Table Of Content

Druids: A Very Short Introduction VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. The VSI Library now contains over 200 volumes—a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology—and will continue to grow to a library of around 300 titles. Very Short Introductions available now: AFRICAN HISTORY BUDDHISM Damien Keown John Parker and Richard Rathbone BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES CAPITALISM James Fulcher AND ELECTIONS L. Sandy Maisel CATHOLICISM Gerald O’Collins THE AMERICAN THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe PRESIDENCY Charles O. Jones CHAOS Leonard Smith ANARCHISM Colin Ward CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead ANCIENT WARFARE CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy Harry Sidebottom CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman Helen Morales THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair CLASSICS ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Mary Beard and John Henderson ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon Paul Foster COMMUNISM Leslie Holmes ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne CONTEMPORARY ART ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Julian Stallabrass ART HISTORY Dana Arnold CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland Simon Critchley ATHEISM Julian Baggini COSMOLOGY Peter Coles AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman AUTISM Uta Frith CRYPTOGRAPHY BARTHES Jonathan Culler Fred Piper and Sean Murphy BESTSELLERS John Sutherland DADA AND SURREALISM THE BIBLE John Riches David Hopkins BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY Eric H. Cline DARWIN Jonathan Howard BIOGRAPHY Hermione Lee THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS Timothy Lim THE BOOK OF MORMON DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick Terryl Givens DESCARTES Tom Sorell THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea DESERTS Nick Middleton BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright DESIGN John Heskett BUDDHA Michael Carrithers DINOSAURS David Norman DOCUMENTARY FILM HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson Patricia Aufderheide HEGEL Peter Singer DREAMING J. Allan Hobson HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood DRUGS Leslie Iversen HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson DRUIDS Barry Cunliffe HINDUISM Kim Knott THE EARTH Martin Redfern HISTORY John H. Arnold ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE HISTORY OF EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN THE HISTORY OF LIFE Paul Langford Michael Benton THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball THE HISTORY OF EMOTION Dylan Evans MEDICINE William Bynum EMPIRE Stephen Howe THE HISTORY OF TIME ENGELS Terrell Carver Leofranc Holford-Strevens EPIDEMIOLOGY Roldolfo Saracci HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside ETHICS Simon Blackburn HOBBES Richard Tuck THE EUROPEAN UNION HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood John Pinder and Simon Usherwood HUMAN RIGHTS Andrew Clapham EVOLUTION HUME A. J. Ayer Brian and Deborah Charlesworth IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton FASCISM Kevin Passmore INFORMATION Luciano Floridi FASHION Rebecca Arnold INNOVATION FEMINISM Margaret Walters Mark Dodgson and David Gann THE FIRST WORLD WAR INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary Michael Howard INTERNATIONAL FORENSIC SCIENCE Jim Fraser MIGRATION Khalid Koser FOSSILS Keith Thomson INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS FOUCAULT Gary Gutting Paul Wilkinson FREE SPEECH Nigel Warburton ISLAM Malise Ruthven FREE WILL Thomas Pink ISLAMIC HISTORY Adam Silverstein FRENCH LITERATURE John D. Lyons JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves THE FRENCH REVOLUTION JUDAISM Norman Solomon William Doyle JUNG Anthony Stevens FREUD Anthony Storr KABBALAH Joseph Dan FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven KAFKA Ritchie Robertson GALAXIES John Gribbin KANT Roger Scruton GALILEO Stillman Drake KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner GAME THEORY Ken Binmore THE KORAN Michael Cook GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh LAW Raymond Wacks GEOGRAPHY THE LAWS OF John Matthews and David Herbert THERMODYNAMICS Peter Atkins GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds LINCOLN Allen C. Guelzo GERMAN LITERATURE Nicholas Boyle LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews GERMAN PHILOSOPHY LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler Andrew Bowie LOCKE John Dunn GLOBAL CATASTROPHES Bill McGuire LOGIC Graham Priest GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger THE MARQUIS DE SADE John Phillips THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE MARX Peter Singer NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers THE MEANING OF LIFE POSTMODERNISM Christopher Butler Terry Eagleton POSTSTRUCTURALISM MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope Catherine Belsey MEDIEVAL BRITAIN PREHISTORY Chris Gosden John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffi ths PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY MEMORY Jonathan K. Foster Catherine Osborne MODERN ART David Cottington PRIVACY Raymond Wacks MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter PROGRESSIVISM Walter Nugent MODERN IRELAND Senia Pašeta PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns MODERN JAPAN PSYCHOLOGY Christopher Goto-Jones Gillian Butler and Freda McManus MOLECULES Philip Ball PURITANISM Francis J. Bremer MORMONISM THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion Richard Lyman Bushman QUANTUM THEORY MUSIC Nicholas Cook John Polkinghorne MYTH Robert A. Segal RACISM Ali Rattansi NATIONALISM Steven Grosby THE REAGAN REVOLUTION Gil Troy NELSON MANDELA Elleke Boehmer THE REFORMATION Peter Marshall NEOLIBERALISM RELATIVITY Russell Stannard Manfred Steger and Ravi Roy RELIGION IN AMERICA Timothy Beal THE NEW TESTAMENT THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton Luke Timothy Johnson RENAISSANCE ART THE NEW TESTAMENT AS Geraldine A. Johnson LITERATURE Kyle Keefer ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway NEWTON Robert Iliffe THE ROMAN EMPIRE NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Christopher Kelly NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler Christopher Harvie and RUSSELL A. C. Grayling H. C. G. Matthew RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly THE NORMAN CONQUEST THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION George Garnett S. A. Smith NORTHERN IRELAND SCHIZOPHRENIA Marc Mulholland Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone NOTHING Frank Close SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway NUCLEAR WEAPONS SCIENCE AND RELIGION Joseph M. Siracusa Thomas Dixon THE OLD TESTAMENT SCOTLAND Rab Houston Michael D. Coogan SEXUALITY Véronique Mottier PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer PAUL E. P. Sanders SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PHILOSOPHY OF LAW ANTHROPOLOGY Raymond Wacks John Monaghan and Peter Just PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE SOCIALISM Michael Newman Samir Okasha SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor PLATO Julia Annas THE SOVIET UNION Stephen Lovell POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY David Miller THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR POLITICS Kenneth Minogue Helen Graham POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young SPINOZA Roger Scruton STATISTICS David J. Hand THE UNITED NATIONS STUART BRITAIN John Morrill Jussi M. Hanhimäki SUPERCONDUCTIVITY THE VIKINGS Julian Richards Stephen Blundell WITCHCRAFT Malcolm Gaskill TERRORISM Charles Townshend WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling THEOLOGY David F. Ford WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman THOMAS AQUINAS Fergus Kerr THE WORLD TRADE TRAGEDY Adrian Poole ORGANIZATION THE TUDORS John Guy Amrita Narlikar TWENTIETH-CENTURY WRITING AND SCRIPT BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan Andrew Robinson Available soon: Film Music Kathryn Kalinak Advertising Winston Fletcher Forensic Psychology Modernism Christopher Butler David Canter Leadership Keith Grint For more information visit our website www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/ This page intentionally left blank Barry Cunliffe Druids A Very Short Introduction 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Barry Cunliffe 2010 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire ISBN 978–0–19–953940–6 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Contents Preface xi List of illustrations xiii 1 The Druids in time and space 1 2 The European theatre 16 3 The archaeology of religious practice at the time of the Druids 30 4 Enter the Druids: the fi rst contacts 50 5 Altars steeped in human blood 62 6 Twilight in the far west 85 7 Renaissance and rediscovery 100 8 Romanticism and the rise of nationalism 112 9 Neodruids and the neopagans 124 10 So, who were the Druids? 131 Further reading 137 Index 141

Description:

The Druids have been known and discussed for at least 2400 years, first by Greek writers and later by the Romans, who came in contact with them in Gaul and Britain. According to these sources, they were a learned caste who officiated in religious ceremonies, taught the ancient wisdoms, and were reve