The Druids

Rating:
Summary: Sinking Romantic Boats
Review: Above and beyond the obvious short-comings of the human ego as well as humanitie's collective will to amnesia especially in terms of the actual histories of the conquered, Mr Ellis's book while, well researched and superbly written takes the initiate student of Celtic studies to the next level with his work "The Druids". While roughly outlining the history and many cultural contributions of the Celts, Ellis dives into the matter of the caste or intelligentsia of the above group with an objectivity I, as of yet have not come across in most of that which passes itself off as scholarly and autoritative historical research in this area. In this work, Ellis cleaves this group from the theatrical-gothic misrespresentations that have colored popular opinion concerning them and has rightfully repaired and restored to them a more realistic and humane image. What many seem to either have forgotten or, more aptly (and ignorantly) choose to disregard is the fact that the Celts were the first wave of Indo-Europeans to enter into Western Europe and as such were to also be the first to incorporate the various customs of those they replaced and/or supplanted. Now there is still an enormous amount that is not known concerning those who came from the steppes during the great migrations from that mystcal homeland of the I.E. peoples though much more has miraculously survived as they came to be organized in what we now call Civilization. Ellis rightfully points to the caste and it's system functions throughout the Celtic areas of influence (read:not-empire) and faithfully alludes to the society in which they operated while taking into consideration the reports of such classical experts as Posidenus, Strabo, Ceasar(et.al.) as well as their obvious negative biases towards these people and their society which by virtue of its structure and philosophy left that of the experts above choking in the dust. What one needs to remember when dealing with the Celts is that while they were agrarian, with a defined caste structure (roughly equivalent to that of post-Aryan India) the culture was interestingly enough, devoid of such stifling aspects as primogeniture as well as the extremely poor position of women, children, the aged, property rights and community welfare which have been downplayed or ignored or commodified with the likes civilization founded on Greek and Roman models and their descendents. And as such, Ellis heroically takes the rather skewed and dehumanized view that has been proffered and correctly gives weight to the actual functions of the subcastes (of druids) and incorporates them into the greater societal umwelt smashing the myths that have have been put down in order to keep the descendents of these people in the same place, Ellis writes an enlightening and autoritative book that will make the soul of any Celtophile light. He eschews the path that others have taken especially in the New-Age community by weilding facts against the nebulous darkness of ignorance and to a degree, intolerance that surrounds any group that has a bona-fide original opinion of life or the universe not in line with a Civilized or Mono-lithic control scheme or its hokey, Spun-down or denatured pseudo-equivalents. This book does justice to these people and in particular the Druids by destroying the blood thirsty image with finely researched, bias-corrected descriptions of a caste who, in a modern modern sense would have serve the same functions today as doctors,lawyers,astronomers, psychologists,poets, musicians and philosophers. Incidentally my opinion is that their standards probably could not be eclipsed even now. To get an idea of the mindset that can perpetuate the poor image these people have recieved we only have to look back to Columbus' early reports on the Arawak people, what happened next is already history. Also keep in mind, that on the opening day of the Colliseum, upwards of 15,000 people and about 5,000 animals were slaughtered in front of a packed house of 80,000. Yes, and this was just opening day in the Civilized city of Rome. As any student of life, history or polit-science knows we tend to dehumanize our enemies in order to justify any or all methods necessary to separate them from their identity as well other material items. This is done by the extirpation of their culture as well as those responsible for maintaining it. This book is a must have for anyone interested in the Celts, their intelligentsia as well as the insight Mr. Beresford gives the reader as to the mindset of a much freer as well as maligned culture that now unfortunately exists only in the hearts and sad smiles of the hidden. If nothing else, throw an eye at this book, it will lighten the hearts of those who contemplate "the truth angainst the world" and if nothing else gives all of us, as students of life a peek into a world that now is on the ropes of existence. Read, enjoy and understand.

Rating:
Summary: Continuing our dialogue with the past
Review: Celtic spirituality seems to be a buzz word among Christians and pagans alike, and efforts to define it abound. I recommend this book to readers who are more willing to be challenged rather than soothed by things Celtic. P.B. Ellis states his mission as "an introductory argument about the reality and the legend of the Druids" (p 21). He succeeds quite well in this mission, distilling what can be known from primary sources with very thorough research. Ellis also asks the questions that we would dearly like to ask of these mysterious people, who unfortunately seem to have had a prohibition against committing their scholarship to writing, leaving historians to piece together their philosophy and practices from the works of other observers. Ellis does an exceptional job of revealing the probable biases of these secondary sources, although his style of argument becomes somewhat convoluted at times.

Ellis pulls no punches in criticizing the scholarly positions of other writers on the subject -- an approach which can seem abrasive or refreshing, depending on one's taste. His obvious disdain for the New Age, soft-focus and romaniticized view of Druids may seem harsh as well. But his genuine love for and fascination with Celtic peoples perhaps justifies the contempt he displays for those who call themselves "New Age Celts...preaching harmony with nature, who have stared in incomprehension when it has been pointed out to them that the Celtic civilization itself is struggling in a last ditch attempt to survive" (p 280). Ellis concludes his work by pointing out the "uncomfortable reality for those who would conjure Druids and ancient Celts to their new concepts of 'spiritual enlightenment'" while ignoring the fact that Celtic languages and cultures are in decline in our increasingly homogenized modern world.

Rating:
Summary: food for thought
Review: Ellis's writing style can be a bit frustrating for the pagan reader, but as a student of history I found this book most enjoyable. The author's theories about the similarities between Celtic and Indian culture are, if nothing else, intriguing. I feel that the material was presented in the manner intended: as a sampling of the evidence that will hopefully inspire others to do the research for themselves. As a Celtic reconstructionist pagan, I personally share his views on "new agers" claiming to follow a Celtic path. A triumphant book that delivers us from the New Age dregs of revisionist religion to at least a plausible level of ancient custom.

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly and detailed book
Review: I thought other readers might be interested in this tidbit. I was referred to this book by Subhash Kak, a historian (one of the authors of "In Search of the Cradle of Civilzation"), who works in ancient Indian history. Briefly, there is some cause to believe that the Druids are the same as a clan of Indo-Europeans who lived in the Indus plains before 2500 BC, and referred to in the Rg Veda as the "Druhyus." This connection is a result of revised Indian chronology along with the new revisionist theory which claims that there was no Aryan invasion of India, and that there has been cultural continuity in northern India back to 8000 BC. For details you can also look at Shrikant Talageri's book "The Myth of the Aryan Invasion" which covers the evidence for the Druhyu-Druid connection. I personally have been unable to decide how strong the new theories are, though they are at least as strong as the rival theories.

Rating:
Summary: A brief statement about Peter Ellis's THE DRUIDS
Review: I have this book in my personal collection, and upon having read it for four or more times, I can say that it is the most well though out and researched book on the subject of the Celtic Druids. As an author and researcher, Mr. Ellis is a very objective writer. I have detected no pretense, bias, or any other thing that might have detracted from this piece. While there may be certain defects as to the writing, &c. I do not feel qualified to make any statements as to what those defects are, and such should be left for professional critiques to determine. However, I view Mr. Ellis as a fore-most person in this area of research, and anthropologically speaking, find him to be very well spoken through his writing. This book is recommended must see for any one partaking in the challenge of anthropologically researching and studying the ancient Celtic Druids. It is a five star book.

Rating:
Summary: Misses both the general reader and the historian
Review: Peter Berresford Ellis is a popular historian, not an academic historian. The primary difference between popular and academic historians is that they write for different audiences. Ellis' work has been criticized for lacking the kind of detailed references that a peer-reviewed book or article would include. The reader must guess where the citations and allusions may be researched and accept the citations and translations as accurate.

Hence, you're not likely to find many historians recommending an Ellis book to their students. But students who have read Ellis will have a very clear idea of what materials to look for. And he does a very good job of challenging long-standing interpretations which have always been flimsy or weak at best. Unfortunately for him, the science of historical analysis requires accountability and Ellis refuses to be accountable. He takes his case to the popular audience and hopes to influence the broader imagination.

That's all well and good, but some of his research has been challenged and Ellis has had to make at least one major retraction in his career. He is a Celto-centric writer and people of Celtic heritage should be glad to know there is still a dedicated flag-waver around. But in the end, no matter how well he writes, no matter how thorough his research, Ellis must be regarded only as a popular historian. In that respect, he is one of the finest popular historians I've had the pleasure to read.

Rating:
Summary: The Druids
Review: Tim Warren's review echoes my reaction. This an overly assertive and very speculative book. The bias toward Celtic civilization and culture becomes quite grating after a short time, even for a reader who is in sympathy with it, and this along with Mr. Ellis's sometimes questionable leaps of reasoning serves to undermine the reader's confidence. The book is well- researched and not without merit but seems to come a little short in the authority department.

Rating:
Summary: Enigmatic
Review: Who were the Druids? This group, surrounded by legend and folklore for millenia, continues to fascinate moderns, perhaps because of the enigmatic character of their identity. Probably most of the popular images of Druids -- of being tree worshippers, of being itinerant poets and prophets, of being priests who practiced human sacrifice and built strange structures such as Stonehenge -- are generally misperceptions, perhaps even deliberate 'character assassination' attempts by the victorious political and religious authorities that moved into Druid areas. Indeed, the bulk of Classical information on the Druids comes from anti-Druid writings of the Romans.

'By the time the Celts themselves came to commit their knowledge to writing, they had become Christianised and, not surprisingly, the Druids continued to get "a bad Press". Their portrayal remains an extremely biased one.'

In this very readable book on The Druids, Peter Berresford Ellis presents an examination of the archaeological, etymological and historical evidence to give an account of the identity and importance of the Druids in early Celtic societies.

'The Druids emerge as the intellectual caste of ancient Celtic society. They were the doctors, the lawyers, the ambassadors, the advisors to kings. They also had a religious function.'

One historical fact that is often overlooked is that the early Celtic 'empire' was as expansive as the Roman Empire, stretching from Britain and Ireland in the northwest, through Gaul and central Europe north of the Alps, stretching as far as Turkey to the east, and also extending down into Iberia. The Celtic language group includes influences on all major European languages as well. However, the Celtic empire had no imperium, no central structure or organisation, but was rather a loose confederation, in which the Druids, as the intellectuals, helped to keep a cohesion of social life if not political and economic life.

The Druids operated largely without writing, following the tradition of many early peoples by using an oral tradition of learning and history. Thus the earliest appearances of the Druids come from Greek and Roman writings. The Druids were seen as a philosophising, priestly caste, also somewhat of a civil authority. Indeed, both Julius Caesar and Cicero mention the Druids in their writings, and one Druid ambassador even addressed the Roman Senate in search of an alliance against the barbarian Germanic tribes (Caesar, however, with intent to conquer Gaul, persuaded the Senate to support the Germans so as to facilitate the conquest of Gaul -- of course, shortly thereafter the Germans became the enemies of Rome, and would remain so for the most part for the rest of Roman history).

Ellis examines the Druids from many vantage points, looking at the writings about the Druids by both insiders (Celts) and outsiders. Ellis also examines the religion, rituals, and wisdom of the Druids, which includes subchapters on schools, books, philosophy, law, history, poetry, music, medical knowledge, art, astronomy and astrology, and mysticism.

Ellis argues in his final chapter that the Druids never truly disappeared. As a social class, rather than as a narrowly-defined group of wizards and priests, the Druids as an intelligensia remained under a new classification, but this social strata was slowly destroyed by the nations who conquered the Celts and made strides to assimilate or eliminate the Celtic peoples. Ellis traces the literary/historical chain of events that led to the identification of the Druids as a small subset of this intelligensia, mostly those dealing with religion and the arts, most commonly associated with secret rites or witchcraft, which is present in today's thinking about the Druids.

'Celtic and Druidic "truth" of every description -- from "arcane knowledge", "karmic destiny", "the true path", to "mystic awareness" -- are solicited in the commercial deluge of New Age philosophies. The Druids and the Celts were there when our seventeenth and eighteenth century ancestors sought "Romanticism" as a counter-balance to the "Age of Reason" and industrialisation. It is not surprising that they are still being reinvented at this time because, in our sad and sorry contemporary world, people still want a quick fix on spirituality.'

This is a fascinating and highly readable text on the history of the Druids, and the history of the way the Druids have been portrayed (and misrepresented).