History in Focus

Druids Then and Now

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by Leigh Ann Berry

Although it has become commonplace to associate England’s most famous stone circle, Stonehenge, with the mysterious ancient order known as the Druids, in truth, the two have little or no historical connection. This fallacy is just one of many misconceptions about Druids that has carried over into the modern age.

Druidism, in fact, traces its origins to ancient Wales, where the order began long before the advent of written history. Druids were the priests of the early Celtic religion, on the top rung of the three-tiered Celtic society consisting of serfs, warriors, and learned men. But in addition to their religious function, Druids also performed the roles of judge, doctor, and scholar. They were educated through a long and grueling process of rote memorization. Druidic law forbade its followers to write down any of the religious teachings, a rule that has unfortunately prevented us from having firsthand knowledge of their Celtic religion.

What historical records we do have of the Druids come to us from non-objective sources: Posidonius, a Greek writer who supposedly visited Gaul in the second century BC; Julius Caesar, who recorded his observations about the Druids in his account of the Gallic War, written after the Roman invasion of the British Isles; and the Roman writer Tacitus whose Annals of Imperial Rome and Germanica were written after the consolidation of Britain. In these records, the writers all remark upon the Druids’ extensive knowledge, particularly in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, and physics.

But in addition to their learning, early historians also took note of what they considered to be the Druids’ barbaric religious practices. In particular, they were appalled by the use of human sacrifice. The Romans reported that victims were tied to wicker effigies and burned alive, a report substantiated by archaeological remains. Further evidence has been found of ‘triple deaths’ where a victim was simultaneously stoned, drowned, and impaled on a spear.

Celtic religion did involve elements of ritual sacrifice, but Druids (and Celts in general) did not conceive of death the way in which we do today. As Caesar comments, ‘The cardinal doctrine which they seek to teach is that souls do not die, but after death pass from one to another . . . the fear of death is cast aside.’ Often, sacrifice involved a spiritual trade of sorts–sacrificing a less prominent member of society so that someone more important might survive. Caesar wrote: “The whole nation of the Gauls is greatly devoted to ritual observances and for that reason those who are smitten with the more grievous maladies and who are engaged in the peril of battle either sacrifice human victims or vow to do so, employing the druids as ministers for such sacrifice. They believe in effect, that, unless a man’s life be paid, the majesty of the immortal gods may not be appeased.”

These accounts were, no doubt, coloured by the Romans’ personal biases. Caesar, in particular, was trying to garner support for his campaign from his audience at home, a task made easier by painting a barbaric picture of the Druids. (Barbaric, to a Roman audience who flocked to see equally gruesome deaths at the hands of the gladiators.) Nevertheless, both Roman and Greek historians did record the Druids’ highly organized legal and educational systems, and seemed to revere their mathematical and scientific knowledge. Both sources considered the Druids to be ‘noble savages’, a highly learned but religiously primitive people who worshipped a pantheon of gods.

After Emperor Claudius declared Druidic practices illegal in AD 54, the Druids’ future in Roman Britain became increasingly uncertain. In AD 61, the Romans planned a massacre of the defiant Druids at Anglesey, the centre of their culture, and their last stronghold in consolidated Britain. As the Roman soldiers waited for the tide to recede so they could cross the Menai strait that separates Anglesey from the mainland, the Druids held their position by lining up along the opposite shore and, as Tacitus reports in his Annals, ‘raising their hands to heaven and screaming dreadful curses.’ But curses were not enough. The Roman soldiers crossed the strait and conquered the island, destroying both the Druids and the sacred groves of their religion.

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