1994;
480 pages. Full Title : A Brief History of the Druids. New Author? : Yes. Genre : Non-Fiction; World History; Celtic
History; Druids. Overall Rating : 7*/10.
A question: What pops into your mind when you
hear the word “Druid”?
If
you’re like me, it’s a mental image of the Gandalf dude from Lord Of The Rings.
Pointy hat, floppy robe, magic staff, and the obligatory ZZ-Top beard.
Alternatively, if you’re from the British
Isles, you might envision some bald-headed dude, still in the floppy robe, and
working his magic in the middle of Stonehenge.
But
if your European History knowledge has a Continental drift, then maybe
your Druid would be standing in an oak grove doing his thing.
If
you’re an ancient Greek or Roman, you won’t think of anything so noble. For you, a Druid is some heathen zealot who
burns human sacrifices to propitiate the gods,
often en masse by means of “the wicker man”. Because Emperor Julius Caesar told you so.
Finally,
if you’re a New Ager, a Druid to you is probably some hippie, sitting on
top of one of the stone structures at Stonehenge, smoking a joint, and digging
on the sun as it rises on the morning of the Summer Solstice.
Petter Berresford Ellis would probably give you half-credit if you
included the oak grove in your image, and zero credit for any of the other
details listed above.
What’s To Like...
Peter Berresford Ellis makes it clear at the
very beginning: Any serious book about the Druids is going to
involve a lot of conjecture. The Druids
themselves didn’t write anything down, and those “foreigners” who did were
conquerors, such as Julius Caesar, who had a vested interest in denigrating anyone who held a position of power in the Celtic tribes he had just subjugated.
The
author bases his set of educated conjectures on the following hypotheses:
a.) The Druids were not limited to
being mages. They were the Intellectual Caste
of the Celtic world: Priests, Seers, Doctors, Poets, Leaders, and much more.
b.)
Greek and Roman sources can’t be trusted.
Ellis relies mostly on early Irish and Welsh writings.
c.)
The Druid Caste is akin to the Brahmin Caste in India. This commonality stems from a long-hypothesized
Indo-European root language, from which most Eurasian tongues are thought to have come.
I
liked the book’s structure. Ellis
devotes the first part (pgs 1-156) to
the generic
characteristics and origins of the Druids. Part 2 (pgs
157-250) enumerates the specific roles Druids played in the Celtic tribal
hierarchy. And Part 3 (pgs. 251-281) analyzes the modern surge in
popularity of the Druid mystique, and how the hippies came ended up at Stonehenge.
The Druids is a history buff’s delight, and I
happen to be one. Some of the details
were familiar to me: Taliesin, the Aes
Sidhe, the Tuatha Da Danaan, Tara, Stonehenge, Cruachan, Boudicca, Finn McCool,
and my favorite Gnostic magician, Simon
Magus, who, FWIW, gets some ink in the biblical Book
of Acts.
But I learned about a lot of new things too,
such as: Fidelma, the Red Branch, the
Irish Ogham alphabet, the origin of
the words “Danube” and “boycott”,
and the Druidic origin and long history that hunger strikes have as a way of protest in Ireland. I also liked the literary nod to Morgan
Llywelyn’s historical-fiction novel, Druids,
which I’ve read and is reviewed here, and being reminded that Rome, the
Eternal City, was once sacked by the Celts, way back in ~390 BC.
The
book is written in English, not American.
So you have neighbours and jewellery, you’re advized
to wear woollen clothes, and if
you’re one of the élite, you have a rôle to perform. I liked this, but spell-checker is going
nutzo as I write this review. The book is part
of a 16-volume (at the time of printing)
historical series, which uses the “A
Brief History of…” format. There are
some neat photos in the middle of the book, including one of Winston Churchill
being installed at a Druidic lodge. Make no mistake about it, reading this book will be a learning experience.
Kewlest New Word ...
Peripatetic (adj.)
: traveling from place to place.
Others : Micturition
(n.; who knew there was a word for this!?);
Proscription (n.)
Excerpts...
This destruction
of native Irish learning, compounded by the Penal Laws of William III, saw the
rise of a new educational phenomenon – the Irish Hedge School. During the late seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries, the Irish teachers were compelled to teach the children
secretly and usually out of doors in some secluded spot, often in the shelter of
a hedge – hence the name. One pupil was
placed at a vantage point to give warning of the approach of English soldiers
or informers, when the class would be disbanded at a word. (pg. 160)
The basis of the
Celtic idea of immortality of the soul was that death was but a changing of
place and life went on with all its forms and good in another world, a world of the dead, the fabulous Otherworld. When people died in that world, however,
their souls were reborn in this. Thus a
constant exchange of souls took place between the two worlds; death in this
world took a soul to the Otherworld, death in that world brought a soul to
this. (pg. 176)
Kindle Details…
Curiously, there is no e-book version of A
Brief History of the Druids.
Various dealers at Amazon have the paperback version for sale, which is
what I read. It sells for anywhere from $7
to $40.
“Worship the gods, do no
evil and exercise courage.” (pg.
168, and the Druids’ chief maxim.)
The
book was a slow read for me, and with 20 chapters and sub-chapters for 281
pages, finding a good place to stop for the night often proved problematic. It is written in the old-fashioned
“scholarly” style and, as some reviewers at Amazon have noted, it can be quite
dry at times. The frequent and lengthy
studies of the etymologies of various Irish and Gaelic words also contributes
to this dryness.
The “scholarly style” also means Peter
Berresford Ellis can be confrontational at time. In particular, his views quite often differ
from those of one Nora Chadwick, who is
apparently also a Celtic historian.
Despite all this, I still enjoyed A Brief
History of The Druids, and came away with a much greater appreciation of
why the Irish were so fiercely resentful of English occupation down through the
centuries.
Just don’t be expecting it to be in the style
of Sarah Vowell or Erik Larsson.
7 Stars.
Peter Berresford Ellis also writes a historical
fiction/murder-mystery series under the pen name Peter Tremayne. Its protagonist is a “Sister Fidelma”,
and I gather it is set in Druidic times.
By good fortune, my local digital library carries one of these books,
and I’m a big fan of the Ellis Peters’ Brother
Cadfael series I suspect I’ll
be trying this series out in the not-too-distant future.
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