simazhi's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. Rather than a history of the druids this is mostly a metahistory of how ideas of the concept of 'druid(ry)' evolved over time, with special emphasis on the last few centuries. Detailed and convincing as ever, with lots of possible points to further inspect and explore the sources used to build the historical narrative.
ciannait76's review against another edition
5.0
Ronald Hutton is presenting the outcome of his research into the subject of Druidry, which took place between 2000 and 2007. Unlike his previous book The Druids, this book is in depth, and its format is chronological, which gives the reader time to fully integrate and compare each time period to the one preceding it. It talks about the druids from the time they were first mentioned until the modern day. In the last statement of the introduction to the book, Ronald Hutton tells us what this book is really about from his point of view.
“In the last analysis, however, this book is about neither archeology nor Druidry, but about the British, and the way they have seen themselves, their island, their species and their world.” (Hutton, p. XV)
I think anyone reading this book will come to the conclusion that not everything is as it seems. People from the modern druid orders might not like what they read in this book because it shows just how much REAL evidence we have for ancient druid orders and how the “modern” druid orders came about. The origins of some of the orders will certainly surprise the members who are in them now. This is an illuminating book that is a must read for anyone who is interested in Druidry and druids. As for the goal of the book which is a look at the British and how they saw themselves and their island I think that Hutton has done an amazing job of fulfilling that goal. I don’t think I will look at the British, the druids or the druid orders in quite the same way ever again.
For a full review of the book please check out my website: Blood and Mistletoe
“In the last analysis, however, this book is about neither archeology nor Druidry, but about the British, and the way they have seen themselves, their island, their species and their world.” (Hutton, p. XV)
I think anyone reading this book will come to the conclusion that not everything is as it seems. People from the modern druid orders might not like what they read in this book because it shows just how much REAL evidence we have for ancient druid orders and how the “modern” druid orders came about. The origins of some of the orders will certainly surprise the members who are in them now. This is an illuminating book that is a must read for anyone who is interested in Druidry and druids. As for the goal of the book which is a look at the British and how they saw themselves and their island I think that Hutton has done an amazing job of fulfilling that goal. I don’t think I will look at the British, the druids or the druid orders in quite the same way ever again.
For a full review of the book please check out my website: Blood and Mistletoe
gotossmycausticsalad's review against another edition
If you want to learn everything about how the druids lived, their beliefs and their behaviours, this is perhaps not the book for you.
But neither is any book, as this one so neatly outlines. The first chapter is dedicated to all the things we know about the druids for sure, and even then it provides few definitive answers.
To summarise and paraphrase:
"Here is a historical artifact linked to the druids. Here are two completely opposing theories as to what it tells us about the druids. We have no way to prove either way.
"Here is a historic text relating the the druids. Here are two violently opposing theories. Either is as likely to be true as the other, why not flip a coin.
"The opinions of the leading scholars on the druids are as likely to be valid as each other and based pretty much arbitrarily on their individual biases and belief systems."
The rest of the book is no less interesting, exploring the way different cultures related to the druids - what they thought of them and what that might show us about their own societies. Unfortunately I was unable to finish the book through no fault of its own - I got covid in the middle of reading, couldn't concentrate enough to read non-fiction and had to return it to the library before I could pick it back up again.
But neither is any book, as this one so neatly outlines. The first chapter is dedicated to all the things we know about the druids for sure, and even then it provides few definitive answers.
To summarise and paraphrase:
"Here is a historical artifact linked to the druids. Here are two completely opposing theories as to what it tells us about the druids. We have no way to prove either way.
"Here is a historic text relating the the druids. Here are two violently opposing theories. Either is as likely to be true as the other, why not flip a coin.
"The opinions of the leading scholars on the druids are as likely to be valid as each other and based pretty much arbitrarily on their individual biases and belief systems."
The rest of the book is no less interesting, exploring the way different cultures related to the druids - what they thought of them and what that might show us about their own societies. Unfortunately I was unable to finish the book through no fault of its own - I got covid in the middle of reading, couldn't concentrate enough to read non-fiction and had to return it to the library before I could pick it back up again.
deepblueseams's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent in-depth look at the history of Britains relationship with the druids. Hutton is, as usual, thorough and clearly well researched. As a layperson, I find his treatment of the subject accessible without feeling like it had to sacrifice it's academic credentials in the process. Some of his prose is still a bit heavy reading - I have had to look up more than a few words! - but that may reflect the quality of my vocabulary as much as it does the complexity of his writing.
All in all, not a light read, but an excellent one for anyone interested in British cultural history.
All in all, not a light read, but an excellent one for anyone interested in British cultural history.
catherine_t's review against another edition
4.0
This book does what it says on the tin, as it were. It is indeed a history of the druids in Britain, but it may not be what you expect. It certainly wasn't what I expected, but that's not a bad thing.
This history of the druids begins in the 1500s, as the Renaissance begins to roll through Northern Europe. Translations of Greek and Roman works are available to the literate, and those in England especially start to read Julius Caesar's own account of his triumphs in Gaul (France) and Britannia, including his encounters with druids. This reading begins to influence writing, or at the very least imagination, and various nationalities (especially the Scots and the Welsh) make claims on druids as part of their identities. The influence of writers and identifiers waxes and wanes over the next 500 years, until we reach the current day and the "new-age" kind of druid.
Professor Hutton digs deep into the history of the re-creation of druids and druidry, bringing to the forefront such figures as Edward Williams, aka Iolo Morganwg, a Welshman with much poetry in his soul and an argumentative nature who managed to have educated folk believe that his forgeries were actual mediaeval Welsh triads. He follows the fortunes of the "friendly societies" formed in the Georgian era for the support and succor of families now drawn into the "dark Satanic mills" of the Industrial Revolution and drawing upon the term "Druid." He looks at how Iolo Morganwg's work led to the revival of the eisteddfod and bardic traditions in Wales.
Really, it's quite a fascinating book. I'd expected something more along the lines of Beresford's The Druids, which is basically an imaginative reconstruction of the title subject. What I got instead was this deeply researched and well-recounted book.
This history of the druids begins in the 1500s, as the Renaissance begins to roll through Northern Europe. Translations of Greek and Roman works are available to the literate, and those in England especially start to read Julius Caesar's own account of his triumphs in Gaul (France) and Britannia, including his encounters with druids. This reading begins to influence writing, or at the very least imagination, and various nationalities (especially the Scots and the Welsh) make claims on druids as part of their identities. The influence of writers and identifiers waxes and wanes over the next 500 years, until we reach the current day and the "new-age" kind of druid.
Professor Hutton digs deep into the history of the re-creation of druids and druidry, bringing to the forefront such figures as Edward Williams, aka Iolo Morganwg, a Welshman with much poetry in his soul and an argumentative nature who managed to have educated folk believe that his forgeries were actual mediaeval Welsh triads. He follows the fortunes of the "friendly societies" formed in the Georgian era for the support and succor of families now drawn into the "dark Satanic mills" of the Industrial Revolution and drawing upon the term "Druid." He looks at how Iolo Morganwg's work led to the revival of the eisteddfod and bardic traditions in Wales.
Really, it's quite a fascinating book. I'd expected something more along the lines of Beresford's The Druids, which is basically an imaginative reconstruction of the title subject. What I got instead was this deeply researched and well-recounted book.
julis's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.0
I’ve owned this book for a couple years now and put off reading it because I thought it was going to be one of those neopagan nonsense texts about how there was a community of Druids that weren’t converted to Christianity etc.
It was not.
It was an impeccably researched, heavy on the critical analysis look at a) every source we have on the Druids (1 chapter, limited) and b) everything (in English) we’ve made up about the Druids to make up for a (many chapters, 95% of the book). Some parts dragged, and I felt like it went too in depth in some of the short lived 1700s groups and didn’t put nearly enough focus on modern groups, but a surprisingly fascinating read overall.
It was not.
It was an impeccably researched, heavy on the critical analysis look at a) every source we have on the Druids (1 chapter, limited) and b) everything (in English) we’ve made up about the Druids to make up for a (many chapters, 95% of the book). Some parts dragged, and I felt like it went too in depth in some of the short lived 1700s groups and didn’t put nearly enough focus on modern groups, but a surprisingly fascinating read overall.
graculus's review against another edition
4.0
This is one of those books which I'm glad I persevered with, considering that it's quite literally a solid piece of work (very small type too, which doesn't help) but it doesn't quite do what it says on the cover. It's not so much a history of the druids as a history of what people thought and wrote about the druids and why/how that changed over time.
Considering that the first chapter is all about how little we actually know and can prove about the druids in the first place, I suppose there wasn't really much else for the author to do, either in this book or in his previous one. Perhaps that one ([b:The Druids: A History|3092261|The Druids A History|Ronald Hutton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347673081s/3092261.jpg|3123368]) was the one I should have read instead, though this one certainly introduced me to a wide variety of folks with varying degrees of scruples about making up history out of whole cloth if it didn't exist previously or didn't quite say what they wanted to hear.
Considering that the first chapter is all about how little we actually know and can prove about the druids in the first place, I suppose there wasn't really much else for the author to do, either in this book or in his previous one. Perhaps that one ([b:The Druids: A History|3092261|The Druids A History|Ronald Hutton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347673081s/3092261.jpg|3123368]) was the one I should have read instead, though this one certainly introduced me to a wide variety of folks with varying degrees of scruples about making up history out of whole cloth if it didn't exist previously or didn't quite say what they wanted to hear.
fianaigecht's review against another edition
WOW this feels like it has taken me a long time to read. It's a big book. In theory, I didn't have to read all of it -- only the first chapter or so was actually relevant to my dissertation and the question I hoped it would answer for me. But I decided to read the whole thing anyway, and although there were some interesting facts about druids and so on, I think the most useful thing I learned was how ideology, politics and religion shape historiography, and the cultural context for a lot of discussions about the ancient and medieval world. For example, it hadn't occurred t ome that feelings about the clergy would affect one's view of druids, or how Protestant historians might view them differently to Catholics. I found it really interesting to read about these conflicting theories and arguments, and to see how other beliefs influenced them.
While most of this book is fairly heavy-going and academic, there are quite a few moments of sly humour that amused me a lot. (Then again, I have a pretty niche sense of humour which probably doesn't chime with most people's.) I think my favourite fact that I learned was about medieval Irish bibles sometimes referring to the 'wise men' who visited the baby Jesus as 'druids' -- it creates quite a different view of the Nativity.
While most of this book is fairly heavy-going and academic, there are quite a few moments of sly humour that amused me a lot. (Then again, I have a pretty niche sense of humour which probably doesn't chime with most people's.) I think my favourite fact that I learned was about medieval Irish bibles sometimes referring to the 'wise men' who visited the baby Jesus as 'druids' -- it creates quite a different view of the Nativity.
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