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Life and Death of a Druid Prince Paperback – July 15, 1991

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

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From Simon & Schuster, Life and Death of a Druid Prince by Anne Ross and Don Robbins examine how the discovery of Lindow Man revealed the secrets of a lost civilization.

This thrilling human drama and spellbinding scientific discovery—the most sensational archaeological find of the decade—unlocks the mysteries of the Druid past and leaves readers mesmerized and eagerly turning the page.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1984, the 2000-year-old upper torso of a Druid victim of ritual sacrifice was found preserved in England's Lindow Moss peat bog. This book blends fact and speculation as it traces "Lindow Man's" beliefs and final days. Illustrated. (July) no PW review
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Anne Ross is the author of Life and Death of a Druid Prince, a Simon & Schuster book.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Touchstone; First Thus edition (July 15, 1991)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0671741225
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0671741228
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
31 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2017
This is a fascinating story about Lindow Man who lived approximately two thousand years ago.
Through the use of forensic science it uncovers the ways in whIch he perhaps willingly died in
a sacrificial ritual. The author speculates on the reasons for the death, interweaving it with
Celtic rituals and values.
While published many years ago, the book was exactly as described by the seller, new, in pristine condition.
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2007
How could some one possible start with a peice of burned pancake and go to a full blown recreation of a person's life and last moments of death? Read the book and you will find out.

It is one of the best books out there that combine archeology and good old fashioned sleuthing to give you a great ride, one I will guarrentee you will never forget.

If you are intrested in the Druids and the Celts and want an accurate look at them, then this is your book.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2017
While most books on Bog Bodies focus on the finds in Denmark and Germany, this one tackles one specific body found in England near Wales. The detailed scholarship is world class. The highly speculative interpretations have been disputed by later writers, but they are worth reading. This book is a great murder mystery of the ancient Celtic/Druid world. Probably the most exciting book of the bog body genre.
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2015
This is an incredibly detailed and authoritative treatise on a fascinating discovery - the peat-preserved body of Lindow Man. Anne Ross covers every angle of the situation and brings to life the man who willingly sacrificed his life almost two thousand years ago in a well-documented ritual on a dark, windy night in North Western England.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2013
I picked up this book after reading another that piggy-backed on this book. I don't generally take an interest in Celtic history, but for some reason this book really piqued my curiosity. I'll be holding onto this one to read several times over and have since recommended it to several of my friends who share similar interests.
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2013
This is one of the best books I've read. It reads like a detective novel and is hard to put down once you've started it. It is a very fascinating read and brings the ancient past to life.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2012
I have to disagree with the other very laudatory reviews here.

I note that this small book could be classified as a work of "popular archeology" about "Lindow Man," and not to be too harsh or over critical, but I suspect that it was presented as such because it could not pass muster as a work of actual academic archeology, to be submitted to, evaluated by a panel of peer reviewers, and accepted by prominent archeological journals or publishers because, it just doesn't have the necessary academic rigor or proof sufficient to back up the book's claims and dizzying leaps in logic. This in contrast to "Martin's Hundred," a book I recently reviewed here, detailing 1970s archeological discoveries about the lives of the earliest settlers in Virginia, and the researcher's patient, painstaking, meticulous archeological work, and his learned, careful, and cautious conclusions, which were backed up by careful and exhaustive scholarship.

"The Life and Death of a Druid Prince," though interesting, is one of the increasing number of such speculative works I have seen, and a few read, over the years (the gigantic leaps in logic found in books like von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" come to mind) which take suppositions and assertions-usually not backed up by a lot of facts--presented in one chapter--and then transmutes them into accepted "facts" in the next, treats those facts as having been proven, and then moves on to repeat the process in the succeeding chapters, until in the end--hoping that you have not caught on to all of the intellectual trapeze work they have done--the authors present the flimsy castle of suppositions they have built as being solid.

Let's start out by noting that, so far as I am aware of, to date, except for the major archeological find of the "Coligny Calendar," what is thought to be a Druid calendar inscribed on a plate of bronze 3 by 5 feet wide, the Druids (in an oral culture and apparently purposefully) left absolutely no written records describing their religion and its system of beliefs and rituals, that the few contemporary snippets written about the Druids that have survived were written by Roman or early Christian writers who were hostile to Druidism, and that this thin gruel is supplemented by some archeological finds. Thus, almost anything of any substance that you can say about the Druids and their religion, the extent of their influence, and the basis of their power, is more or less speculation.

I also note this work's fairly significant reliance on "folklore" as a source of proof, testified to by the text, and by the many folkloric sources in the bibliography.

In this book the authors point to the band of fur found around the arm of the top half plus one leg of the otherwise naked man found in the bog that is all they have to work with (i.e. since his body below the waist is missing, they can`t say if his genitals might have been removed as part of a murder/sacrifice), say that this armband is made of Fox fur, note that Celts had a special relationship with animals, that certain animals played key roles in Celtic mythology, said that names were very important in Celtic society and were bestowed on elite members of that society by Druids, noted records showing that a few apparently important Celts mentioned in surviving records from England at this time had names that were derived from the word for "Fox," and conclude that the man's name was likely Lovernios, for Fox, and thereafter, for these co-authors, that is his name.

Since he was well developed, but lacking any battle scars or evidence of hard manual labor, and had manicured nails, the co-authors judged him to be a "Prince," and a Prince he was thereafter.

To quote from p. 53 "Since [at around 30] Lindow Man was only old enough to be a novitiate Druid (on p. 52 evidence for his being a druid priest deduced from the wrinkling in his forehead, supposedly the result of two decades of arduous study and memorization necessary to become a Druid priest), there had to be something that explained his choice as the special sacrificial victim. We suggest that he was a king or prince, and that enigmatic fox fur armband indicates his royal status. We believe, too, that the armband is the clue to his name."

Picking a time within the range of dates that scientific testing said he could have died in, the co-authors decided, very conveniently, that Prince Lovernios had likely been killed/sacrificed at Beltane in 60 A.D., at the critical time when the Druids and the native Celts had suffered a series of calamitous defeats, and the Roman invasion/occupation of Britain was on the verge of success.

Using similar leaps in logic, the authors note that Celts were master metal workers, that many sacrificial offerings found in bogs were made of gold, and that Druids were the religious and lore masters in Celtic society and, voila, they deduce that the combination of metal working and Gold were an indispensable element of Druid religion and the Druid's power. Then, without any actual documentary evidence attesting to this conclusion, they go on to note that there were a series of Druid religious sites located along Wattling Street, and then say that, therefore, this must have been the main Druid-controlled trade route for the gold trade from Ireland, through England, and on to Europe.

The authors note that several towns in the area surrounding the bog where Lindow Man was found have ancient, traditional celebrations involving a man on a horse being lead through the town, and conclude that behind these rituals could be the powerful and dimly remembered memory of the sacrificed Druid Prince/priest being driven though the area on a horse, or in a typical Celtic nobleman/warrior's horse drawn cart some 2,000 years ago.

Finally, they take all of the clues found concerning the man in the bog, note the Romans' destruction of the Druid's sacred Isle of Mona, center of the English Druid's power, note that Druidism was also very important in Ireland and conclude, therefore, that the victim/sacrifice must have been a Druid Prince, who traveled from Ireland to be the sacrificial victim to appease the Gods, and to halt the Roman conquest and advance into England.

This was a fun read, and full of lots of interesting speculations, but not what I think of as real, solid archeological/anthropological research.
12 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2015
Loved it. The ancient Celts were real, and this book shows it.

Top reviews from other countries

Linda
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly written and interesting historical book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2019
Fantastic book. Really interesting and easy to read. Loved it... over off the best books I have read for a long time. Especially interesting as our son lives close to Lindow Common, but even so it would be of interest to anyone who is interested in history.
m. warners
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on January 11, 2015
Very informative.
Dennis Turner
5.0 out of 5 stars OK
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2013
A brilliant well researched book written so a non academic can understand it but without loosing its integrity. Most enjoyable