Druids

The word "druid" comes from druides, a Gaulish (Celtic) word repeated by ancient Greek and Latin writers. Independently, it is known from Old Irish in the form drui, of which druid is the plural form. It survived in Welsh, another Celtic tongue, but only as a bird name, dryw, meaning "wren." The ancient meaning is obscure.

The oldest reference to the druids is from an anonymous Greek source, about 200 B.C., in which druids are spoken of as "philosophers" among the barbarian Celts. The principal classical sources are later, however, and include Julius Caesar and the three Greek writers, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Athenaeus. Each of these seems to have relied almost entirely on the now lost writings of the Greek philosopher Posidonius.

Although an accurate observer of the barbarians, Posidonius saw the druids through the concepts of his own Stoic philosophy and ascribed to them, as to other barbarian sages, idealized intellectual attainments far beyond their range of cultural experience. In the 1st century B.C. the druids were part of that Celtic life in Gaul that still practiced sacrifice and headhunting.

Drawing on classical sources as a whole, one can reasonably conclude that the druids formed an order of magician-sages and that they were the authoritative class in Celtic society. Recruits to the druidical order were drawn from among children of the aristocratic warrior class. They were trained for many years in schools of oral learning. The reason the druids did not employ writing was probably not to safeguard their lore, as alleged by Caesar, but to continue a sacred tradition that the art of writing would impair.

Druidical functions included arbitration, pronouncements on matters of public policy, enchantment, divination, and sacrifice. The Roman historian Pliny, in his Natuml History, described the druidical rite of cutting mistletoe from an oak and also mentioned the ritual sacrifice of a pair of white bulls. The Greek historian Diodorus indicated that no sacrifices were undertaken without the druids.

Caesar speaks only of the druids, but the other authors, relying on Posidonius, also mention seers (vates) and bards (bardoi). It is not known how clearly delineated the functions of these various practitioners may have been; it is possible that all of them were druids in a wide sense. The seers seem to have been mainly concerned with prognostication, to which human sacrifice was sometimes a means, and the bards specialized in the composition and allocution of verse and eulogy in song.

The druids appear to have enjoyed extra tribal privileges enabling them to travel at large, and Caesar states that they held an annual gathering at a holy place in the territory of the Carnutes in central Gaul. Caesar's further comment that druidism was thought to have originated in Britain, and that diligent students traveled there, is believed no more than indicative that Britain had remained a stronghold still beyond the reach of Rome. The only specific reference to druids encountered by the Romans when they invaded Britain is in connection with the assault on Mona (Anglesey) in 61 A.D. under the command of Seutonius Paulinus.

In Gaul, the druids rapidly lost influence with the advance of Roman arms, and they suffered suppression as a seditious influence. But numerous Gallo-Roman altars and shrines and various inscriptions show that cult functionaries of lesser standing continued throughout the pagan period of the Roman Empire.

Information on the druids in Ireland derives from the oral literary tradition that continued among the Irish from pagan into Christian times. From the 8th century on, much druidical lore was written down in Irish monasteries by monks who had also received their training at the hands of poets and men of letters in the native schools. The Irish evidence supports in most particulars the information contained in classical sources, and being much fuller and less self-conscious, it permits many important observations in terms of comparative institutions. In Ireland the druids took precedence over king and warriors. They were recruited as in Gaul, attended schools of oral learning, and were concerned with prognostication, enchantment, and sacrifice. Church influence naturally suppressed much information on sacrifice and cult practice.

In Ireland, at least some druids were householders and warriors, in contrast to Caesar's statement to the contrary regarding Gaulish druids. Women druids are also mentioned in Irish lore, although their role, apart from powers of spell casting, stands in some doubt. Women on the Continent enjoyed comparable, or even greater, offices:. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, the migrating Celtic tribe known as the Bructeri was led by the prophetess Veleda, whose Celtic name is cognate with Irish forms implying "inspired sight."

Bards continued long in Ireland as the performers of spoken prose and verse. Among the most interesting aspects of Irish druidism was emphasis on powers of shape shifting and on incantation and trance. A druid, gorged on bull's flesh and wrapped in its hide, delivered oracles for the choosing of a new king for Tara. There are also descriptions of druids' dress incorporating bird skins and wings, endowed with powers of ascent, that indicate shamanistic elements known from a wide Eurasian comparative field.

It is impossible to determine which Irish druidical practices were insular and which derived from Continental druidism. However, there are many parallels in cult practice, social institutions, terminology, and even literary form between the pre-Christian Irish tradition and other Indo-European traditions, particularly Hindu and Italic. Druidism in Gaul and Ireland, as doubtless once elsewhere in the Celtic realms, adopted many strange elements while retaining its essential function of sustaining by magical means the prosperity of tribe and land.