Ethnic Study

A Brief History of the Druids

Peter Berresford Ellis

In this book the reader will find a wealth of information spanning many aspects of the Druid phenomenon.  From insights on the purpose and function of rituals to the place that Druids held in Celtic society, from how they were trained to the roles that Druids adopted.  A tale of where they are believed to have begun, to a launching point for modern Druids to carry on.  The author takes great care to call upon ancient writings and modern criticisms to balance the information being presented.  Within its chapters the reader will find a rounded view of the world the Druids belonged to, and how they affected it, be that through ritual, education, philosophy, law or the many other roles filled by Druids.  This book represents the ground floor view into the subject.

In my opinion this book is significant for a number of reasons.  First it represents a bold step in understanding a lost mysterious society of people.  The Druids were a huge part of many societies not just the Celts, but much of their story has been lost to time or clouded in the fancy of fictional writers.  This book is important as it attempts to draw on the ancient writings that are left, paired off against modern scholarly review, and a healthy dab of scepticism to offer the searcher or researcher the rudiments of a path.  

Throughout the book the author includes a great many dates, and names both of place and people to allow the reader to further expand his knowledge base.  He gives details in the hopes that you will look further behind the storyline and carry on your own research.  This is the key point I believe the ADF had in mind when selecting this book.  To give the DP student at the very least a broad understanding of the Druid people, but to have enough to allow them to further that knowledge by supplying them with facts and figures to draw out. 

I admit this book was a hard read for me but it did fill in several of the holes I held concerning the Druids, allowed me to better understand where much of our collective understanding of the information we have comes from, and provided me the resources to look deeper.  More importantly it helped to solidify or dismiss the things I have come to know, and adjust.  As well it seemed to carry through it one very solid piece of advice to the people reading the book… Question everything.  The author often mentions that much of what he is presenting cannot be held as absolute, and we must take even his writings as suspect.  I felt grateful for an author that wasn’t selling snake oil truths, but just presenting information for us the readers to make our own decisions on.

Would I recommend this book?  Yes, for all the reasons I have presented above… but grudgingly.  While this author presented a very useful volume of information, I found the writing style cumbersome for the novice looking to understand the Druids.  It seems to me that in his furor to present historical data through the use of key names and dates, the author has gone continually overboard.  Many times I found it difficult to stay with the point the author was making because of the inclusion of reference after reference within almost every sentence.  It became overwhelming to distraction.  For any student reading this book I highly would recommend having your computer or a writing pad nearby to research the references you will be introduced to.  The read to me was difficult, but overall I would say what I got out of the book made it worthwhile.  I would count it as a very useful reference tool.