68] 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 be-
lieved to be astral symbolism on Late Iron Age swords
has expressed diculties in relating any material cul-
ture, even the Coligny calendar, with druidic culture.[69]
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 sacrice in Celtic pa-
gan societysuch as the Lindow Man bog bodyto the
Greco-Roman accounts of human sacrice being oci-
ated over by the druids.[70][71]
An excavated burial in Deal, Kent discovered the Deal
warrior a man buried around 200150 BCE with a sword
and shield, and wearing a unique crown, too thin to be a
helmet. The crown is bronze with a broad band around
the head and a thin strip crossing the top of the head. It
was worn without any padding beneath, as traces of hair
were left on the metal. The form of the crown is similar
to that seen in images of Romano-British priests several
centuries later, leading to speculation among archaeolo-
gists that the man might have been a druid.[72]
4 History of reception
4.1 Prohibition and decline under Roman
rule
During the Gallic Wars of 58 to 51 BCE, the Roman 4.3 Christian historiography and hagiog-
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 The story of Vortigern, as reported by Nennius, provides
centuries, the new rulers of Roman Gaul subsequently in- one of the very few glimpses of possible druidic survival
7
troduced measures to wipe out the druids from that coun-
try. 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 sacrice in
Gaul.[73] A somewhat dierent account of Roman legal
attacks on druidism was made by Suetonius, writing in the
2nd century CE, when he claimed that Romes rst em-
peror, Augustus (who had ruled from 27 BCE till 14 CE),
had decreed that no-one could be both a druid and a Ro-
man 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.[74]
4.2 Possible late survival of Insular
druidism
Further information: Christianization of Ireland,
Christianization of Wales and Taliesin
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 drudecht survives in the
meaning of magic, and the Welsh dryw in the meaning
of seer.
While the druids as a priestly caste were extinct with the
Christianization of Wales, complete by the 7th century at
the latest, the oces 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 im-
perial biographies known as the Historia Augusta con-
tains 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 func-
tion of prophesy continued among the natives in Roman
Gaul.[75] However, the Historia Augusta is frequently in-
terpreted by scholars as a largely satirical work, and such
details might have been introduced in a humorous fash-
ion. 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.[76][77]
raphy
8 4 HISTORY OF RECEPTION

in Britain after the Roman conquest: unfortunately, Nen-

nius 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 rep-
resented as magicians and diviners. In Adamnan's vita
of Columba, two of them act as tutors to the daughters
of Legaire mac Nill, the High King of Ireland, at the
coming of Saint Patrick. They are represented as en-
deavouring 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 pre-
cisely meant by the phrase is unclear. The Irish druids
seem to have had a peculiar tonsure. The word dru is al-
ways 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 sacrice, because it was the custom of
the Gallic rustics in their wretched folly to carry about
through the elds the images of demons veiled with a The Druidess, oil on canvas, by French painter Alexandre Ca-
white covering. So Martin halted the procession by rais- banel (18231890)
ing his pectoral cross: Upon this, the miserable crea-
tures might have been seen at rst to become sti like
rocks. Next, as they endeavoured, with every possible 1799 to 1827, without corroboration in Blakes numerous
eort, to move forward, but were not able to take a step writings or among modern Blake scholars. Blakes bardic
farther, they began to whirl themselves about in the most mysticism derives instead from the pseudo-Ossianic epics
ridiculous fashion, until, not able any longer to sustain of Macpherson; his friend Frederick Tathams depic-
the weight, they set down the dead body. Then discov- tion of Blakes imagination, clothing itself in the dark
ering his error, Martin raised his hand again to let them stole of moral sanctity in the precincts of Westmin-
proceed: Thus, the hagiographer points out, he both ster Abbey it dwelt amid the Druid terrors, is generic
compelled them to stand when he pleased, and permitted rather than specically neo-Druidic.[80] John Toland was
them to depart when he thought good.[78] fascinated by Aubreys Stonehenge theories, and wrote
his own book about the monument without crediting
Aubrey. The roles of bards in 10th century Wales had
4.4 Romanticism and modern revivals been established by Hywel Dda and it was during the
18th century that the idea arose that Druids had been their
Main articles: Celtic revival and Neo-druidism predecessors.[81]
From the 18th century, England and Wales experi-
enced a revival of interest in the druids. John Aubrey The 19th-century idea, gained from uncritical reading
(16261697) had been the rst modern writer to con- of the Gallic Wars, that under cultural-military pressure
nect Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments with from Rome the druids formed the core of 1st-century
the druids; since Aubreys views were conned to his BCE resistance among the Gauls, was examined and dis-
notebooks, the rst wide audience for this idea were missed before World War II,[82] though it remains current
readers of William Stukeley (16871765).[79] It is incor- in folk history.
rectly believed that John Toland (16701722) founded Druids began to gure widely in popular culture with
the Ancient Druid Order however the research of his- the rst advent of Romanticism. Chateaubriand's novel
torian Ronald Hutton has revealed that the ADO was Les Martyrs (1809) narrated the doomed love of a druid
founded by George Watson MacGregor Reid in 1909. priestess and a Roman soldier; though Chateaubriands
The order never used (and still does not use) the ti- theme was the triumph of Christianity over Pagan druids,
tle Archdruid for any member, but falsely credited the setting was to continue to bear fruit. Opera pro-
William Blake as having been its Chosen Chief from vides a barometer of well-informed popular European
4.5 Modern scholarship
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 Sac-
erdotessa d'Irminsul (The Priestess of Irminsul"). The
most famous druidic opera, Vincenzo Bellini's Norma
was a asco at La Scala, when it premiered the day af-
ter Christmas, 1831; but in 1833 it was a hit in Lon-
don. For its libretto, Felice Romani reused some of
the pseudo-druidical background of La Sacerdotessa to
provide colour to a standard theatrical conict 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 chaste goddess (casta diva) ad-
dressed in Norma's hit aria is the moon goddess, wor-
shipped in the grove of the Irmin statue.
A group of Neo-druids in England.
A central gure 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 Bard-
das (1862), are not considered credible by contempo-
rary scholars. Williams claimed to have collected an-
cient knowledge in a "Gorsedd of Bards of the Isles of
Britain he had organized. Many scholars deem part or
all of Williamss 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 CE.
Regardless, it has become impossible to separate the orig-
inal 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.
In 1927 T.D. Kendrick sought to dispel the pseudo-
historical aura that had accrued to druids,[83] asserting
that a prodigious amount of rubbish has been written
about druidism";[84] Neo-druidism has nevertheless con-
tinued 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
9
the misunderstandings and misconceptions of
scholars 200 years ago. These ideas have been
superseded by later study and discoveries.[85]
Some strands of contemporary Neodruidism are a con-
tinuation 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-specically spiritual.
4.5 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 his-
torians and archaeologists published books on the sub-
ject of the druids and came to their own conclusions.
The archaeologist Stuart Piggott, author of The Druids
(1968), accepted the Greco-Roman accounts and con-
sidered the druids to be a barbaric and savage priest-
hood who performed human sacrices.[86] 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.[87] Ross views were largely ac-
cepted by two other prominent archaeologists to write
on the subject, Miranda Aldhouse-Green[88] author of
The Gods of the Celts (1986), Exploring the World of the
Druids (1997) and Caesars Druids: Story of an Ancient
Priesthood (2010)and Barry Cunlie, author of Iron
Age Communities in Britain (1991) and The Ancient Celts
(1997).[89]
5 See also
Druidess (Celtic Mythology)
6 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 2009. p. 01.
[3] Hutton 2009. p. 23.
[4] Cicero 44. I.XVI.90.
[5] Tacitus. XIV.30.
10
[6] Pliny c.78. XVI.249.
[7] Mac Mathna, Liam (1999) Irish Perceptions of the Cos-
mos Celtica, vol. 23 (1999), 174187 (p. 181).
[8] Hutton 2009. pp. 3237.
[9] Piggott 1968. p. 89.
[10] Druides, Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dic-
tionary, on Perseus project.
[11] Caroline aan de Wiel, druids [3] the word, in Celtic Cul-
ture.
[12] , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-
English Lexicon, on Perseus.
[13] Pokornys Indogermanisches etymologisches Wrterbuch,
see also American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed.), .
[14] Proto-IE *deru-, a cognate to English tree, is the word for
oak, though the root has a wider array of meanings re-
lated to to be rm, solid, steadfast (whence e.g. English
true). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language. Fourth Edition, 2000 Indo-European Roots:
deru-.
[15] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Lan-
guage: Fourth Edition, 2000 Indo-European Roots: weid-
. [37] Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historicae. V.2122.
[16] , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-
English Lexicon, on Perseus project.
[17] List of ancient Greek words ending in -, on Perseus.
[18] See further Brian Cuv, Some Gaelic traditions about
the wren. igse 18 (1980): pp. 4366.
[19] Hutton 2007. p. xi.
[20] There are 9 surviving gorget collars, 7 in the National Mu-
seum of Ireland, all dating from the late Bronze Age, 800
700 BCE. Wallace, Patrick F., O'Floinn, Raghnall eds.
Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish An-
tiquities, 2002, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, ISBN 0-7171-
2829-6, pp. 8889, 100101.
[21] Caesar, Julius. De bello gallico. VI.1318.
[22] Hutton 2007. pp. 4445.
[23] Pomponius Mela iii.2.1819.
[24] Hutton 1991. p. 171.
[25] Gallic Wars vi.14.3.
[26] John Daniel, The Philosophy of Ancient Britain, Kessinger
Publishing, LLC (May 23, 2010), ISBN 978-1-161-
37874-0.
[27] Lucan, Pharsalia i.450-58; Caesar, Gallic Wars vi.16,
17.3-5; Suetonius, Claudius 25; Cicero, Pro Font. 31; Ci-
cero, 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.
6 REFERENCES
[28] Brunaux, Jean-Louis (2001). Gallic Blood Rites in Ar-
chaeology 54.2.
[29] Brunaux, Jean-Louis (2002). Le Santuaire gaulois de
Gournay-sur-Aronde in Bulletin 56 of the Archaeo-
logical and Historical Company of Boulounge-Conchy-
Hainvillers.
[30] Hutton, Ronald, The Druids (London: Hambledon Con-
tinuum, 2007 pp. 133134.
[31] Rives, J. (1995). Human Sacrice among Pagans and
Christians in Journal of Roman Studies, p. 85.
[32] Hutton 2009. pp. 0405, 17.
[33] Chadwick 1966. pp. xviii, 28, 91.
[34] Owen, James. Druids Committed Human Sacrice,
Cannibalism?". National Geographic. Retrieved 5 Au-
gust 2013.
[35] Stroumsa, Guy G. (2009). The End of Sacrice: Religious
Transformations in Late Antiquity. University of Chicago
Press. p. 73.
[36] Horne, Thomas Hartwell (1833). Introduction to the Crit-
ical Study and Knowledge. Desilver Jr. & Thomas. p.
474.
[38] Donald A.Mackenzie, Buddhism in pre-Christian Britain
(1928:21).
[39] Isaac Bonewits, Bonewitss Essential Guide to Druidism,
Citadel, 2006.
[40] Piggott 1975. p. 91.
[41] Piggott 1975. pp. 9192.
[42] Piggott 1975. p. 92.
[43] Aldhouse-Green 2010. p. xv.
[44] Hutton 2009. p. 02.
[45] Diogenes Laertius. Vitae. Introduction, section 1.
[46] http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dlintro.
htm
[47] 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 (1999:120):24.
[48] de Coulanges, Fustel (1891). La Gaule romaine. Paris.
Page 03.
[49] Hutton 2009. pp. 0405.
[50] Dunham, Sean B. (1995). Caesars Perception of Gal-
lic Social Structures in Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State
(Eds: Bettina Arnold and D. Blair Gibson). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press; endorsed by Maier, Bern-
hard (2003). The Celts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press. Pp. 6566.
6.1 Bibliography
[51] Nash, Daphne (1976). Reconstructing Posidoniuss
Celtic Ethnography in Britannia 7. Page 126.
[52] DeWitt 1938:324f.
[53] Creighton, Visions of power: imagery and symbols in
Late Iron Age Britain Britannia 26 (1995: pp. 285301;
especially p. 296f).
[54] 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: pp. 120 and full
bibliography).
[55] Aldhouse-Green 2010. p. xv.
[56] Skull and crown of the 'Deal Warrior', British Museum.
[57] Hutton 2009. p. 05.
[58] Strabo. Geographica. IV.4.45.
[59] Hutton 2009. p. 10.
[60] Tacitus. 14.30.
[61] Rutherford 1978. p. 45.
[62] Hutton 2007. pp. 0305.
[63] Hutton 1991. p. 148.
[64] Hutton 2009. pp. 3233.
[65] Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law, pp. 5960.
[66] Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law, p. 60.
[67] Hutton 2009. p. 47.
[68] Webster 1999:6.
[69] 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. doi:10.1017/s0079497x0000284x.
[70] Anne Ross (1986). "Lindow Man and the Celtic tradi-
tion, in Lindow Man; The Body in the Bog (eds: I.M.
Stead, J.B. Bourke and D. Brothwell), pp. 16269.
[71] Anne Ross and Don Robins (1989) The Life and Death of
a Druid Prince.
[72] British Museum Highlights Skull and crown of the 'Deal
Warrior'.
[73] Pliny. XXX.13.
[74] Suetonius. Claudius. XXV.5.
[75] Freeman, Phillip,War, Women & Druids: Eyewitness Re-
ports and Early Accounts, University of Texas Press, ISBN
978-0-292-72545-4, pp. 4950.
[76] Jones, Mary. The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn mac
Cumhaill. From maryjones.us. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
[77] Parkes, Fosterage, Kinship, & Legend, Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, Comparative Studies in Society and History
(2004), 46: pp. 587615.
11
[78] Hagiography.
[79] 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 (Lon-
don: Methuen) 1927.
[80] Tatham is quoted by C. H. Collins Baker, William Blake,
Painter, The Huntington Library Bulletin, No. 10 [Octo-
ber 1936:135-148] p. 139.
[81] Ancient druids of Wales, National Museum of Wales.
[82] Norman J. DeWitt, The Druids and Romanization
Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philolog-
ical Association 69 (1938:319332): Few historians now
believe that the Druids, as a corporation, constituted an
eective anti-Roman element during the period of Cae-
sars conquests and in the period of early Roman Gaul;" his
inspection of the seemingly contradictory literary sources
reinforced the stated conclusion.
[83] T.D. Kendrick, The Druids: A Study in Keltic Prehistory
(London: Methuen) 1927.
[84] Kendrick 1927:viii.
[85] Explore/". The British Museum. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
[86] Piggott 1968. pp. 9298.
[87] Ross 1967. pp. 5256.
[88] Aldhouse-Green 1997. pp. 3133.
[89] Cunlie 2005. pp. 518520.
6.1 Bibliography
Classical sources
Cicero (44 CE). De Divinatione. Check date values
in: |date= (help)
Pliny the Elder (c.78 CE). Naturalis Historia. Check
date values in: |date= (help)
Tacitus (Second century CE). Annales. Check date
values in: |date= (help)
Bibliographyother sources
Aldhouse-Green, Miranda (1997). Exploring the
World of the Druids. London: Thames and Hudson.
Chadwick, Nora (1966). The Druids. Cardi: Uni-
versity of Wales Press.
Cunlie, Barry (2005). Iron Age Communities in
Britain: An account of England, Scotland and Wales
from the seventh century BC until the Roman Con-
quest (Fourth Edition). London and New York:
Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-56292-8.
12 6 REFERENCES

Ellis, Peter Berresford (1994). The Druids. London:

Constable. ISBN 978-0-09-472450-1.
Hutton, Ronald (1991). The Pagan Religions of the
Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Ox-
ford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-18946-7.

Hutton, Ronald (2007). The Druids. London: Ham-

bledon Continuum.

Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The

History of the Druids in Britain. New Haven,
Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-
14485-7.

Rutherford, Ward (1978). The Druids and their

Heritage. London: Gordon & Cremonesi. ISBN
978-0-86033-067-7.

Ross, Anne (1967). Pagan Celtic Britain. London:

Routledge.

Piggott, Stuart (1968). The Druids. London:

Thames and Hudson.
 13

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14 7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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