The Druids

The Druids
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IF THIS WERE AN ACADEMIC DISSERTATION, I would probably choose the subtitle ‘An introductory argument’—-n no field is it more necessary to ask the right questions than when attempting to discover the Druids. The simple truth is that one person’s Druid is another person’s fantasy.

The Druids have been conjured in a wide variety of perceptions, as to who they were, what they believed and what they taught, since the sixteenth century. The basic problem is that no Druid, nor sympathetic contemporary
observer, ever committed to writing the necessary unequivocal information for our latter-day understanding. We have to search diligently among many sources to come up with our answers and, as Levi-Strauss implies, the result of the search depends on what questions we ask.

In spite of several references to Druids in Greek and Latin writings and in spite of the traditions recorded in the native Celtic literatures, we are still far from being absolutely knowledgeable.