The Druids

Stuart Piggott

Published by Penguin, softcover, illustrated


This modern study of the Druids has a double attraction. Not only does Professor Piggott detail the little that can be said with any certainty about this shadowy Celtic priesthood; he also traces, through remarkably exact stages, the evolution of a legend.

Posidonius and Julius Caesar and other classical writers (not always objective) combine with ancient Irish texts to supply the scanty written evidence: to this Stuart Piggott adds his great knowledge of recent archaeological discoveries about Celtic society before the impact of the Romans.

So much for the facts ... and they are few. The author then turns his spade to literary archaeology and exposes the eighteenthcentury foundations of our cherished myths of bloody sacrifices and flowing robes and bearded sages wending their way to Stonehenge at the summer solstice.

Aubrey's modest hints, Stukely's wilder theories, and Blake's prophetic maunderings burgeon into the plain forgeries of lolo Morganwg in a fantastic flowering of dotty Britishism with a Welsh accent.