Druid
A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. While they were reported to have been literate, they are believed to have been prevented by doctrine from recording their knowledge in written form. Their beliefs and practices are attested in some detail by their contemporaries from other cultures, such as the Romans and the Greeks.
For other uses, see Druid (disambiguation).
The earliest known references to the druids date to the 4th century BC. The oldest detailed description comes from Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico (50s BCE). They were described by other Roman writers such as Cicero,[2] Tacitus,[3] and Pliny the Elder.[4] Following the Roman invasion of Gaul, the druid orders were suppressed by the Roman government under the 1st-century CE emperors Tiberius and Claudius, and had disappeared from the written record by the 2nd century.
In about 750 AD, 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."[5] The druids appear in some of the medieval tales from Christianized Ireland like "Táin Bó Cúailnge", where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity.[6] In the wake of the Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, fraternal and neopagan groups were founded based on ideas about the ancient druids, a movement known as Neo-Druidism. Many popular notions about druids, based on misconceptions of 18th-century scholars, have been largely superseded by more recent study.[7]
Etymology[edit]
The English word druid derives from Latin druidēs (plural), which was considered by ancient Roman writers to come from the native Gaulish word for these figures.[8][9][10] Other Roman texts employ the form druidae, while the same term was used by Greek ethnographers as δρυΐδης (druidēs).[11][12] Although no extant Romano-Celtic inscription is known to contain the form,[8] the word is cognate with the later insular Celtic words: Old Irish druí 'druid, sorcerer'; Old Cornish druw; and Middle Welsh dryw 'seer; wren'.[10] Based on all available forms, the hypothetical proto-Celtic word may be reconstructed as *dru-wid-s (pl. *druwides) whose original meaning is traditionally taken to be "oak-knower", based on the association of druids' beliefs with oak trees made by Pliny the Elder, who also suggested the word is borrowed from Greek δρῦς (drỹs) 'oak tree'[13][10][14][15][16] but nowadays it is more often understood as originally meaning 'one with firm knowledge' (ie. 'a great sage'),[17][18] as Pliny is the only ancient author drawing the association between oaks and druids[19] and the intensifying modifier sense of the first element fits better with other similar compounds attested in Old Irish (suí 'sage, wise man' < *su-wid-s 'good knower', duí 'idiot, fool' < *du-wid-s 'bad knower', ainb 'ignorant' < *an-wid-s 'not-knower'). The two elements go back to the Proto-Indo-European roots *deru-[20] and *weid- "to see".[21] Both Old Irish druí and Middle Welsh dryw could refer to the wren,[10] possibly connected with an association of that bird with augury in Irish and Welsh tradition (see also Wren Day).[10][22]
Druids in mythology[edit]
Druids play a prominent role in Irish folklore, generally serving lords and kings as high ranking priest-counselors with the gift of prophecy and other assorted mystical abilities – the best example of these possibly being Cathbad. The chief druid in the court of King Conchobar mac Nessa of Ulster, Cathbad features in several tales, most of which detail his ability to foretell the future. In the tale of Deirdre of the Sorrows – the foremost tragic heroine of the Ulster Cycle – the druid prophesied before the court of Conchobar that Deirdre would grow up to be very beautiful, and that kings and lords would go to war over her, much blood would be shed because of her, and Ulster's three greatest warriors would be forced into exile for her sake. This prophecy, ignored by the king, came true.[44]
The greatest of these mythological druids was Amergin Glúingel,[45] a bard and judge for the Milesians featured in the Mythological Cycle. The Milesians were seeking to overrun the Tuatha Dé Danann and win the land of Ireland but, as they approached, the druids of the Tuatha Dé Danann raised a magical storm to bar their ships from making landfall. Thus Amergin called upon the spirit of Ireland itself, chanting a powerful incantation that has come to be known as The Song of Amergin[46] and, eventually (after successfully making landfall), aiding and dividing the land between his royal brothers in the conquest of Ireland,[47][48][49] earning the title Chief Ollam of Ireland.
Other such mythological druids were Tadg mac Nuadat of the Fenian Cycle, and Mug Ruith, a powerful blind druid of Munster.
History of reception[edit]
Prohibition and decline under Roman rule[edit]
In the Gallic Wars of 58–51 BC, the Roman army, led by Julius Caesar, conquered the many tribal chiefdoms of Gaul, and annexed it as a part of the Roman Republic. 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 (ruled 14–37 CE), who introduced laws banning not only druid practices, and other native soothsayers and healers, a move which Pliny applauded, believing it would end human sacrifice in Gaul.[99] A somewhat different account of Roman legal attacks on the druids was made by Suetonius, writing in the 2nd century CE, when he stated that Rome's first emperor, Augustus (ruled 27 BCE–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 (ruled 41–54 CE) which "thoroughly suppressed" the druids by banning their religious practices.[100]