DRUIDS

Around the middle of the 1st centur)' ad, the Roman scholar, Pliny the Elder (23-79), published his Natural History, a wide-ranging compendium of knowledge. In one passage, Pliny describes a Celtic priest - a druid - preparing to sacrifice a pair of bulls:

...clad in a white robe, the priest climbs a tree and with a golden sickle cuts a sprig of mistletoe, which falls onto a white sheet held beneath by attendants.

White robes and mistletoe

In this one short passage, Pliny - who was a master of fiction as well as of history - sketched an enduring image that encompasses the whole panoply of symbolism and mysticism that surrounds the ancient druids.

White has long been held to symbolise purity in Europe (in China, it is the colour of mourning), and

White cloth might have represented a barrier against contamination. There are many beliefs about gold; its incorruptible and untamishing appearance and the 'royal' connotations it had acquired, made it entirely suitable within a religious context. Mistletoe is an e'er-green parasitic plant that remains bright green in dark, north European winters, and is an appropriate symbol of growth and fertility - although its cure-all reputation as an antidote to poisons seems to have been misplaced. The figure linking these disparate symbols, and perhaps through his person gi'ing them potency, was the druid.

Philosophers and priests

Pliny places the druids in a religious context, viewing them simply as priests; and this is the single-word description that is most often used today, although we must not think of the druids as the only religious

< Warrior and druid from the Roman province of Belgica in Gaul. The 19th-century illustration is based on Julius Caesar's description of the Gauls in his book On the Gallic Wars (52-51 Bc). According to Caesar, once a year the Druids assembled at a sacred place in the territory of the Carnutes (probably Chartres), where all legal disputes were submitted to a council of druids. Caesar also wrote of the druids' central role in the ritual of human sacrifice, when a human was placed in a wickerwork effigy and burned alive.

A Ollamh and bard aquatint (1815) by Robert Havell, Jr. (1793-1878). In Gaelic ollamh means 'wise man'. The druids were the source of Celtic traditions. After the coming of Christianity, they

Leaders among the Celts - there were priestesses, but no female druids. Nor should we see druids solely as priests. Diodorus of Sicily (active 1st century bc), for instance, wrote of druids as philosophers, and emphasised their secular role as teachers and judges.

The word druid is linked linguistically with the Celtic word for 'oak', and this may have conferred even more power upon mistletoe, which grows well on oak trees. The classical writers locate druids only in Britain and Gaul, and identify the island of Anglesey (Ynys Mon), north Wales, as the centre of druidism. While this might be the case, and it is certainly true that the island had a special place in the Celtic spiritual landscape, it may have been that Anglesey (which was not subdued by the Romans until the ad 70s) was merely the last remaining stronghold of druidism. Some modem scholars have, through place names such as Drunemeton (literally 'sacred oak-grove'), inferred the presence of druids in places as far away from Wales as Galatia, central Anatolia.

Human sacrifice and the seers Like the Greeks and Romans, the Celts believed that their gods could be influenced - pleased or appeased - through the sacrifice of valuable items, and especially through the sacrifice of life. The three cultures also shared the belief that the behaviour of sacrifice victims, or details of their internal anatomy, were among the many signs and omens that could be 'read' by gifted individuals. Where they differed was that, by the 1st century ad, the Greeks and Romans had (with occasional exceptions) abandoned the practice of human sacrifice, whereas the Celts had not.

Although druids were not necessarily the wielders of the sacrificial blade, or the most skilled readers of portents and entrails, their presence was required at such events in order for the actions to be validated, and for the 'messages' to reach the spirit world. The association of druids with human sacrifice was enough to demonise them from a Roman viewpoint as abominations to be eradicated.

Guardians of Celtic culture

Aside from authenticating rituals and ensuring their proper observ ance, the druids were, in pre-literate Celtic society, the liv ing repositories of lore, law and history. In many respects, thev' were the very essence of a culture; and this may be the real reason that the dmids were so thoroughly suppressed by the Romans, who were usually relatively tolerant of foreign religions that did not directly threaten their political dominance.

Julius Caesar (100-44 bc), without going into any great detail, ascribed the druids considerable influence over tribal politics, and this may have operated at a number of levels. In their role as masters of knowledge, the druids kept the calendar, and may have been able to exercise some control over the occurrence of auspicious and inauspicious days. They were also responsible for the selection and training of their successors from a young age, and it seems that most (if not all) druids were recruited from the ranks of the elite. Far from representing any form of independent spiritual leadership, the druids might better be seen as embodying the spiritual arm of the ruling class.

Survived as bards, historians and judges. The Celtic harp was in use as early as the 10th century, and fragments of a harp were found in the 7th-century Sutton Hoo burial ship found at Suffolk, England.

Ў Fortress of Tre'r Ceiri, Gwynedd, north-west Wales. The hillfort was one of the last strongholds of druidism in Roman Britain. It is the best preserved Iron Age town in England and Wales.

Ў Gaulish calendar from Coligny, east France. The Coligny Calendar consists of 150 fragments of a bronze tablet that measured 148 X 90 centimetres (58.3 x 35.4 inches). Written in Roman capitals probably at the end of the 2nd century ad, the five-year calendar is based on a lunar year, adapted from the Julian solar calendar by the addition of two intercalary months to the basic 12 months. A month consisted of either 29 or 30 days. A pin inserted into a hole in the bronze sheet marked the beginning of a new day. A mark next to the name of each month indicates whether the period is thought lucky or unlucky.