Druid

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Druid is the feminine form of the word druid and designates a Celtic priestess , seer or sorceress as a cult officer of the Celtic religion . The word is probably derived from the Celtic * dru-ṷid-es ("Eichenkundige [r]"?). Both the ancient Greek and Roman authors and later works on the history of religion describe the status and function of the Druidesses. They also occupy a firm place in neo-paganism and in modern fantasy literature.

Druid (oil painting by Alexandre Cabanel , 19th century)

Druids among the Celts of antiquity

Already in antiquity, druidesses are described, who in the Roman imperial period - apparently erroneously under the name dryadae , which is actually a name for tree nymphs - were called primarily as seers. In the late antique Scriptores historiae Augustae these druids (also written druidas ) are also used as a general name for Gaulish fortune tellers. Prophecies of such druidesses for the Roman emperors Alexander Severus (222–235), Aurelian (270–275) and Diocletian (284–305) are reported by six authors in this compilation. Alexander Severus had been warned of defeat by a seer in the Gallic language, Diocletian and Aurelian had received prophecies from druidesses about their future imperial dignity and its duration. From history also a prophetess named is Veleda known by 70 n. Chr. At the time of Vespasian , although among the Germanic Brukterern worked with names but the Celtic banfili be derived ( Old-Celtic * Ueli-s to Fili , welsh gweled see " ", Latin vultus ," face "). Some Celtologists therefore see her as a druid.

On the sieve cover of the crater (cauldron) in the princely grave of Vix (near Châtillon-sur-Seine , Burgundy ) is a bronze sculpture of a (presumed) druid.

Janis Rozentals: Nāve - "Death" (1897)

In Ireland the female druids were referred to as bandrúid ("female druids") and the female seers as banfáith or banfilid ("female seers / poets"). Despite their being mentioned in the traditions less frequently than the male druids and filid , their existence can be inferred from the traditional (handed down) texts. One example is the magical druid Tlachtga , daughter of the druid Mog Ruith , after whom a hill in County Meath is named.

Ingeborg Clarus describes in her book “Celtic Myths. Man and his other world “ the female cult functionaries of the Celts from the point of view of the tension between matriarchy and patriarchy . Although the druid or seer is not explicitly mentioned in her chapter on the cult personnel, she describes Fedelm in her controversy with the Connacht Queen Medb as a seer, dressed in a red hooded dress with a golden rod in her hand, as a sign of her power over it Fate. Her prophecy, repeated three times, that the Connacht warriors would fall in the fight against the Ulter Cú Chulainn - "I see the warriors all in red, in scarlet!" - finds, like the Trojan Cassandra , no hearing from the queen.

Ancient authors

Strabo

A message going back to Poseidonios , which Strabo passed on in his "Geographie" ( Γεωγραφικά, Geôgraphiká , IV, 4, 6) reads:

Not far from the country, opposite the Ligara ( Loire ) estuary, is a small island. It is inhabited by the women of the Samnites [sic!], Who are possessed by Dionysus . They incline this god through initiation ceremonies and other cult acts. No man enters this island; but the women sail to the mainland, connect with men there, and then return. Once a year it is customary to remove the roof of the temple and to re-cover it on the same day before sunset. For this purpose, every woman has to bring a load of building materials. But the woman who drops the burden is torn to pieces by the others, and they carry the body parts around the temple shouting "Evah!" And only stop when their madness subsides. And it is common for one of the women to push the one chosen to endure death [apparently to trip her, dropping the building material from her hand so that she can be sacrificed].

This annual construction sacrifice described here could be explained by the literary cliché that was widespread among ancient authors about the archaic character of the barbarians and their harsh customs.

Pomponius Mela

Pomponius Mela (middle of the 1st century AD) reports in his work De situ orbis ("On the State of the World") of a Celtic female cult association. The island of Sena ( Île de Sein in front of Pointe du Raz , Département Finistère ) was an oracle, the priesthood of which was provided by nine women, holy by “eternal virginity”, “whom the Gauls called senas ” ( … Galli zenas vocant ) - another translation variation : “… which they called Gallizenas ”( … Gallizenas vocant ). Allegedly, these virgins could influence the sea and winds with their magic songs, transform themselves into any animal, foresee the future and heal every ailment. The cult name sena of these Gallic Vestals could be derived from air. sen , kymr. , bret. hen derive, all with the meaning "old" (compare Latin senex "old man"), with which the meaning "the old" would be possible. The island name is likely to be derived from the residents.

Tacitus

In his report (ann.XIV, 30) about the conquest of the island of Mona ( Anglesey ) by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus in AD 61, Tacitus describes a scene during the landing of the Roman troops :

On the bank stood the opposing army in a dense mass of armed men, between whom women, dressed like furies in shrouds, with disheveled hair, waving torches, ran around [...]

It cannot be said with certainty whether these women, before whom the Roman army initially felt horror and inability to move ( ... quasi haerentibus membris immobile corpus ... ), were druids, although they cheered on the warriors of Mona together with male druids.

Treatises from the 19th century

At Franz Xaver Schönwerth is 1857 to read:

I have indicated above that the Drud also means a higher being, a Walkyre , and finally Freya . Another question would be whether and to what extent the Celtic druid participates in this name? I would like to strictly separate both of them, and claim the entire office of the witch for the druid; this would explain the equality of Drud with the druid and witch in the west. There the druid stones, druid trees, druid water occur, in the east not. The druid is generally a priestess, while Drud is a priestess of a certain deity, probably Freya.

The Celtic druids are also described in the works of Mayer, “Treatise on a burial mound of an old German druid discovered in the principality of Eichstädt” (1825) and Barth : “About the Druids of the Celts…” 1826. Mayer, pastor of Eichstädt , refers to the site as a druid grave because, despite the rich grave goods, all artefacts from warfare were missing. The term "old German" refers to the place of discovery, not to a presumed Germanic ethnicity.

Modern reception in novels, drama and opera

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) provided with a section of his novel Les martyrs ou le Triomphe de la religion chrétienne (1804) a template for the librettist Felice Romani , who wrote the text for the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini . At Chateaubriand, the Roman commander-in-chief of the Aremorica loves the Celtic druid Velléda (the Brukterer Veleda, above), who kills herself because of her hopeless love. The tragedy Norma by Alexandre Soumet , which deals with this topic , was the basis for Romani and Bellini. In these works, the old Saxon sanctuary of Irminsul becomes a Celtic goddess and Norma her priestess ( La sacerdotessa d'Irminsul was the title of another libretto by Romani).

In his drama La Druidesse , Édouard Schuré (1841–1929) describes the mystical aspect of the Celtic soul using the example of a Celtic druid ( […] ses mouvements incalculables, ses soubresauts les plus terribles comme ses plus sublimes inspirations. - “[…] their unpredictable Movements, their terrible convulsions as well as their sublime inspirations. ”).

In the humorous novel Auch einer (1878) by Friedrich Theodor Vischer , in the chapter The Visit , which takes place in a stake village in Helvetia, druids are named, who here are called Gwyllion ("Gwyonkind", "Gwyonchen"), after the youth name Gwion Bach des Wearing poet's taliesin . With this the author wants to express that the druids are not quite as wise as the great Taliesin.

Druids in Neopaganism

Modern druids in front of Stonehenge

The druids are an important factor in the modern Druidism of Celtic Neo-Paganism (neo-paganism) as carriers of the ceremonial and the mantic . Also in the order of the bards, ovates and druids and in the feminist Wicca cult , the "religion of witches", they make up a considerable number of the cult personnel, in the latter cult they are called Wicca . Almost all of them are based on the calendar of the Celtic annual cycle and the myths of the Celtic tree circle , both neo-pagan constructions without a historical Celtic-mythical background.

Gerald Brousseau Gardner , one of the founders of the Wicca movement, allegedly found the passage quoted above at Pomponius Mela in Caesar's De bello Gallico (where it does not actually appear!) And embellished it:

There was also a class of diviners called Druidesses and mentioned by Caesar in his "De bello Gallico", who were looked on as even more ancient than the Druids; they were shape-changers and seem to have had all the characteristics of witches. They made rain by sprinkling water over or beside nude virgins [...]
There was also a class of fortune tellers, called druids, mentioned by Caesar in his "Gallic War", who are considered to be older than the druids; they were shapeshifters and seemed to have all the qualities of witches. They made rain by sprinkling water over or next to naked virgins [...]

Apart from the dominant aspect of Celtic mythology , the ideas of modern druid women also include Germanic mythology , shamanism (see also Neo-shamanism ) and to some extent Indian mythology (see also White Buffalo Woman ).

Fantasy characters

Some beings from the fantasy novels by JRR Tolkien , Marion Zimmer Bradley , Joanne K. Rowling and other authors are modeled on the Celtic druids, seers and healers.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b S. Sievers, OH Urban, PC Ramsl: Lexicon for Celtic Archeology. 2012, p. 451 f.
  2. ↑ a b Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. 1997, p. 896 f.
  3. ↑ Hans Peter Schneider: About the "Historia Augusta" . GRIN-Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-638-84282-7 . (books.google.at)
  4. ↑ Julio Caro Baroja: The witches and their world. Verlag Ernst Klett, 1967; in the biographies cited: Historiae Augustae (ascribed to Aelius Lampridus or Flavius ​​Vopiscus).
  5. ↑ Bernhard Maier: The religion of the Celts. Gods, myths, worldview. P. 158 f.
  6. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. 1997, p. 907 f.
  7. ^ Karl Eckermann: Textbook of the history of religion and mythology of the most excellent peoples of antiquity. CA Schwetschke and Son, 1848, p. 104. (books.google.at)
  8. ↑ a b Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 487 f.
  9. ↑ Johannes Hoops: Reallexikon der Germanic antiquity. Volume 32, Walter de Gruyter, 2006, p. 111. (books.google.at)
  10. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. 1997, p. 811.
  11. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. P. 141.
  12. ↑ "Evoë" (ευοι) is a cheer of the Bacchantes at the Bacchus celebrations .
  13. ↑ a b Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. 1997, p. 920 f.
  14. ^ Christian Karl Barth: Teutschlands Urgeschichte. Volume 5, Palm and Enke, 1846, § 117, p. 319. (books.google.at)
  15. ↑ Cornelius Tacitus: Annales.  XIV, 30: Stabat pro litore diversa acies, densa armis virisque intercursantibus feminis; in modum furiarum veste ferali, crinibus deiectis faces praeferebant, [...]
  16. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. 1997, p. 659 f.
  17. ^ Bernhard Maier: Lexicon of the Celtic religion and culture. P. 236.
  18. ↑ see also Drude , Trud (Mythologie), Thrud
  19. ^ Franz Xaver von Schönwerth: From the Upper Palatinate: Sitten und Sagen, Volume 1. § 11: The Drud , Chapter V: Interpretation of the Drud , Matth. Rieger'sche Buchhandlung, Augsburg 1857, p. 232.
  20. ^ Franz Anton Mayer: Treatise on a burial mound of an old German druid discovered in the principality of Eichstädt. JM Beyer, 1825, p. 69. (books.google.at)
  21. ↑ Christian Karl Barth: About the Druids of the Celts ... VII. Section: From the Druidinnen. JJ Valm and Ernst Ente, 1826, p. 112.
  22. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 788. f.
  23. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 474 f.
  24. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 497, footnote 1.
  25. ↑ Friedrich Theodor Vischer: Also one: A travel acquaintance. tredition, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8424-2143-1 . (books.google.at)
  26. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 767. f.