A Brief History of the Druids (The Brief History) [Paperback]

Peter Berresford Ellis (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Brief History | Publication Date: April 10, 2002

Shrouded in legend, the mysterious cult of the ancient Druids continues to fascinate, inspiring latter-day imitators who often are only a poorly researched and romantic reflection of Druidic lore. In this compelling and readable history, respected Celtic scholar Peter Berresford Ellis explores who the Druids really were and what role they played in the Celtic world. Ellis provides a fresh and convincing interpretation of the facts, based on both archaeological and etymological findings. "Remarkable ... offers much for the academician as well as the general reader. Fascinating reading!"—Joseph A. King, author of Ireland to North America

Editorial Reviews

Review

"- 'Finally, a book that separates fact from mythology, telling us what we can and cannot know about the ancient Druids. This remarkable book by a leading historian of the Celts offers much for the academician as well as the general reader. Fascinating reading!' - Joseph A. King, author of Ireland to North America - 'Readable and well-researched... a useful guide...' - Count Nikolai Tolstoy, Times Higher Education Supplement --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Peter Berresford Ellis is the author of many books, including highly regarded works on Celtic history and culture. He is a Fellow of three Royal Societies in historical and antiquarian fields and the recipient of many awards and honours for his work. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (April 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786709871
• ISBN-13: 978-0786709878
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #393,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Druidism
  • #96 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Celtic

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Term paper material, October 17, 2003

By 

Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Brief History of the Druids (The Brief History) (Paperback)

I had tried unsuccessfully to read the Sister Fidelma murder mysteries by the author Peter Tremayne, but had a difficult time getting into the stories. It seemed too pedantic. Later, in doing a little research on the author for my Amazon review, I discovered that Peter Tremayne is the nom de plume of Peter Berresford Ellis, a Celtic scholar of some ability. Given my preference for expository prose anyway, I decided I might enjoy his more serious books in the field, so I bought A Brief History of The Druids for my library. As I suspected, I enjoyed this book much more than the mystery.

At the outset, let me say that The Druids is not a new age discussion of mystic powers, etc and anyone looking to "get in touch" with the ancient past will be profoundly disappointed. The book is a very carefully researched study of what the author has determined was a social class of Celtic society. These were the "philosophers, judges, educators, historians, doctors, seers, astronomers and astrologers; in fact,...the native intellectual class of Celtic society (p. 35)."

Ellis freely admits that very little of written documentation on the druids remains and much of what there is has come down to us from external sources not always favorable to the Celtic world, for one reason or another, or at best simply not "in the know" about it. He cites various primary sources from the Greek and Roman world: Hecateus and Herodotus, Poseidonios and Diordorus, Strabo and Laertius, Pliny the Elder and Julius Caesar among them. He also refers to various Irish, Welsh and Scottish mythologies regarding early leaders and ancient deities, various law codes still in existence into the Christian era, and rounds off his own conclusions regarding the nature of the druids, by quoting a number of secondary sources whose theories he discusses at some length. The works of Rhys, Wagner, and Chadwick as well as others are all given a pro and con inspection for the benefit of the reader.

For myself, I found my interest most engaged when the author kept to the historic or mythic data for the Celts and the Druids, but early history and mythology happens to be the area of my personal interest. When Ellis delved more into poetry and an examination of Celtic words and their meaning-something about which I have absolutely no knowledge-I tended to veg out. With little underlying knowledge of the material, I found the words just so much nonsense and his discussion tended to be meaningless to me. To someone with a Celtic family background or a knowledge of the language and culture of the time, these might be the passages that were the most interesting and informative.

One of the things the author discusses is the similarities between Hindu and early Celtic cultures, suggesting that the common factors between the two may reach back to their common Indo-European heritage. He also mentions an enclave of Celts living in Turkey and the degree to which Celtic traditions remained constant between this group and those with which Caesar was familiar. The author's discussion of the origin of the Celts at the head of the Danube reminded me of the book I'd read on the mummies of the Takla Makhan desert. Here another author suggested that an enclave of Celts may have settled as far east as China!

For those looking for TERM PAPERS in HISTORY, WORLD RELIGION, CLASSICS, ENGLISH LIT, etc. The Druids is an interesting book on a fascinating subject. It is well and thoroughly researched. The bibliography is lengthy and includes journal articles as well as books. For classical references, the author simply refers the reader to the Penquin Classics series. (I would tend to prefer the Loeb Classic series). Bibliographic material is dedicated almost entirely to modern secondary sources some of which are perhaps a little old and may be difficult for the interested reader to find unless he or she has access to a university library. Some of the sources are in French, a very few in German, but most are in English.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discovering the Druids, July 29, 2003

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Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Brief History of the Druids (The Brief History) (Paperback)

Few figures flit so elusively through history as do the druids. Enigmatic and puzzling, the paucity of knowledge about them has resulted in a wide spectrum of interpretations. Even today, the lack of information has allowed the rise of an extensive "druidic" movement, particularly in Great Britain. Scouring through a wealth of resources and applying many years' work in this attempt to clarify the image of the Druids. He applies solid resources, assessing them rigidly and uses well the evidence has come to light. He's keen to revoke commonly held views. Druids weren't a savage priesthood practicing human sacrifice or arcane mysteries. Instead, Ellis finds them the intellectual elite of the Celtic world.

In sweeping away false beliefs about the Celts and their Druid "priesthood", Ellis provides a fine overview of Celtic society. Instead of nomadic warriors, the Celts were generally pastoralists and farmers in a stable society. Displacements and opportunitistic alliances resulted in societal changes. From an egalitarian society in which leaders were democratically chosen, a hierarchical structure developed as a reaction to intrusions. Christianity, of course, sounded the knell of their open society by demanding an end to "pagan" beliefs. Once forced into this new role, the democratic society became patriarchal.

One major change he notes resulting from this change was the role of women. Unlike their Mediterranean counterparts, Greece and Rome, the Celts held women in high regard, even granting them leadership status in peace and war. How many women gained status in the Druidic elite remains unclear, but he asserts it was only logical that leadership would include intellectual capacity.

Inevitably, Ellis concludes with the "revival" of the Druid concept in modern times. He sees many direct comparisons between the Celts and Hindu society as a modern example. The "caste" system he finds in both societies underwent changes in their respective locales. The mythology of a "mystical Druid" imagery was revived in Western Europe. This image permeated thought among British intellectuals beginning in the 17th Century. From a view of Celts and the Druids as savages, a new concept arose portraying them as "keepers of wisdom". Welsh, Cornish and Irish traditionalists enhanced this view leading to today's outlook of Druidism as a spiritual revival.

This thorough and insightful account of an unknown, but highly mythologised element of Western society is fundamental to an understanding of the Celts and their Druid sub-culture. Ellis keeps the account lively and captivating. Although his scholarship is thorough, it never overwhelms the reader. It should remain an important work for some time. [stephen a. haines, Ottawa, Canada]

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Druids-as-were, not Druids-as-conquistador-propaganda, August 28, 2005

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Ogma (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Brief History of the Druids (The Brief History) (Paperback)

I have no problem freely admitting how much I admire this author. Let me tell you why.

Most "Celtic scholars" seem to have been educated by the Classics Departments of their respective universities, which means that their understanding of the Celts is limited to the writings of a hostile, self-glorifying, invading nation and their assimilated underdogs. Also, the main purpose of Classics departments seems to be to glorify their field of study rather than to critically analyze it.

There have been some pretty assinine statements made by Roman "historians", taken unquestioningly at face value by the dewy-eyed, glory-of-Rome-loving Classics folks, such as when Josephus is describing the destruction of the Temple of Solomon in Israel. Rather than admit that the Roman general desecrated a temple, something the Roman people would have been up in arms about, Josephus states that non only did the Jews burn down their own temple, but threw themselves into the flames! (cf Eisenman's James, the Brother of Jesus)

The works of Roman "historians" are riddled with inaccuracies and fabrications; Josephus and others even freely admit that in choosing between accuracy and glorifying Rome that they choose to glorify Rome, yet this doesn't turn on the light bulb in the minds of Classics scholars to be discerning in their adoption of Roman writings as fact.

Now that we can clearly establish the need for Celtic scholars who actually have an interest in the Celts themselves and not the Celts as perceived through hostile foreign eyes, we can at last turn to Peter Berresford Ellis. Ellis is, quite simply, brilliant on the historical (and prehistorical) front. His The Druids is quite simply the most comprehensive and probably the most accurate work on the Druids to date.

Chapters: 1. The Celtic World; 2. Origins of the Druids; 3. Druids Through Foreign Eyes; 4. Druids Through Celtic Eyes; 5. Female Druids; 6. The Religion of the Druids; 7. The Rituals of the Druids; 8. The Wisdom of the Druids (Druidic Schools, Druidic Books, Druids as Philosophers, Druids as Judges, Druids as Historians, Druids as Poets and Musicians, Druids as Physicians, Druids as Seers, Druids as Astronomers and Astrologers, Druids as Magicians); and 9. Reviving the Druids.

If you have read Stuart Piggott (definitely a Classicist writing on the Druids, albeit a rather brilliant one), you might find that in places Ellis covers some of the same ground, but this seems to be part of his effort at completeness in this work, and Ellis often diverges from there.

I do have a couple issues with this work - Ellis plays "the name game". Philology, which is the silly science of history, assumes that every word with similar parts in it has a causal relationship. For fun, take a book in English and start comparing words with similar parts and create your own common origins for those words - "elevator" and "alligator", for example. I find the name game irritating, but you'll find it in virtually every book written on the Celts.

The second is that Ellis seems to show a marked Markalian leaning (although Markale is erroneously spelled Markle throughout this book) - that means that when dealing with mythology, certain personal beliefs are put forward with little or no persuasive evidence to back them up. I have mentioned these points for someone who may be newer to this topic and not so familiar with the territory. I have left the rating for this book at 5 stars as these points are common in most books on the Celts/Druids, but did not significantly affect my enjoyment of this book. It is easily the best book on the Druids that I have ever read.

It was a pleasure reading on the Celts for who they were and what they did, rather than as the sacrifical goat of an imperial war machine. Nobody (sane) reads the writings of 1930's/1940's Germany to come to an understanding of the Jews, but "scholars" don't seem to hesitate to use the Roman writings and again, the writings of their assimilated underdogs, the Greeks (who were terrified of the Celts) to depict the Celts.

Other than the two points regarding philology and the creative interpretations of myth listed above, this is a fabulous work and one of my top recommendations. I am a big fan of Ellis because he has achieved what (virtually) no one else has - produced far-reaching histories of the Celts without the racial bias. You can match this up with Ellis' The Celtic Empire (somewhat of a tongue in cheek title referring to the rapid expansion of the Celts and their loose confederation but strong and widespread intertribal ties) for a great study of the Celts.

I also enjoyed Dillon's and Chadwick's Celtic Realms and Hutton's Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles.

Happy Reading!