Ireland and the Druids

[Music] in the early 5th century the first known christian missionaries set foot on the shores of ireland their arrival came alongside a period of disruption in the politics of western europe in neighboring britain the power of the roman empire which had ruled most of what is now wales in england for over 300 years it collapsed just two decades earlier and in wider europe what little was known of the place referred to as hibernia came from accounts already centuries old even in these writings its people were little known to the classical authors of greece and rome most were content to describe them as cannibals and barbarians dwelling on what they presumed to be the frozen edges of the habitable world but this island was a far cry from that's known to its neighbors and that the earliest christian missionaries would have encountered according to later accounts dating from the medieval period then the society they entered was one that resembled those of ancient gaul and britain and it was separated into a patchwork of tribes ruled over by pagan kings if we believe these texts then these rulers dwelled in grand palaces and halls frequented by poets and bards and took to the field in chariots resembling those of the heroes of the trojan war for centuries christian missionaries would struggle to convert these rulers and in doing so early church documents claim they faced many trials and opponents chief among these were the custodians of ritual life amongst the pagan irish it was this group we are told that it survived the disappearance of their brethren elsewhere in northwestern europe and continue to hold a prestigious role in irish society as prophets judges and teachers to the sons of kings across a vast body of surviving literature these figures are presented as the wielders of powerful magics and as worshipers of a unique pantheon of gods and goddesses who granted sovereignty to mortal kings despite the efforts of the church this group would persist in ireland long after the arrival of its earliest missionaries only gradually giving way to the spread of this new faith eventually however they too would lose their prestigious role being relegated to the fringes of society and soon after the last vestiges of the druids would be gone in a previous video on this channel we explored the religious practices the people of both goal and britain throughout the late iron age and the early roman period we examined their appearances in the literary accounts of the ancient greeks and romans beginning with the greek colonists of the sixth and fifth centuries bc from these brief references we saw the earliest descriptions of the druids emerge as a class of holy men and philosophers who held great wisdom and who were compared to such distinguished groups as the magi of the persians and the brahmins of ancient india from here we examine the accounts of greek and roman authors during the latter's expansion into northwestern europe in the second and the first centuries bc in the accounts of figures such as julius caesar strabo and theodorus seculas we saw a more developed picture of the druids as a special class within gaulish society aloof from warfare revered as religious leaders judges and the conductors of ritual sacrifices according to these authors they served a single leader and instructed their students in the immortality of the soul at the same time however we saw claims of more sinister practices emerge including accusations of human sacrifices that these figures conducted to appease the gods finally we examine the last scattered mentions of druids in british and gaulish society in the third and fourth centuries a.d by which point their role seems to have faded to irrelevance along the way we compared the details of these accounts to the archaeology of iron age religious centres throughout modern france england and wales dating from the earliest known megalithic structures through to sites active at the dawn of roman interest in these regions at french centers such as rock bertus ontremon and gornay sironde we see evidence for ritual construction and practices including the processing and display of human remains in england and wales we similarly saw complex ritual practices at sites such as heath rowe fish and way and healing island along with buildings that may have held ceremonial functions set within the hill forts of the south west and scattered evidence of items that may have once held ritual significance ultimately however we were forced to conclude that there is no direct archaeological evidence for a group resembling that of the druids described in greek and roman accounts and indeed there is substantial doubt regarding the trustworthiness of many of these authors writings but in doing so we left and examined a crucial strand of information on the pre-christian religious practices of northwestern europe but whilst we see the druids slowly vanish from the accounts of later roman authors there is another place where we see widespread accounts of the druids that continue to be written long after rome's power in western europe had collapsed [Music] in accounts committed to writing throughout the medieval period we are told that across the irish sea the druid remained a powerful group long after the demise of their brethren in britain and coal here they would act as the advisors and magicians of the pagan kings of ireland maintaining their status until the slow arrival of christianity beginning in the early 5th century by the time the first irish writing was composed in the early medieval period their claimed role as courtly advisors had long since lapsed and it appears they were relegated to a minor nuisance within christian society eventually they would vanish altogether and soon the druids were to be found only in written accounts where they would remain for centuries examining this claimed history of the druids in ireland presents us with a very different challenge than those of either britain or goal in both places we were faced with a paucity of accounts none of them by the area's native inhabitants and many of which contradict each other as the druids beliefs and practices in ireland however situation is reversed here descriptions of the druids or three are widespread throughout the large body of texts that make up the irish mythological cycles these tales present us with a picture of a warrior society rife with heroic conflicts cattle raids and warfare between mortal men along with their contentions with gods goddesses and other supernatural entities and throughout this society we see bountiful descriptions of the druids as the dominant religious class of pagan ireland where they acted as powerful magicians and as prophets with the ability to shape the fates of both kings and heroes alike in the past the tales of irish mythology have been presented as the strongest evidence of the druids existence after all these tales were written down not by greek and roman authors many of whom were hostile to the peoples and practices of northwestern europe but by the irish themselves using their own language and traditions often it is claimed that these texts were passed down as oral tales dating back to the pagan society that they depict which were then faithfully committed to parchment between the 7th and the 11th centuries in the later medieval period many of these tales were edited and compiled into single manuscripts and beginning from the 17th century much of their material was used to compose the first national histories of ireland [Music] well into the 19th century it would remain commonly accepted among scholars that many of these tales described historical events and personages that stretch back for millennia towards the end of the 19th century however these attitudes began to change over time the idea that these texts contained a true history of ancient ireland has become a discredited one and by the mid-20th century it was no longer thought the irish mythological cycles recorded actual historical events but despite this it remained widely accepted among scholars that some of these tales contained a genuine depiction of iron age society a view that was seemingly supported by the limited state of irish archaeology at the time by the 1980s however this argument also came under scrutiny in the face of increasing archaeological understanding of the period one of the major sites named in irish mythology a number of scholars have argued that the iron age society it claims to depict resembles more that of the early medieval period when it was written alongside this has also come a greater skepticism of the supposedly oral roots of these texts and an increased awareness that other sources of inspiration may well have influenced their composers but despite this some scholars continue to argue that the irish mythological cycles contain surviving elements from pre-christian society and point to practices such as ritual feasting the use of chariots and the observation of the great pagan festivals as being authentic remnants of the world of iron age ireland so what does this all mean for our attempt to examine the practices of the claimed druids of ireland well it means that in addition to examining the roles and practices attributed to them by irish mythology we will need to ask a wider question how much of the picture of pre-christian ireland given in the irish mythological cycles is fought to affect its actual society this question is important because if the answer is very little we have good reason to doubt that the society it describes ever existed and we also have reason to doubt its descriptions of any role the druids may have played within it to attempt to answer it we'll examine what the irish mythological cycles have to say regarding the society and religious practices of pre-christian ireland and contrast these with the picture of the druids provided by earlier greek and roman authors from there we'll examine the archaeology of ritual life in prehistoric ireland focusing on the functions of the major ceremonial complexes known as the royal centers which feature prominently in irish myth and going beyond archaeology we'll also examine other sources of irish literature from the early christian period in which the druids often feature prominently we will begin by examining ireland's indigenous script ogum which in centuries past many an author is associated with the druids next we'll examine early church documents along with the later lives of christian saints in which the druids often appear as antagonists finally we'll examine mentions of the druids in the first recorded lore codes of ireland elements of which may date from times when pagan practices were still present amongst its people but before we can do any of this let us follow in the footsteps of our previous video and examine the earliest known written references we have to ireland as with the early written descriptions of the peoples of gaul and britain these references appear in the works of greek and later roman authors and date from perhaps as far back as the 6th century bc through to the loss of roman control over territory in northwestern europe in the 4th and 5th centuries a.d in these texts ireland is referred to under a variety of names including iverna iren and hibernia the last of which would become the dominant latin name for ireland in the medieval period compared to classical accounts of gaul and britain however what few references we have to ireland are extremely brief and are given by authors reliant on either hearsay or secondary accounts indeed ireland seems to been little known to the geographers of ancient greece going unmentioned in the works of herodotus etherus pifas timaeus eritosphenes and polybius in some cases this may simply be because the relevant sections of their works have not survived whilst others such as polybius refer to this region under the generic name of the britannic isles leaving us uncertain as to whether this was meant to include ireland we do however have one brief account that may date from the sikh for fifth centuries bc it is found within the aura maritimer a long poem by the fourth century a.d roman proconsul rufius festus abiennis but that may draw upon the work of much earlier greek and carthaginian sources his reference to what may be ireland comes as part of a digression from a passage on an unknown group of islands off the coast of modern portugal and spain known as the estuary minides and reads as follows from here it is a two-day voyage to the sacred isle or by this name the ancients called the island it lies rich in turf amongst the waves bigly populated by the hiberni nearby lies the island of the albions if we move forward to the first century bc and the first century a.d we also find a few small references to ireland in the works of writers such as julius caesar strabo theodora seculas and pomponius mela here island is generally presented in one of two lights as an isolated land about which little information is known or as a savage place populated by cannibals to quote strabo's geographer concerning this island i have nothing certain to tell except that its inhabitants are more savage than the britons since they are man-eaters as well as heavy eaters and sins further they count it as an honorable thing when their fathers die to devour them and openly to have intercourse not only with other women but also with their mothers and sisters theodorus provides us with a similar negative account in his biblioteca historica writing that the most savage peoples among them are those who dwell beneath the bears and on the borders of scythia and some of these we are told each human beings even as the britons do who dwell on iris as it is called beyond these simple characterizations of its inhabitants as unrestrained barbarians these authors also display an array of confusion around ireland's geography some authors such as caesar correctly locate it slightly to the west of britain most of us locate it to the north running parallel to its neighbor similar confusion can be seen regarding its climate according to strabo ireland was thought to be a cold place given its location on the edge of the habitable world pomponius mellow gives us a slightly more accurate picture of ireland as a place where grass grew in abundance though he incorrectly claims that its climate is unfavorable for the ripening of grain beyond these few small details however there is little information to be found on irish society in the accounts of these authors this pattern continues in the works of figures dating from between the first and the third century a.d such as puny the elder juvenile pseudo-aristotle and dionysius periegets whose accounts larger consist of variations of the descriptions given by caesar and pomponius mela we do also see a handful of reports from the fourth and fifth century id writers paccatus amnianus masolinus and claudian in which the irish who were referred to as the scottie are described as one of several groups that had raided the territory of the western roman empire although these accounts provide few details beyond this overall the impression given by these writings is their authors lacked any substantial information at all on ireland and its peoples and such they may have instead fallen back on roman stereotypes of barbarians living on the edge of the known world as we saw in our last episode caesar himself applied similar stereotypes to the peoples of germania and inland britain describing them as barbarians ignorant of agriculture and the proper forms of worship although he himself does not apply such descriptions to the irish further support for this idea can be seen in strabo's admission of uncertainty regarding his claims of cannibalism and incest amongst the irish which implies that his real source may simply be unsubstantiated rumor and most significantly for us despite many of these authors providing us with descriptions of the druids of gaul and britain none of them make any reference at all to the druids being present in ireland [Music] with this knowledge it is tempting to simply move on from the classical authors entirely however if we do so we would be ignoring two accounts that do appear to give us some insight into the society of pre-christian ireland and that will aid us in examining our later sources this includes the account of the first and second century ad roman historian tacitus which may be the closest we have to a first-hand description of the ancient irish in our previous video we explored the description of the druids he included in his work the annals which occurred alongside the roman general suetonius polonius attempt to conquer the british sanctuary at anglesey in northern wales here we heard of the druid's attempts to aid their forces through their incantations and the resulting destruction of what tasters claimed to be sacred groves on the island his description of ireland however comes to us as part of a different work his biography of agricola the roman general entrusted with the second invasion of anglesey in 77 a.d around the same time as this conquest tasters also became agricola's son-in-law meaning that his account likely draws upon the general's first-hand experience of the regions around the irish sea whilst hastus may well have embellished events described in his later works the description he provides as of ireland and its inhabitants is a measured one quote that island compared with britain is of smaller dimensions but it is larger than the islands of our own sea in regard to soil climate and the character and ways of its inhabitants it is not markedly different from britain we are better informed thanks to the trade of merchants about the approaches to the island and its harbours agricola had given shelter to one of the petty chieftains whom faction had driven from home and under the cloak of friendship held him in reserve to be used as opportunity offered i have often heard my father-in-law say that with one legion and a fair contingent of irregulars ibernia could be overpowered and held and that the feat would pay us against britain also for so roman troops would be everywhere and liberty would sink so to speak below the horizon it goes without saying that taster's account is a far cry from that of previous greek and roman authors rather than describing the ancient irish as barbarians and cannibals he instead acknowledges them as being similar to the late iron age inhabitants of britain in which we can presume they may have possessed similar customs in addition to this some elements of the picture of ireland tasked us paint through his father-in-law's account tally well with the known archaeological record for example we know that long-distance trade connections between ireland and neighbouring britain have existed since as far back as the mesolithic and there is ample evidence that the trade that flowed between it and its neighbours during the later iron age continued after the roman occupation of britain recently some researchers most notably richard b warner have used fines of what may be roman trading posts on the eastern irish coast to suggest that rome may well have attempted the invasion contemplated by agricola though alas such a question is beyond our purview outside of all of this however we are again confronted by the fact that like previous authors hastus makes no reference at all in his work to the druids being present amongst the irish however there are a few tantalizing hints as to the character of irish society during this period for example tacitus has claimed to have received an irish chieftain seems to indicate that irish society was marked by some form of elite during this time amongst tomb organized conflicts existed that were capable of driving such a figure from his homeland entirely similar exiles also appear throughout the irish mythological cycles as a result a number of scholars have attempted to connect tacitus's writings with one or more of these figures the most notable of these parallels has been drawn between tacitus's irish chieftain and the legendary high king to rafale techma who is said to have returned from exile in northern scotland to reclaim his father's throne in the second half of the 1st century ad however this theory remains highly speculative and it must be said that we lack any evidence beyond the passing similarity of these accounts our second major account comes to us from the work of another famous name of antiquity the greek mathematician astronomer and geographer claudius tommy on his map of the known world which was composed around 100 a.d he includes the most detailed description of ireland by any ancient author which he refers to as micra britannia or little britain in his description of ireland he describes some 31 different locations including trading settlements promontories islands and river mouths this information was most likely supplied by the accounts of traders local to the region another sign of the close links between ireland and roman britain during this time alongside this he also divides ireland into 16 different groups or tribes the names of which have received many different interpretations by authors for example a number of scholars have attempted to interpret the tribal name of the olenti in northern ireland as matching the ollard a group which played a prominent role in irish mythology a tentative comparison has also been made between tommy's listing of the promontory of esamnia with the major ironane center of alan maca or navan fort with some scholars arguing that this listing should be reinterpreted as a town based on other historical sources however this comparison remains a speculative one and outside of these examples we see few reliable comparisons between the peoples and places tomy lists and whatever sources we have that claim to cover the irish iron age [Music] so on the whole we can say that the few accounts we have by classical authors have very little to tell us about iron age irish society other than it was similar to that of britain with its peoples being split into tribes and ruled over by some form of elite however they have nothing to say at all about either the presence of the druids or of ritual life amongst the irish as such we must acknowledge that unlike gaul and britain we lack any mention of the druids that are known to date directly from the period in which they were said to be most active in ireland and if we wish to explore what are claimed to be authentic descriptions of their role in iron age society we must look to other sources instead if we wish to see what purports to be a preserved snapshot of pre-christian island we must move forward and examine its earliest known literature amongst the early literary works of ireland the most extensive descriptions of both the druids and of pagan ritual practices in general are to be found in the stories of irish mythology whilst it has been claimed that these tales are originally oral compositions dating to the pre-christian period they were likely first committed to writing between the 7th and the 11th centuries today many of these tales exist only in the form of copies and compilations written in the later medieval period such as the laowa nahira or the book of the dung cow the laowa linyak or book of leinster and the laowa bui la khan or the yellow book of lacan of these surviving texts the majority are being roughly grouped by scholars into four major cycles the events of which often overlap [Music] preserved in works such as the lao gowalla aaron or the book of invasions the metric din shenakas and the claimed events of the irish chronicles this cycle describes a series of migrations of peoples into ireland beginning with the shipwreck followers of kazae granddaughter of the biblical noah in the early third millennia bc over the millennium five further invasions are outlined beach new group of invaders either wiping out the existing inhabitants or repopulating ireland after the previous group's demise these invasions culminated in the arrival of the malaysians or gaels the ancestors of the modern irish who we are told wrestle control of the land from a god-like race known as the two adidan moving on from the mythological cycle second chronologically is by far the most famous body of irish mythology known as the ulster cycle this group of tales is based around the royal site of our marker or navan fort along with the wider provinces of ulster and conact in this cycle we see depicted a warrior society where warfare is conducted by heroic figures born by chariots from which they often descend to engage in single combat among these renowned warriors we hear of the exploits of men such as the king of ulster conquer macnessa also known as konova or krohor magnessa and of the demigod kukulen son of the god lou and his contention with the nefarious queen meev of the connector and her husband king il of the various texts of this cycle by far the most important is the tale of the time beau kunye or the cattle raid of kulny the epic scale which is often led to it being referred to as the irish national epic [Music] largely following the events of the ulster cycle are those of the finnian cycle which is set mostly around the southern provinces of leinster and munster here we are told the deeds of the warrior hunter finn mccool and his band of followers the fianna with its most important tales being the colloquy of the elders the pursuit of diamond and gronya and ocean in churnanog finally we have the historical or kings cycle which consists of poems supposedly composed by medieval bards and court poets to record the genealogies of the kings they served it is from this body of tales that we learn of many of the legendary high kings of ireland including figures such as komak makaat khan of the hundred battles king logair of tara and the legendary sign of the e-nail dynasty nail of the nine hostages unlike the preceding cycles this group of tales also stretches on well into the christian period and despite consisting mostly of legends many of its later protagonists consist of known historical figures so what part did the druids play in these stories well like the druids of gaul and britain the druids play a major role in irish mythology as the intellectuals and mystics of pre-christian society in addition to acting as the advisors of the irish kings the druids are also presented as wielders of powerful spells that can aid their forces in battle as the bearers of prophecy and as one of the groups that may bestow powerful taboos on kings and warriors unlike the accounts of the druids of britain and gaul in the irish mythological cycles many druids are known to us by name and specific individuals possessing druidic magics appear amongst the earliest peoples claimed to have arrived on its shores in the lair gowalla eren the second group to arrive in ireland the followers of pathalan are accompanied by no less than free druids named fish tar and forkmark simul emir of the nemedians said to be the third group of peoples to settle in ireland is credited with the first lighting of the druidic fires at the ceremonial site of ishnok after which he is said to have cut out the tongues of his fellow druids when they opposed its lighting later in the same text druidic magic plays a key role in the malaysia's eventual conquest of ireland from the tua de danan after tricking the newcomers into a truce during which the malaysians promised to remain offshore for three days the druids of the tua de danen weave magics to disturb the waves and prevent them from returning this effort is forted however by the quick actions of amagin goonyal a malaysian described variably as a druid a bard or a judge who weaves spells to calm the waves and allows his people to return to ireland in the forever drum dougher or the siege of drum dougher we also see the exploits of the blind archdruid moy roof who amongst other powers was able to summon storms at will who owned a bird mask and a machine that allowed him to fly and who could tell the future using a bull's hide in later medieval accounts this figure was also said to be the executioner of saint john the baptist and to have lived an extraordinarily long life such that he was alive during the reigns of 19 different kings of ireland there is similarly no shortage of druids to be found in the texts of the ulster cycle amongst these figures by far the most significant is the druid kapha adviser and judge to the king of ulster concava magnessa in texts such as the maeshka ollard kaphar is presented as a conciliator between the kings of ulster even speaking at a gathering before conchavar himself due to a prohibition on kings speaking before their druids in the chronologically earlier text the compare concava or the begatting of concava kaffar is presented instead as the leader of a roving fianna or warban who brutally carves out his own domain in ulster and forces the warrior woman nessa to marry him in some versions he also sighs king konkava himself after prophesying to nessa that it is a good hour to begat a king on a queen and as he is the only man present she takes him to bed kapha's are the prophecies similarly to conflicts throughout the rest of the ulster cycle in the longest mahnushlan or the exile of the sons of ishnok kapha prophesizes that the girl deidre will cause much evil setting off the chain of events that leads to the conception of the boy cetanta later known as the heroic cue cullen similarly in the time it is kapha who instigates cue cullen's great deeds and also his doom prophesizing that whoever took up arms that day for the first time would achieve fame and greatness but be fated to live a short life in addition to these male druids irish mythology is replete with examples of women who wield powerful magics often these powers are considered to act in their own domain separate from the magic of men and druids however we do get occasional examples of women who are referred to as either druids or druidesses for example the archdruid my roof is frequently accompanied by his daughter the red-haired druidess klafka in the finnian cycle its eponymous hero is brought up by two of his mother's bonds women one of whom is explicitly named as a druidess in the ulster cycle queen meave of connacht keeps a priestess known as earn attached to her court whilst the tine also names women such as fidelma who acted as beaufort prophetess and sia and skarhak who combined the roles of warrior teacher and seer indeed the great hero of the time is himself lured to his death on queen maeve's instigation by a group known as the children of kawachin who are said to count witchers amongst their ranks so how does this picture of the druids given by the irish mythological cycles compared to that of the druids presented by greek and roman authors while putting aside the more obviously supernatural elements of these tales their descriptions as the prophets magicians and occasionally healers of irish society accord well with the accounts of the druids role in the pre-roman societies of gaul and britain in the writings of caesar strabo theodora ceculus onponius mellor lucan and pliny the druids are presented as the diviners and philosophers of their people possessing great herbal law and knowledge of the natural world their role as the advisors of the irish kings also matches well with the claim by the greek author theon crestostrom that the druids acted in such a capacity among what he terms the celts referring generally to the non-greek peoples of northwestern europe likewise much has been made by scholars of the similarities between the claims of strabo and amnianus marcelinus the learned men of goal were divided into three groups the druids the ovates or seers and the bards with the similar irish separation of the druids the philly and the bards as we will discuss these two groups show considerable overlap in duties with the druids but generally the failure presented as the wielders of prophecy and divination whilst the bards act more as singers praise poets and satirists finally the magical exploits of druids such as our in goonyal and mogriff draw immediate comparisons to testus's accounts of the druid's actions during the roman invasion of anglesey quote all around the druids lifting their hands to heaven and pouring forth dreadful imprecations scared our soldiers by the unfamiliar sight so that as if their limbs were paralyzed they stood motionless and exposed to wounds when we go beyond these broad similarities however we find many differences between these groups for example amongst the irish druids there is no sign of the centralized leadership described by caesar as present amongst the druids of gaul though it should be noted that few of our ancient authors mention the existence of such a structure there is similar little association of the irish druids with the white robes attributed to the druids of gaul by pliny or of the claims of authors such as caesar theodora seculas and lucan that the druids taught of the immortality of the soul and of its eventual reincarnation the exploits of warlike druids such as kaffar also run counter to the claim by caesar that the druids of gol held aloof from war though again this claim is unique to him in terms of ritual practices the irish druids lack any reverence for mistletoe attributed to the druids by pliny a difference that may be explained by the fact that it is not natively found in ireland similarly there is no sign of any special reverence for the oak to be found in irish mythology instead the tree most commonly associated with magical properties is the rowan and a wide range of different tree species appear as significant landmarks in its texts there is also a little sign in ireland of the association between the druids and wooded places noted by authors such as pomponius mellor with the irish druids instead largely dwelling within the courts and halls of the kings they served and perhaps most interestingly if we put aside the occasionally murderous acts of individual druids the irish mythological cycles contain few mentions of the organized human sacrifice attributed by the romans to the peoples of goal so how are we to account for these differences well if we had to presume for the moment that the role of the druid given by the irish mythological cycles is an accurate one then a possible explanation is that the ritual practices and practitioners of northwestern europe simply varied more by region than the unified picture presented by greek and roman authors we touched on this briefly at the end of our last video when attempting to reconcile the differences between the known ritual archaeology of gaul and britain with the image presented by classical authors another possibility is that the definition of a druid within irish society was in itself somewhat fluid and was not intended to refer to a single group indeed in the irish mythological cycles the term druid is often used in a loose fashion with individuals being named in the same text as not only a druid but also a poet a bard or a judge druids are also not the only individuals capable of using magic with an irish society with the highest grade of the philly the olive also being marked by their supernatural powers in addition to their claim supernatural ability as poets to inflict harm through satire these figures are frequently attributed the same powers of prophecy as the druids with their predictions being delivered in verse perhaps due to these similar roles the identity of these two groups is often conflated with entails an example of this is noted by professor ronald hutton in his work blood and mistletoe in the text the ballia in skull or the phantom's frenzy the high king khan upon first encountering the cries of the liaphal or the stone of destiny at the royal rampart of tara turns not to his accompanying druids to interpret it but to one of his philly instead this philly then asks for a gap of 53 days to work the appropriate divinations in a fashion normally befitting a druid then is referred to as a druid whilst giving the king his answer elsewhere we also see other more specialized forms of spellcaster in the second of two texts known as the kathmaitura or the second battle of maitura the druids and the poets are only one of multiple categories of spellcaster that offer their support to the forces of the tour de danan against the fomorians alongside them we see groups such as the sorcerers who threaten to restrain their opponent's strength and prevent them from emptying their bladders and the cup bearers who bestow upon their enemies an unquenchable first these hosts are also accompanied by a group of witches who raised the trees and the stones of the earth to act as an armed host to aid the tua de dunan outside of battle other groups of in irish society are also frequently shown to have their own forms of magic for example blacksmiths are frequently associated with mystical abilities likely due to their ability to craft metal items a process that might well have seemed supernatural finally it should be mentioned that words such as dradect are often used in early irish literature simply as a shorthand for any form of magic and individuals are at times referred to as druids simply due to their ability to use spells even if they lacked any formal tuition now that we have a general picture of the jewish role in irish mythology we must next ask what these texts have to say of the actual ritual practices and beliefs of this group well when it comes to the former irish mythology is surprisingly vague about how specific rituals were performed we do know of a few general forms of divination including through observing the shape and movement of clouds and water the sound of birdsong and the wind and the casting of rods in one version of the tock marketaine or the wooing of attain the druid dalan similarly divines the location of attain by carving om script into ones of you and whilst there is little sign that the script was considered magical in itself it is occasionally used in this fashion elsewhere in some cases divination is also shown to be performed for the use of games played on a board the names of which include fikkel and brandov whilst the exact way these games were played remains unknown to us references to these items inevitably draws comparisons to the individual known as the druid of colchester as we discussed in our last episode the remains of this person were on earth near the city of colchester in southeastern england in addition to a cremation burial this grave also contained the remains of a wooden board and counters along with a number of metal rods and a tea strainer containing residue of the herb artemisia one interpretation of this board encounters is that they may have had some form of divinatory purpose perhaps when used in conjunction with the rods however this idea is far from universally accepted and this board may have instead been used to play a contemporary roman board game such as ludus latrunculorum the metal tools found within the grave also bear some resemblance to those employed in contemporary medical practices finally if we move away from divination we also see some small details of rights amongst the aforementioned sorcerers of the two adidan at the second battle of maitura these individuals are said to be practitioners of the art of crane killing which apparently involved reciting a satire against an opponent while standing on one leg keeping one hand raised and one eye closed putting aside these more general practices only two specific rituals have come down to us that may in some way be linked to the druids the first is known to us from techs such as the sergilia kong cullen or the sick bed of cu cullen and the toggle brunia de durga or the destruction of de durga's hostel known as the tarafesh or bullfeast this rite was invoked to determine a king's rightful successor and in some versions is said to be overseen by the druids to quote the toggle brunia de durga a ball feast is gathered by the men of iren in order to determine their future king that is a bull used to be killed by them and thereof one man would eat his fill and drink its broth and a spell of truth was chanted over him in his bed whosoever he would see in his sleep would be king and the sleeper would perish the uttered a falsehood a similar divinitary practice also survives in the sanas cormac a glossary of older irish words dating from between the 9th and the 12th centuries it is included in many of the same manuscripts that contain the text of irish mythology here however the rituals attributed not to the druids but to the philly according to its text this ritual was performed to allow a poet to gain what is known as the imbas forestner or encompassing knowledge that illuminates and required the participant to chew on the raw flesh of either a pig a cat or a dog and place it on a flagstone behind his door here they would chant an incantation over it and offer it to what is referred to as the idol god in return for enlightenment however if no such enlightenment were to take hold the next day the practitioner would sing another incantation over his hands call on the gods again then lie down with his palms on his cheeks and fall asleep if the sleeper went uninterrupted usually by posting an observer to prevent them from being awakened then the inspiration would be granted on the surface this ritual certainly sounds appropriately pre-christian however its details should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt as noted in the text it appears in this ritual was thought to have been long proscribed by the time it was documented and it may well represent an imaginative attempt to invent a pagan ritual rather than an actual pre-christian practice [Music] beyond the druids themselves the irish mythological cycles also provide us with a wide variety of information on the belief structures and ritual practices of pre-christian ireland it is now almost universally accepted by scholars that the earliest events and figures of irish mythology such as the first waves of peoples to settle in ireland have no basis in reality and were likely constructed to provide a link with biblical history however one exception to this are the second to last wave of invaders the two adidas whilst they are usually presented in these texts as only one of several ways of supernatural peoples to occupy ireland prior to the arrival of the gaels it is now fought by most scholars that the danan represent many of ireland's pre-christian gods who were inserted into the mythological cycles in the guise of heroes kings and fairies whilst these figures were defeated by the milesians during their conquest of ireland unlike previous groups they are not eradicated instead they gain ruleship over cherninog the irish underworld a paradise realm that often functions as something of a parallel or mirror to the mortal realm and is said to be accessed when going under the surface of lakes by accident when lost at sea or through passage tombs that are known as she elsewhere in irish mythology these worlds are seen to bleed into one another with mortals often stumbling into the underworld unaware after being consumed by a thick mist in their interactions with mortals the dhanan are shown to be capricious figures often requiring a degree of ritual appeasement and who are capable of bestowing both great charity and punishment on those who they meet the irish pantheon is a large one and for the sake of time we are obviously unable to cover all of its gods today amongst them a number of figures are however known to have been significant as shown by the frequency of their mentions throughout the mythological cycles these include the possible head of the irish pantheon the dagda a male deity who is associated with the sun fertility in the harvest often betrayed is carrying a club or hammer and a cauldron this figure is also said to be the owner of two magical pigs one who is always alive and one who has always been cooked along with a magical cow whose cry to its calf causes all of her cows to graze of a similar importance is the heroic god lou referred to as the long-armed or the many skilled lou is credited with the invention of a wide variety of arts and is associated with lightening the harvest time with many of the sacral notions of kingship this figure is also linked with a wide variety of ritual sites where he often acts as either the father or a consort to the resident goddess as well as a bestower of kingwood legitimacy outside of irish mythology this figure is often held to be an equivalent to the goalish deity lugus a god that held many summer attributes and it is known to have been worshipped throughout neighbouring gaul and britain indeed it has been suggested that lugus is a candidate for the central god of the gorish pantheon described by julius caesar who he equates to the roman god mercury to these two can also be added a wide variety of figures such as nuada who is sometimes thought to be an analogue of the british and gorish god nodons the god of beauty and the son of the dagda henges and the sea god manon mcclear irish mythology is home to a similarly varied array of female deities much like their male counterparts many of these figures are associated with fertility although often this takes the form of an association more with the earth itself where specific goddess has been tied to the land of a particular group or even a single geographical feature many of these figures are seen to act in the role of a sovereignty goddess who confers legitimacy on a king through marriage and intercourse of these figures perhaps the most important in ancient times was the goddess bowen who appears as do many other female deities in the form of both a white cow with red ears and as the embodiment of the river boeing the name of which is said to be derived from hers of the goddesses include figures such as makka the embodiment and founder of the ulster capital whilst a female figure by this name appears several times in irish mythology including as the only woman to become the high king of ireland her most significant role is in the ulster cycle after being forced to run a footrace by the ulsterman whilst heavily pregnant she bestows a curse upon them that would leave them quote as weak as a woman in childbirth in that hour of most need this curse strikes during the course of the tan forcing the only man not afflicted by the curse the teenage demigod q column to defend ulster against queen maeve's forces alone other examples include the goddess bridget a figure who may well have been you hemorrhaged into a later christian saint and who may have been associated with the royal center of not colin also known as don ali in addition has been argued by many scholars at the figure of meev opponent of the ulster men in the tan is herself a diminished sovereignty goddess a show by her taking of many husbands and her strong connections with the capital the connector the royal site of kraken also known as raf kroken finally the gaelic name for ireland era is itself said to be derived from the goddesseru after whom the malaysians agreed to name the island in return for her support for their rule of all the figures of irish mythology however none are quite as ambiguous as the irish war goddess the morrigan while she herself often appears in the guise of a sovereignty goddess her more famous guys is that of the crow the form which she would take in order to feed on the bodies of those slain in battle elsewhere she appears as a bard and a poet as well as a shape-shifter and as is common throughout irish myth she is sometimes depicted as one of the trinity of associated goddesses this trinity includes figures such as the crow goddess vive who is known to spread fear amongst her enemies in battle nyevan who could kill with a cry and who causes friendship panic amongst armies and the previously mentioned figure of makka under her warrior guys alternatively the morrigan herself may not be found amongst this trio but instead the three may be reflectively referred to as the moriganu this figure is also marked by her immense sexual appetite and takes the dagger himself as a lover being described in the metrical dincentius as his jealous wife it is her sexual appetite that simply draws the morrigan to the ulster hero q cullum with whom she shares a mixed relationship throughout the ulster cycle appearing variably as his seducer ally and enemy in terms of wider ritual behavior religious worship of these entities is depicted as revolving around four major festivals spaced evenly throughout the year the most important of these festivals was like with that of sauron which took place between the night of october 31st to november first this festival marked the end of the year and the beginning of winter and seems to have been considered a dangerous time marked by the coupling of the morrigan and the dagda where the boundary between the world of mortals and that of spirits was cast aside samhain was in turn complemented by the festival of bialtona which took place at the beginning of may and marked a time of purification and the return of the light half of the year between the two fell in bog a time of rebirth associated with spring and lunasah which coincided with the harvest season and was dedicated to the god lou in addition to their ritual overtones each of these ceremonial occasions may also be marked by a more practical agricultural element taking place as it did at the end of winter imbolc would have been associated with the beginning of the lambing season and indeed is mentioned in the toc mark in there as a time when the ewes were milked according to both the sanus cormac and the tokmark emma the alternate matched the moving of cattle to upland grazing sites during this occasion these animals were driven between two great ritual bonfires overseen by the druids which granted them a symbolic protection against disease many of the great assemblies of irish mythology were also timed to coincide with this date with later tradition holding that the most important of these was held at the ceremonial site of ishnok according to these same texts on lunasa the harvest would be marked by feasting and offers of thanks to the god lou along with political assemblies at the centers of tara navad and dunalin finally the pastoral year would be concluded at samhain where cattle would be rounded up and cold prior to their winter confinement [Music] so now that we have familiarized ourselves with the picture of the druids given in irish mythology along with their wider ritual beliefs and practices let us return then to the question we asked at the beginning of this video how accurate is the picture of pre-christian island given in the irish mythological cycles after all any confidence we might place in the image and role of the druid given to us by the mythological cycles relies on the society they depict being at least somewhat rooted in reality as we detail before up until the 19th century it remained widely accepted among scholars that the events of the irish mythological cycles presented an actual historical narrative that stretched back as far as biblical times in the early 20th century however much of this consensus was overturned and the earliest events of its tales were consigned fully to the category of myth similarly the idea that the ulster and finnian cycles represented the deeds of actual historical personages was also gradually rejected despite this throughout much of the 20th century it remained held that the general blueprint of pre-christian society depicted within irish mythology was accurate as late as 1964 the influential linguist professor kenneth h jackson was able to proclaim that the ulster cycle provided us with a window on the iron age this window provided a view of a society marked by endemic warfare and cattle raids between tribal kingdoms that were ruled from central sites and whose ritual practices were overseen by the druids and whilst it was no longer thought that the texts of irish mythology detailed the lives and deeds of historical personages it remained held by many scholars that these tales were at least composed during pre-christian times and were transmitted orally until they were committed to writing during the medieval period towards the end of the 20th century however even this view came into question since the 1980s figures such as envy atchison jp mowry and john kosch have argued that the society seen within the ulster cycle more resembles that of the early medieval period in which its tales were first transcribed than those of the pre-christian era as to whether any surviving pagan elements may have been preserved these authors differ whilst nb atchison has argued that early irish literature is not a legitimate source for the study of pagan irish society both jp mallory and john kosch have argued that some aspects of the irish mythological cycles may well have been based on accurate memories of iron age practices conversely professor john waddle has argued that some elements of iron age ireland such as artwork and burial practices show continuity with those of the medieval period us figures such as richard b warner have argued in favor of the more traditional view that the society of the irish myths is one rooted in reality so what does the archaeology of pre-christian ireland have to say well to provide some clarity let us conduct our own small investigation into its major features and compare it to the society depicted in irish mythology for this examination we will focus on the iron age the archaeological period which according to later irish chronicles most overlaps with the events of the ulster cycle and that also roughly corresponds with the production of the classical reports of the druids in neighbouring britain and gaul in ireland the iron age is held to have lasted for longer than elsewhere in western europe beginning from roughly 600 to 500 bc and continuing until around the end of the fourth century a.d unfortunately for us much of this time is marked by a paucity of archaeological evidence for domestic settlements the excavation of which could potentially provide more insight into the structure of contemporary society we do know that for the first centuries of this period we see evidence that the population was increasing as shown by the appearance of new farmland in previously forested areas then around 200 bc there appears to have been a major change in irish society perhaps brought on by increased environmental stress for roughly the next four centuries we see an increase in forested area across ireland and from 40 bc to 250 a.d evidence collapses for the use of oak the most common building material of the period this apparent drop in population and settlement has led to this period being dubbed the irish dark age though more recent research has demonstrated that the picture is more complicated whilst the clearing of land may have reduced there is still evidence for the production of cereals throughout this period along with the introduction of new agricultural technologies such as the beehive quern iron working also appears in ireland during this time but the actual number of early iron items such as axe heads spears and swords have been excavated remains low around this time items also begin to display the distinctive swirls and spiral motifs of the latin art style which is common throughout northern and western europe during this time as do many items of personal ornamentation made from bronze finally the building of wooden tracks and causeways across boggs and marshy ground also continued from the preceding bronze age and neolithic this includes the famous collier trackway a two kilometer long wooden road unearthed by professor barry raftery and his team in the 1980s the timbers of which have been radiocarbon dated to 148 bc so how does this society and that's of the early medieval period compare with the one seen in irish mythology well before we answer this we should note that there are indeed many societal features that are shared between these two periods for example most of ireland's major domesticated animals and crops have been present since the arrival of neolithic farmers between the late fourth and the early third millennia bc and metal weaponry such as swords and spears were introduced in the succeeding bronze age this means it can often be difficult to narrow down a particular element to a specific time however there are a few societal features that are known to differ significantly between the two periods let us begin with domestic life in the tales of the ulster cycle much of this population occupies fortified sites often referred to as dunes or cahirs these sites are usually described as consisting of buildings contained within a large enclosure circled by as many as three or more earthen ramparts separated by ditches and that were used to control large numbers of livestock some tales such as the time beau konya also mentioned the presence of a wooden powersaid that presumably was used to augment the existing rampart when we examine the small number of domestic sites that have been found dating to the iron age however we see little resemblance to these descriptions instead most sites from this period consist of small collections of circular round houses huts and halves according to archaeologists jp mallory and john waddle there is also increasing evidence that a number of small ringed enclosures were constructed during this period which may have in some cases have been used for domestic occupation outside of these sites there is also evidence of linear earthworks dotted throughout the irish landscape that date from this time and which consist of banks ditches and sometimes palisades the exact function of these earthworks is still debated but common hypotheses are that they comprise some form of border between tribal territories or acted as a defensive barrier to guard livestock instead the closest parallel to the dwellings described in irish mythology is the archaeological feature of the irish ring fort these sites are usually marked by a circular enclosure measuring between 28 to 35 meters in diameter contained within two or more earthen ramparts these enclose the thoughts of house prosperous farmers and elites and would have acted as secure locations to guard their livestock however while some of these sites may have been constructed in the late iron age evidence for their use does not become prevalent until the 6th and 7th centuries a.d placing their heyday well within the early medieval period this lack of resemblance between the society of irish mythology and that of the iron age continues when we examine contemporary weaponry in irish mythology swords are frequently described as large slashing weapons easily capable of decapitating a man however the few examples of iron age swords that have been unearthed bear little similarity to these descriptions as john waddle notes in his work the prehistoric archaeology of ireland in many cases these blades are closer to long daggers than swords possessing blades that range in land from as much as 46 centimeters to just as little as 29. in theory these weapons could still have been used in close combat as stabbing implements but in function they little resemble the slashing blades of the ulster cycle instead these descriptions are far closer to the large slashing swords that appear to have been introduced to ireland during the medieval and viking period exactly why such short blades were introduced at all however is difficult to explain longer blades were produced during the preceding bronze age and there seems to be no practical reason that would limit the forging of these swords in iron one theory is that these weapons could have been designed more for display than for decapitating opponents and the presence of decorative latent elements on their hills present some supporting evidence for this theory outside of swords another distinctive feature of warfare in the text of the ulster cycle is the chariot which is used by its heroes both in battle and simply as a form of transport in form these vehicles are often described as similar to those that have been found in elite iron age burials in both britain and northern france which usually comprise of lightweight two-wheeled vehicles drawn by a team of two horses similar vehicles are also known to have been encountered by caesar during his expeditions to bristol where he describes them as being used in warfare as mobile platforms from which missiles could be hurled when it comes to the use of chariots being widespread in iron age ireland however the evidence is unclear we do know that horse bits are a common item in the archaeological record during this time and some fines of two sets together have been interpreted as a sign of a team driving a vehicle when it comes to vehicles themselves however we have only a few lucky finds to interpret unlike in britain and france we see no evidence for chariot burials in ireland and the evidence here is limited to a small number of wooden parts along with metal fittings that might have ornamented such a vehicle these include a small number of disc wheels dating from between the fifth and the fourth centuries bc along with a pair of block wheels unearthed in due garymore that date from the late bronze age it is possible that some of these wheels may have belonged to chariots instead of simple wagons and carts but with the evidence available we cannot say this with any degree of certainty in more concrete terms we can say there is slightly more evidence for the use of chariots in the succeeding early medieval period where vehicles matching their descriptions are depicted in artwork and where they are occasionally referencing contemporary law codes and chronicles so if the weaponry transport and settlement patterns depicted in irish mythology bear only limited resemblance to those known to have existed during the iron age where else might we look to verify its depiction of pre-christian society well another useful comparison can be made with the known animal life of this period as noted by jp mowry in his work in search of the irish dream time the foreigner and flora of ireland is significantly less time dependent than the human built environment as we mentioned before major domesticated animals such as sheep pigs dogs and cattle have been present in ireland since at least the neolithic and there is evidence that others such as horses goats and cats were all present by late prehistory this picture is the same for the majority of ireland's wildlife and many of the mammals and birds described of an irish mythology are native to its shores on detailed scrutiny however irish methodology does contain some animals for which we currently have no evidence of them being present in iron age ireland for example domesticated fowls such as chicken and geese are occasionally mentioned in these texts their actual physical remains only attested during the early medieval period there are also some small examples of wildlife that are occasionally mentioned for which remains are elusive until well into the medieval period such as the squirrel and the hedgehog a more egregious example can be found in the occasional appearance of snakes within its tails which despite the famous tale of st patrick expelling them from ireland never appeared to be present on its shores in the first place in addition to these more conventional creatures more outlandish animals also make appearances in various texts such as tigers lions bears and the lynx all of which were never present in ireland or in the case of the lynx and the bear appear to have gone extinct by the iron age so at the end of our examination we can conclude that the major archaeological features of the irish iron age have only a small amount in common with the depiction of pagan society found in the irish mythological cycles indeed the picture given in these tales of a warrior elite replete with chariots and warring kings dwelling in fortresses seems to have limited basis in actual prehistory in fact outside of a number of items of personal ornamentation has been found dating from the period the iron age is marked by little conspicuous evidence for the existence of major elite groups the most we can say is that between the presence of the linear earthworks and the accounts of classical authors is that island may have been split into tribes ruled over by minor chieftains during this period between which occasional conflicts over territory and livestock may well have arisen overall however we must conclude that as argued by more revisionist authors the description of pre-christian society seen in irish mythology bears a greater resemblance to that of the early medieval period so what does this mean for the druids well the society they were claimed to exist in appears to be based more on a later period rather than entirely pagan elements then it does cast a degree of doubt over any role attributed to these figures in the irish mythological cycles but when it comes to any ritual role attributed to the druids we have so far left out the most visible piece of the archaeological puzzle the last evidence of domestic sites during this period is limited we have at our disposal a veritable overabundance of ceremonial sites dating from this time many of them built on a scale unmatched elsewhere in north western europe we should note that the ritual features identified within both the ulster cycle and wider irish mythology are known to date from across many different periods of irish prehistory as such let us indulge in a quick summary of irish ritual developments preceding the iron age in ireland monumental building is known to date back to the neolithic and many of its ritual features show strong similarities with those found in neighbouring britain and france the earliest of these structures consist of various forms of megalithic tombs which date back to the late fourth millennium bc with prominent examples being found at sites such as karakil karamor and lokru the most famous of these are what are known as the passage tombs large earthen or stone mounds that cover an internal burial chamber that are accessed through a narrow passageway in ireland the most spectacular examples of these have been found in the blue nebula or the boin valley tombs these include the complexes of noah and doeth along with the gigantic structure of newgrange this tomb which dates from around 3200 bc underwent a major reconstruction during the 1960s and 70s the results of which have proven controversial amongst archaeologists much like the later stone structures of stonehenge in neighboring britain the central passage of both newgrange and many other passage tombs are aligned to significant astronomical events such as the summer and winter solstices in irish mythology these passage graves also occasionally appear under the name of xi and were fought to act as portals to the irish underworld turnanog which stood open on significant dates and allowed their otherworldly denizens to interact with mortals later in the neolithic we also see other types of monuments appear such as circular ditched and banked structures known as hinges along with both stone and wooden circles many of these structures will continue to be used throughout the early bronze age which in ireland is held to run from roughly the mid 3rd millennium bc through to the 6th century bc in addition to this new monumental burial structures would also emerge including earth and burial mounds known as barrows which may have occasionally been identified with the she then as we covered in our earlier video on the druids in the second half of the second millennium bc the ritual practices of northwestern europe seem to have undergone a major shift as in neighbouring britain ritual behavior seems to have moved away from the construction of new megalithic sites in favour of ritual feasting along with the deposition of votive hordes containing high prestige metal items either underground or in watery places such as springs rivers and bogs it is around the second and first centuries bc however the ritual architecture in ireland seems to diverge dramatically from that of its neighbours whilst in britain we see evidence of smaller ceremonial enclosures being constructed in ireland we see a resurgence in the building of monumental earthworks with no clear parallel elsewhere in europe this construction is best seen at the most visible sites of this period which are often referred to as the royal centers of ireland this name derives from the belief in the medieval period that many of these sites once constituted major royal residences and inauguration centers for the pre-christian kings of ireland of the major centers four are now fought to unambiguously date from either the iron age or earlier those of our marker on avon fort raf kraken nokolin or dune alina and chowa better known as the hill of tara these same sites are also mentioned as great pre-christian centers in a 9th century calendar of saints known as the martyrology of angus which claims that these sites were abandoned with the coming of christianity in the 5th century a.d in the irish mythological cycles these sites most frequently take the form of grand residential halls for the provincial kings of ireland often taking on a form turned by j.p mallory as the standard irish palace in the story of bree crews feast for example queen maeve's hall at ralph crocken is described as a ward circular building split into seven ranks or circles of compartments centered around a roaring fire and supported by three great bronze posts alongside their claimed residential role these sites are also variously named as gathering places as the sites of the great pre-christian festivals and in the case of raf kraken as a cemetery of kings in the medieval period many kings would claim long-running associations with these sites often using them to stage their own royal inaugurations and gatherings and constructing their own residences within their existing landscapes alongside this we also have the ritual complex at the hill of ishnak many of the features of which date from prehistoric times whilst this site is less associated with kingship in irish mythology it does play a major role as the central axis or middle of ireland and indeed is situated within only a few kilometers of this exact center point so how well does the description of these sites given in irish mythology match with their known archaeology thanks to a number of excavations that were carried out in the second half of the 20th century we now know that during the iron age these royal centers bore little resemblance to the grand halls and buildings so confidently described in these tales instead the impression given by these sites is they functioned as large open-air complexes the main features of which appear to have had a ritual rather than a domestic role each of these centres are based around major hilltops and plateaus which feature commanding views of their surrounding landscapes and are set within larger ritual complexes whilst many of these sites are built around pre-existing monuments some of which date back as far as the neolithic their peak usage appears to have taken place during the iron age with many sites undergoing major remodeling with the addition of a number of vast hinge-like enclosures the result is that in their final forms these complexes often contain ritual features dating from many different periods of prehistory including passage tombs over mounds and barrows ditched and banked enclosures and processional routes we will discuss these ritual features in more detail shortly for the moment however we can conclude that the general descriptions of these sites found within irish mythology as domestic halls and residences do not match with their known archaeology so from our examination we have found that there is at best only a small resemblance between the pre-christian world depicted in the irish mythological cycles and the weaponry building patterns and major sites of the irish iron age instead it seems fairly clear that the material culture of the world it depicts draws more from the early medieval period in which its tails were transcribed further limited support for this conclusion can be seen in the presence of some animal life that may not have been introduced until the medieval period though this may also be explained by knowledge of their presence in neighbouring britain as noted by the revisionist authors we discussed before the inclusion of these medieval elements runs sharply at odds with the more traditional view of how these tales were composed up until the late 20th century it was held that many of the central tales of irish mythology were composed in oral fashion during the pre-christian period under this line of thinking these tales were then passed down faithfully by word of mouth until they were transcribed during the medieval period as such any societal features contained within these tales should resemble those of at least the late iron age rather than those of the medieval period and to complicate matters further in recent decades a number of scholars have argued that these tales contain elements in common with the classical epics of both ancient greece and rome along with parallels to biblical figures and events that could only have been introduced in the early medieval period so even with the embellishment of these tales of later medieval elements is it possible that they still contain a significant oral component at their core the answer is that this is certainly possible for an example of a similar oral process of composition and transmission we can point to work such as the ancient greek epic the iliad whilst this work is traditionally thought to have been first composed around the 8th century bc its earliest known written versions were not standardized until at least the 2nd century bc giving a period of multiple centuries in which it would have existed in purely oral fashion this period is similar in length to that for which the tails of the ulster cycle would have been passed down if they originated in the irish iron age a similar example can be found in the ancient indian collection of hymns the rigveda the majority of which were likely composed in the late second millennium bc which were then orally transmitted for centuries prior to being transcribed when we come to examine the texts of irish mythology however it becomes clear that there are significant challenges to identifying them as oral compositions for a start historical texts that are known to have been transmitted orally for significant periods are usually structured in verse a format that makes them easier to recollect and harder to alter and often contain redundant or repetitive features designed to aid their memorization by contrast most of the longer tales found within irish mythology are written in prose with occasional sections of verse text that usually take the form of dialogue and which largely lack these repetitive features as noted by jp mallory an unbroken transmission of many of these texts in oral form also runs into the problem that the irish language appears to have changed dramatically between the end of the iron age and the later medieval period which would have made preserving the original form of most old irish tales extremely difficult so if we accept that we have no clear evidence that these tales were originally oral compositions dating back to the iron age then how exactly might they have been composed well for us to attempt to answer this question the time has come for us to discuss how exactly these tales came to be committed to writing to the best of our knowledge the majority of the texts of irish mythology are the work of christian scribes working at early medieval church centers such as clone magnoys terry glass kildare duro skellig michael kells and amar looking back from a 21st century mindset we might easily fall into the view that these communities would have been largely isolated from wider european society situated as they were on the edge of atlantic europe the reality however is that these communities appear to have been well connected with both neighbouring britain as well as with continental europe throughout which irish churchmen and missionaries were known to be active in the early 8th century the english historian bade or bader would describe these church centers as major sources of latin learning that were capable of garnering large numbers of students from his own country during this period these centers were also active producers of latin manuscripts including sets of the gospels as a marked by distinctive decorative elements these artistic motifs will contribute to the development of a recognizable style of insular artwork which includes masterpieces such as the book of the kells that rival anything produced elsewhere in europe during this time beyond these religious texts these centres are also known to have reproduced a number of classical works by greek and roman authors and to have committed large amounts of local folklore mythology and supposed history to parchment in the traditional view it was held that these church writers recorded the oral tales of irish mythology as they found them exactly who they would have received these tales from is uncertain though the main candidates are the philly or the bards both these figures would survive long past the demise of the druids as a learned class in ireland and will continue to occupy an important role as the keeper of the traditions and the history of a given tribe ortua whilst we have no direct evidence that any of the recorded tales of irish mythology originated in pre-christian times it remains possible that these figures would have transmitted folklore and tales that were circulating in early medieval times to church writers and there is evidence that these two groups would have occasionally mingled in society to counterbalance this however we should note that we also have no direct evidence of such a transmission taking place and it is possible that these churchmen may have simply collated tales that were already circulating throughout wider irish society regardless of how these church writers came to receive these tales what now seems clear is that they had a larger purpose than simply copying down local folklore and traditions instead it seems likely that much of their supposed history of ireland seems to have been deliberately constructed on a christian model and whilst it likely incorporated large elements of irish folklore it did so under significant influence from biblical texts the result is that large sections of irish mythology are thought to have been composed to provide what dr kim mccone has described as an old testament of the irish race the directly linked ireland with the perceived legitimacy of biblical history in some cases these links are more overt such as in the lower gowalla iron which begins with a retelling of the christian story of genesis elsewhere in its texts several of the listed groups of invaders are described as being descended from adam through the figure of noah and the wanderings of the malaysians prior to arriving in ireland have drawn comparisons to those of the biblical israelites j.p mallory has also noted that during the time these tales were committed to writing many of the nations of northern europe were attempting to connect their histories to either classical or biblical accounts this includes isidoro seville's claim that most of the peoples of europe were descended from noah's son jaffart or claims by the britons to descend from the figure of brutus son of the legendary trojan hero aeneas at other times we see small attempts to link the events of irish mythology with those of the bible for example the king of ulster concava magnessa is said to have died after an old war wound of his was aggravated after hearing of the death of christ with the blood that sprung from his wound serving as a baptism and allowing him to enter heaven when it comes to the druids themselves scholars such as professor miranda alto screen and ronald hutton have suggested that their descriptions in irish mythology often draw direct parallels with the actions of old testament prophets with miranda alto screen pointing in particular to the accounts of samuel and nathan who themselves used divination to learn the will of god outside of these biblical influences irish mythology is similarly thought to have been influenced by the works of earlier greek and roman authors indeed according to professor brent miles there is evidence that the writers of the early irish church were familiar with a number of major classical epics including virgil's ayonid ovid's metamorphoses and the farsalir of the roman poet lucan accounts of the trojan war are also known to have been popular amongst these authors though neither the illiad or the odyssey seemed to have been known to them instead these writers were likely more familiar with works such as the de excedo tria historia which claims in its text to be a latin translation of a contemporary account of the destruction of troy written by a trojan priest in reality this work was likely composed in the 5th century a.d but this did not prevent it from attaining extraordinary popularity in medieval europe where the works of homer were largely unknown a much expanded version of this account would be translated into irish around the 10th century under the title of the toggle troy which itself contains a mixture of classical and native irish elements and many other classical texts would also receive irish translations it goes without saying that many of the features of these epics which include heroic figures contending with one another from the backs of chariots and fickle gods and goddesses interfering in mortal affairs have clear parallels in irish mythology particularly in the tales of the ulster cycle and of the time itself we must conclude then that considering the uncertainties surrounding the origins of the tales of irish mythology we cannot reliably assign any of its claimed actions and rituals associated with the druids to a definitively iron age origin at the best we can state that this version of the druids represents the role they were fought to play in folklore dating from the early medieval period this folklore may also have been supplemented by other surviving signs of pre-christian practices such as the writers observations of the remains of the great pagan royal centers and the continuing medieval observation of the festivals of imbolg sauwan lunasa and bialtena at the worst however many of these supposed ritual elements may simply be the result of christian writers attempting to invent details that could plausibly represent a pagan past of which they had little actual knowledge it is unsurprising then that some scholars have concluded that the irish mythological cycles should be dismissed as a source of knowledge on any aspect of pre-christian ireland other scholars have however concluded that despite the uncertainties surrounding the authenticity of the druid's depiction in irish mythology this does not mean we should throughout the idea of the druid's existence entirely for a start it has been noted by ronald hutton that there are many examples of old and middle irish words associated with the druids that appear to be authentically native in origin rather than a later import their presence throughout much of irish mythology also seems difficult to square with their relative unimportance in the literary sources that may have inspired much of its composition currently the only major classical work known to have been available to the irish writers of the early medieval period that mentions the druids at all is the farsalir of the poet lucan which as we covered in our previous video only mentions them briefly as we explored before the descriptions of the druids in irish mythology often diverged greatly from those of their claimed brethren in britain and goal and an argument can thus be made that these depictions played little role in shaping the image of the druid in ireland and as we will see in due course we also have several other literary sources available beyond those of irish mythology which include detailed descriptions of the druid's role in pre-christian ireland so if we cannot fully trust the picture of pre-christian practices that is presented in the irish mythological cycles let us put them to one side and now examine in detail what the archaeological record has to say regarding the known ritual life of iron age ireland to do this let us begin by returning to the royal sites that we touched on earlier and examine each of their major features in turn of these sites the one afforded the greatest degree of precedence throughout irish history is the complex at the hill of tara best known in the medieval period as the seton inauguration center of the king of tara and later of claimants the high kingship of ireland amongst its surviving monuments by far the oldest found at this complex is a passage tomb known as the mound of the hostages in later literature this structure was tied to the figure of nail of the nine hostages the semi-mythical ancestor of the e-nail dynasty who may have reigned as the king of tara somewhere between the fourth and the fifth century's a.d in reality however this tomb likely dates from the late 4th millennium bc and appears to be built over an earlier ditch structure this tomb continued to be used to deposit burial remains throughout the bronze age during this time a number of additional barrows and mounds appear to have been erected on the site many of which would be incorporated into later monuments around 2500 bc there is also evidence that a massive timber circle measuring some 250 meters in diameter was built around the mound of the hostages which was later either removed or left to decay then between the second century bc and the first century ad the entire site was extensively remodeled with the construction of a number of large ditched enclosures across the hilltop of these by far the largest is the earthwork known as the raf nari an oval-shaped enclosure measuring some 200 by 300 meters that appears to have been built to enclose the hills earlier monuments as the heart of this larger enclosure lies the most striking feature of the hilltop two conjoined earthworks that between them form a figure of eight structure when viewed from the air the order of these two structures is known as the forad and consists of a large mound that may contain a bronze age barrow and that is surrounded by a double ring of earthen banks and ditches atop this structure which is known as a ring barrow stands the stone known as the leophal traditionally identified as the inauguration stone of the high kings of ireland though this identification is now thought to be unlikely amongst archaeologists next to the four out stands a later ring fort known as the cha cormac named for the legendary king carmack machete which may date from the early first millennium a.d elsewhere on the hilltop can be found the partially destroyed structures of the raf lyra a large circular enclosure named for nail's son lyra mcnail and a much mutilated four-banked ring fort known as the wrath of the synods itself built over a number of earlier ditched enclosures and wooden structures lower down the hill lies a series of large ring barrows along with a later processional avenue known as the banqueting hole that provides a ceremonial approach up the hill towards the complex this pattern of a large hilltop enclosure containing a number of interior monuments is continued at the sites of navan fort and dunalin both of which show scattered evidence of activity dating back to the neolithic period in the case of navan fort a ditched enclosure containing an area of some six hectares was built around the beginning of the first century bc making it a possible contemporary of the raf nariya tara the interior of this enclosure contains two visible monuments the remnants of a ring barrow and a vast flat top circular mound that measures some 50 meters in diameter and stands nearly 6 meters high as with the wrath of the synods beneath these monuments are the remains of an earlier series of wooden structures and ditches of these by far the most notable is the final structure that rests beneath the great mound a massive roundhouse structure that measures roughly 40 meters in diameter this structure has been radiocarbon dated to around 95 bc and was centered around a single vast pillar that may have been 13 meters or more in height and was supported by four smaller rings of posts interestingly the entrance to this building was set westwards towards the setting sun whereas residences of this period normally faced eastwards towards the rising sun soon after its construction the space inside the structure was filled with stones after which its remaining timber elements were deliberately burned the remains of this structure were then carefully buried under a thick layer of soil creating the mound which we see today this whole process was clearly treated with a high degree of ritual significance but as to its intended purpose we can only speculate a similar ditched earthwork to that of navinfort also crowns the top of the hill of dunalin where it encircles an area of some 13 hectares whilst this earthwork has not been as precisely dated as that of navan fort it is likely that this structure was erected sometime after the 5th century bc whilst a range of radiocarbon dates taken from its interior indicates that this site was largely in use between 165 bc and 530 ad much like navinfort and tara the interior of this site also contains a complicated series of ditches and wooden structures erected at the hills summit which may have culminated in the construction of a 9 metre tall wooden tower contained within a double-layered palisade unlike these free sites the scope of the centers of raf kraken and ishnok are difficult to summarize easily in the case of raf kraken the full ceremonial complex stretches over 6.5 square kilometers and includes over 240 recognizable landmarks dating from the neolithic through to the medieval period amongst its monuments are to be found prehistoric burial mounts ditched enclosures standing stones linear earthworks and roughly a dozen ring forts whilst none of these monuments resemble the grand halls described in irish mythology this site was also sometimes referred to in these texts as a major cemetery of kings and warriors as well as a place of assembly or enach descriptions that may have some basis in fact of these monuments the one most identified with the site of crocker named in irish mythology consists of a large earthen mound that measures some 88 meters in diameter and 6 metres in height this monument is placed roughly central within the rafcrocken complex and was originally surrounded by a circular enclosure and ditch measuring some 360 meters in diameter whilst the mound itself has not been fully excavated magnetic surveys have demonstrated the presence of a complex series of circular stone and wooden structures buried within its core along with a wooden powersaid that would have likely faced the vertical facade outside of the central mound another major feature of the rafcrocken complex that has been identified with irish mythology is that of the owenagat or the cave of the cats in irish mythology this cave served two major roles acting both as a portal to the underworld and as the dwelling place of the irish war goddess the morrigan this monument consists of a natural fissure in the rock which later appears to be artificially widened in modern times this cave can be entered through a man-made terrain like we constructed during medieval times and which may have originally been set within the remains of a large enclosure or tumulus little of which remains today the final of these centers is the prehistoric complex found at ishnok best known in irish mythology for its role as the umbilical center of ireland where it is claimed to have acted as a meeting place between its five provinces in these sources this site is also strongly linked with the festival of bialtona at which this assembly is fought to have occurred and is traditionally associated with a druidic fire cult elsewhere this site is marked by a sacred tree and well and is said to be the burial place of a number of mythical figures including that of lou and the dagda as with the sights of tara and raf kraken today the landscape of this site consists of a mixture of monuments dating back to the neolithic which include the remains of what may be a megalithic tomb a number of barrows earthworks and enclosures along with two ancient roadways and the natural lake of lochloo said to be the drowning place of the eponymous god to this we can also add an unusual monument in the form of the catstone a large glacial limestone formation which was said in later medieval sources to be the umbilical or naval of ireland from which all of its provincial borders ultimately arose of all the monuments are dyshnok however the most visible is the large figure of eight-shaped earthwork known as the raphnu the surviving features of which likely represent a later period of medieval occupation beneath this later earth work however evidence has been found of a number of ditchers including a penangular enclosure some 50 meters in diameter that may date from the iron age according to dr roseanne shot this early enclosure also contained large numbers of pits and post holes many of which contained thick layers of ashes along with layers of unburnt animal bones according to the interpretation of the site's original excavator ras mcallister these pits were marked by fires that were kindled and then quickly quenched with either water or earth a process that likely held some form of ritual significance summer activity seemed to have continued in this enclosure even as the surrounding ditch began to fill up and there was evidence of a thick black layer of ashes and burnt animal bones within at least part of it it was then later sealed by another layer of burnt clay so what can we conclude from these sites well as jp mallory notes in his book the origins of the irish it seems that during the iron age a similar pattern of ceremonial building emerged throughout ireland in addition to the revival of earlier practices such as the digging of ditched and banked enclosures we also see the appearance of unprecedented ceremonial structures and buildings beyond these more general patterns of construction there are also a number of striking parallels between some of the structures found within each of these sites for example at the site of dunalin one of the earlier wooden structures excavated from the site summit is known to have consisted of two circular enclosures joined in a figure of eight pattern one larger than the other and each contained within three concentric ditches into each of these ditches were sunk lines of posts which according to a reconstruction by archaeologist bernard wales would have supported a two-tiered wooden superstructure that enclosed both circles of palisades and likely provided a viewing platform whatever rituals or displays were conducted in the open space within the entrance way to the main enclosure was similarly fact by substantial fences as appear to have formed a processional way which also contained an internal avenue of posts two almost identical structures have been unearthed beneath the surviving interior features of navan fort whilst one of the wooden structures excavated from beneath the wrath of the synods at tara is known to have consisted of a series of posts arrayed in a figure of eight pattern in the case of navin fort the smaller circle within one of these structures may well have been removed and displays evidence of domestic occupation perhaps indicating that a high status individual was in residence on the site at this time a similar processional avenue led to the great mound of traff kroken along with other enclosures that have been found within its immediate vicinity beyond these similar features many of these sites also show a common pattern of large-scale structures being erected and then ritually destroyed often after only a short period of use in the case of wooden structures this destruction often took the form of deliberate burning whilst at both navin fort and raf kraken we see evidence of structures that were entombed in earth after the end of their use so if there were individuals who resembled the druids of irish mythology present during the iron age what potential role may they have played in the function of these sites well given the scale and organization of these centres it would be unsurprising if their construction and maintenance were indeed linked to some form of dedicated ritual class it could further be argued that the similarities we observe between many of their ritual features may indicate that a shared system of worship existed throughout large sections of ireland during this time if this was the case then it could be theorised that a shared group of ritual practitioners might well have been responsible for their construction these similar features also appear at sites that would potentially have been separated from one another by tribal boundaries and it could well be possible that these features were transmitted between these centers by a religious class that was unrestricted by normal boundaries however it should be admitted that all of this is speculation and that there are other potential explanations for these parallels for example the sheer scale of the resources required to construct these sites likely gave them an influence well beyond their immediate vicinity and the ideas and beliefs that surrounded them could well have been transmitted to other centers through a process of cultural diffusion indeed we know that island was home to a well-connected trade network during this period that's extended into continental europe and beyond for example the score of a barbary ape a creature native to northern africa has been unearthed in the early iron age layers beneath the figure of eight structure found within navan fort as such the appearance of similar features may be more due to emulation by the builders of each centre who deliberately copied the known practices of their neighbours finally we should also note that there may have been other elite groups within irish society who may have been involved in the construction of these sites such as the chieftains mentioned by tacitus and as such their creation may not have required any distinctive ritual class so putting aside these similar features do we see any evidence for the specific rituals described in irish mythology the answer is largely no whilst we have ample evidence for the various structures that were erected on these sites during the iron age we can glean very little as to what their associated rituals would have involved the most we can say is that we can be confident that these centers were the sites of major feasts and gatherings as shown by vast depositions of animal bones such as those of cattle and pigs based on the patterns of these depositions some of this feasting may well have had a ceremonial aspect possibly associated with specific ritual dates the apparent role of these centres as gathering places along with the presence of large ash deposits within many of their structures also draws easy comparisons to the descriptions of the festivals of irish mythology which are often said to be marked by large bonfires overseen by the druids there is also a small amount of evidence that some of the dates later associated with these festivals were considered significant in prehistoric for example at tara the neolithic mound of the hostages is reputed to be aligned so that sunlight enters its central chamber on the dates of both sauron and inbolg as we discussed in our previous video it is often claimed that on the dates of both saun and bialtona are listed on the coligny calendar a bronze tablet written in gaulish that was unearthed in eastern france dated from out of the first or the second century however it should be noted that this interpretation is by no means undisputed and it is possible that the word that has been interpreted as referring to sauer sammonius may instead be related to the gaulish word for summer outside of this some archaeologists have cautioned against directly linking this evidence of ritual burning with specific calendar dates instead contextualizing it is only one of a number of possibilities for example during the excavations at the hill of ward another prominent site associated with sauron in medieval tradition the archaeologist dr steve davis of university college dublin gave the following comments regarding the large ash layers found on the site we have found evidence of intense burning there whether you want to equate that with sauern or not this monument is associated with fire the medieval text would associate this very strongly with an annual fire festival it may also have been a place for crafting metal and glass and in those times very few people knew how to do that so it too would have been magical so at the end of our examination of these major sites we can say that there is evidence that a common package of ritual behavior was present throughout much of iron age ireland which included communal behavior such as feasting the construction of large earthworks and structures and repeated patterns of burning but as is so often the case with archaeology there is little to directly link these activities to any given group with an iron age society at the best it can be said that the similarities in construction seen between these sites is evidence of a common belief system existing throughout much of ireland during this period which may well have been mediated by a group of religious specialists such as the druids ultimately however we have no direct evidence that this was the case and if we wish to learn more of the druids claimed role in this period then we must move on once again [Music] buzzing aside the text of irish mythology and the archaeology of its most prominent science we do have one final source of writing that may well have originated in the late iron age and that past scholars have frequently associated with the druids known as orm or ogum this writing appears engraved on the edges of stone monuments throughout both ireland and the western reaches of britain fought to be the earliest written script in irish history aum consists of a series of tick marks set against a central line with the resulting writing resembling roman numerals in the early 20th century this script was widely assumed by scholars such as ras mcallister and owen mcneill to date from pre-christian ireland and it was suggested the tome was first created by the druids as a cryptic system of writing in opposition to the roman empire as we discussed before this script also appears in irish mythology and whilst there is no evidence that this script was considered inherently magical his inscriptions were shown to have magical properties when written on wood indeed it has been hypothesized that wooden engravings of this script may have existed alongside those written on stone but the lack of any surviving examples makes this claim impossible to verify in the leia gowalla eran we also see a claimed origin for this script that it was originally invented alongside the gaelic language by the legendary syphilian king phineas farashi soon after the fall of the biblical tower babylon later medieval sources such as the om tract would also ascribe its invention to the irish god ogma who is said to be skilled in both speech and poetry and who chose to invent the script both as proof of his genius and to distinguish learned men among society later medieval sources would also introduce the idea that the alphabet of the om script was based around the names of different plants and animals particularly those of trees this in turn fueled comparisons by scholars with the writings of classical authors on the druids of gaul and britain particularly their association with plans law and forested places in recent decades however many of these ideas have been abandoned by scholars whilst it remains possible that some of the earliest olm stones may have been inscribed towards the end of the irish iron age it is now thought that the majority of its inscriptions were likely made between the fourth and the 11th century's ad the idea that the om alphabet is connected to the planck kingdom has also failed to stand up to scrutiny and recent structural analysis has shown that most om characters have no connection to the names of plants the exact source of ohm's development has also come under dispute and some recent studies have argued that it may even have been created under influence from the latin alphabet which was likely introduced from neighboring britain indeed we do have some evidence of bilingual latin inscriptions from examples of the script found in wales indicating that it is unlikely that the script had any cryptic function in this region finally om expert dr anthony harvey of the irish royal academy suggested the presence of christian terms within the script itself such as the word for abbot or bishop may cast doubt on the idea of it having any pagan origin so with these concerns regarding om in mind is there anything at all in its surviving inscriptions that might give us some hints into early religious practices either in iron age island or the early medieval period it now seems the overwhelming majority of surviving arm inscriptions consist simply of short passages often featuring transcriptions of names and genealogies possibly people who held some significance in the area where these stones were erected of these inscriptions only a very small number have been interpreted as having any connections with irish mythology perhaps the most prominent example of this has been found at the royal site of raf krokken within one of its most famous monuments the awenagat contained within this monument are two om inscriptions one of them legible which includes the words freyak and son of mev this second reference has been interpreted by some to refer to queen maeve of the ulster cycle and who as we discussed before may also have been a pre-christian sovereignty goddess however it is unclear whether this meve is the meve of irish mythology and attempts to link details of its tales with inscriptions such as these have been cautioned against by archaeologists and regardless of whether these limited inscriptions have any relation to the later mythological tales what is clear is that there is no mention of the druids to be found within their texts it appears then that we have exhausted the major sources available to us that cover the druid's potential role in iron age ireland at the end of our examination it seems as with the druids of gaul and britain we have little that we can conclusively link to their claim brethren across the irish sea about the most that can be argued is that there were figures in ireland that were referred to by words such as dree though we have no way of knowing whether this term was applied to a specific group or was a more general term for a ritual practitioner however whilst irish mythology does present a plausible image of the druids as a group of ritual practitioners judges and advisers to the local kings the lack of certainty over whether any of its elements are genuinely pagan means that we have tremendous difficulty in verifying what if anything is accurate about the world that it portrays there is also little direct evidence for the role of a particular ritual class or group in the archaeological record the most we can say is that the major sites of this period do show strong similarities which may leave the door open for a group of religious specialists involved in their construction and management so if we have now exhausted all of our potential iron age sources where else might we look well there are plentiful accounts of the druid's activities dating from the early medieval period where they are largely found in the writings of the christian church along with contemporary law codes in the case of the former many of these accounts take place amongst the backdrop of the christianization of ireland the earliest events of which are somewhat obscure outside of a few small examples that we will discuss shortly this period suffers from a lack of contemporary documentation by the native irish and much of our picture of the activities of early christian saints in the 5th century is reliant on accounts written from the 7th century onwards there is however an external source that may help shed some light on the subject it can be found in the writings of a 5th century christian author by the name of prosper of aquitaine best known to us today for his work the epitoma chronic on in his entry for 431 a.d he tells us that a missionary by the name of palladius having been ordained by pope celestine was sent as the first bishop to the irish believing in christ using the roman term scotty from the phrasing of this entry it seems likely that there were existing christian communities in ireland prior to the arrival of any organized missionary likely due to the transmission from nearby roman britain and goal later irish chronicles composed retrospectively would also pinpoint the arrival of saint patrick to the year 432 a.d with his activities being associated in later traditions with the north and east of ireland compared to palladius's assumed activities in linster over time however the activities of these two figures seem to have been more and more conflated possibly resulting in the confusion seen over patrick's date of death in the irish chronicles it has also been suggested by professor claire downham at the university of liverpool that activities and deeds associated with palladius may have been increasingly attributed to patrick by later writers eager to elevate the prestige of their patron in addition to these two figures we can also add early sixth century church leaders such as saint kevin of glendalough saint bridget of kildare saint ruan and saint finnian of clonard and his twelve apostles amongst whom we can find figures such as saint brandon the navigator and the famed missionary column kyle better known saint columba despite the efforts of these early missionaries however it seems that the process of christianization in ireland was a gradual one and indeed much of its population may have continued to observe pre-christian practices for centuries after the arrival of its first missionaries whilst the activity at pre-christian sites such as the royal centers seems to have declined by this point they do seem to have retained a degree of prestige an argument can be made that many early churches and monasteries appear to have been deliberately founded close to these existing centres possibly in an attempt to corps much of their importance this includes the major centre of armar itself founded barely two miles to the east of the iron age centre of alan maca and indeed the initial buildings of its cathedral appear to be constructed over the site of a pre-christian ditched enclosure of uncertain function the important early church center of kildare is similarly situated near the older centre of don alina and in later church documents was said to have been donated to saint bridget by the king of leinster in an account that highly resembles that of the founding of carthage found in the aeneid alongside this co-opting of pre-christian sites a similar process like we saw the adaptation of local folklore and ritual tradition into the later hagiographies of the lives of irish as we discussed before the most prominent example of this is the claims of some historians that the deeds of ireland's national female saint bridget of kildare were largely conflated with those of a pre-christian goddess by the name of bridget indeed the two figures share many attributes such as their association with poetry healing and smithing and st bridget's feast day notably falls on february 1st the same date as the pre-christian festival of imbolc so what role did the druids play in responding to the increasing spread of christianity in ireland well if we go by later church documents such as the accounts of the lies of irish saints dating from around the seventh century onwards we see plentiful accounts of the druids acting as the main opponents to the efforts of the early church in these documents the druids are depicted as formidable adversaries to the miracle working of the christian saints which they counted with their own dark magics usually said to be inspired by the devil in many of these accounts druids are presented as the advisors of the pagan kings of ireland and often act as a roadblock to the missionaries attempts to convert these figures an example of this can be found in two 7th century accounts outlining the life of saint patrick the vita sancti patrici composed by the monk murrahu and the co-ectaneo of the bishop tirahan in both of these documents we are told of st patrick's contention with the druids during the great feast of tara where he attempted to convert king loire to christianity here patrick antagonizes the king and his court by deliberately breaking local traditions and lighting an easter fire on a nearby hilltop after mustering his retinue to confront the priest loire is counseled by two of his druids lockru and locket male to allow them to confront patrick instead lockrue then assails the priest by insulting him and mocking his faith to which patrick beseeches the lord to raise up the man who would blaspheme against him on these words lokru is unceremoniously launched high into the air dying either from the impact or from freezing solid amongst the snow and hail of the skies after calling down an earthquake to destroy the pagans chariots and force them to flee patrick and his companions then intrude on the king's feast at tara the next day here the druid locket male attempts to poison the saints drink only for patrick to freeze the wine and allow the drop of venom to drip out the two then contend in the battle of miracles where patrick's prayers succeed in driving away the snow and darkness summoned by the druids magic finally the saint defeats locker through a trial by fire where both the druid and the student of patrick's entered a hut that was then set alight whilst the druid himself perished patrick's cloak which lockert was wearing was left unmarked whilst the boys survived despite being clothed in the druid's garment this event ends with the conversion of the king and his court so old were they by the power of patrick's faith this basic template of contentions with the druids is repeated in the lives of other saints in a document known as the lies of irish saints saint barak contends with the poet rafan diyamat said to be chief druid to the king of konacht in adafnam's life of saint columba the eponymous saint is similarly opposed by a picturesque druid named broyken during his missionary work in scotland who threatens to summon winds to prevent him from returning home to ireland these early christian accounts also provide an interesting parallel to the classical texts that cover the druids and that they occasionally ascribe practices of human sacrifice to the pre-christian irish the main example of this occurs in the story of saint patrick's contention with what is described as the chief idol of ireland krum crueck an early account of this story can be found in the tripartite life of patrick a document that dates between the 7th and the 9th century in this tale kromkirk is described as a gold and silver statue located on the plain of my select which was in turn surrounded by 12 lesser idols made of brass according to this text patrick expelled the demons from each of these statues in turn then drove each of them into the earth where the tales writer tells us they could still be seen in their time in subsequent retellings the details of this story would grow more and more lurid according to the historian ronald hutton it is claimed in an 11th or 12th century version of the dinshena cast that the firstlings of every issue and the chief sounds of every clan were killed as offerings to the idol at the feast of sauron it was further said that the high king of ireland himself would lead its people in prostrating themselves before it another late version of the dinshena cass elaborates that a third of ireland's children were sacrificed annually to the idol and that their blood was poured around it to ensure a good yield of milk and corn so what can we say about the druid's presentation in these accounts well in many ways we see the jurors depicted as serious opponents to the early christian missionaries possessing their own forms of magic and posing a formidable challenge to the christianization of ireland at the same time they are presented as a group in decline gradually giving way under the influence of the newer faith what magics they do possess are often emphasized as being the wrong sort of magic that is unable to stand before the miracles of figures such as saint patrick the result is that these stories almost inevitably end with either their defeat or conversion along with that of the kings they serve outside of these more supernatural elements however the general picture they present of the druids resisting the arrival of the christian missionaries is certainly a plausible one after all if these figures did occupy a major ritual role within pre-christian society then the coming of this new faith would have posed an existential threat to their power but there are reasons to doubt their presentation of the druids as being a major force of resistance against the christian saints like the irish mythological cycles these accounts largely date from well after the initial christianization of ireland and as we have discussed carry clear signs of later embellishment as professor philip freeman notes in his work the world of saint patrick should we remember that these texts are first and foremost hagiographies rather than attempts at chronicling historical events instead it is thought that the goal of these accounts is often to remodel saints in line with the figures of the gospels so that they may serve as beacons of inspiration for believers and potential converts alike in the case of the irish saints the elevation of the deeds and miracles attributed to these figures may have required a similar elevation of the druid to provide a credible opposition in addition to this miranda alto screen and ronald hutton have asserted that these accounts also contain events that echo those of the old testament stories of conflicts between the biblical prophets and the seers of babylon as an example for the account of patrick's contention with the druids of tara they cite his inspiration the great feast of nebuchadnezzar in the book of daniel along with the struggle between the priests of bao and elijah in the book of kings so if we have reasons to doubt these documents description of the druids as the major opponents of the initial spread of christianity what other sources do we have available well outside of these later hagiographies we do have available a few church documents that are broadly contemporary with the activities of early christian missionaries in ireland here we see the druids presented in a very different light and often they go unmentioned entirely these documents are extremely limited and consist largely of a small number of letters and hymns most of them associated in various traditions with st patrick of these texts two are commonly thought to have been composed by patrick himself though their surviving copies date to the 9th century these consist of the confessio an account of the saints life and activities in ireland and the letter written to the soldiers of caroticus a warlord who had apparently victimized some of patrick's followers in the former of these documents which appears to have been composed to rebut a number of unknown charges by his fellow churchmen patrick repeatedly mentions his activities amongst what he terms the pagans of ireland though he makes only one reference to any form of pre-christian ritual practice quote how is it that the irish who never had any knowledge of god worshiping only idols and unclean things have now become a people of the lord and are called sons of god the sons of irish and daughters of kings are even becoming monks and virgins of christ naturally these claims of idol worship by the pre-christian irish have been compared to the later stories of krom kroek though nowhere does anything resembling these stories appear in his account however it should be noted that patrick's writings may contain an accurate description of pre-christian ritual practices as we do have evidence for a number of cult images that likely date from the irish iron age [Music] these consist of a number of carved idols that have been found throughout northern and western ireland known as the kiwi klugen turow castle strange and derrykian stones whilst their exact forms differ each of these idols consists of a large stone decorated with latin motifs most of which have been dated from between the 1st century bc to the 1st century a.d and that are presumed to have held some form of ritual role of these stones the one found as kiwi klugen has drawn the closest comparisons to the story of krum kruik in addition to have been found to have been deliberately damaged this stone was found a short distance from what has been interpreted by its excavators as a bronze age stone circle at the center of which it apparently once stood in reality the damage to this stone was likely inflicted during modern times but this has not prevented suggestions that this story may have been linked to the site in some fashion perhaps serving as a source of inspiration for its composition outside of these more abstract idols we also know of a small number of wooden and stone anthropomorphic figures of these the most prominent are the korlak head a free-faced image dating from the first or second century ad this has been interpreted as representing an unknown tripartite god along with a more elaborate figure known as the tandragi man fought to date from the late bronze age this sculpture is carved in the form of a helmeted man grasping one arm with the other a stanza has drawn speculative comparisons to the god nawada one of the kings of the tua de danan in irish mythology this figure is best known for losing his arm in battle against the third volley as kings were required to be whole of body nuada thus lost his kingship and was only later restored to this position after his arm was replaced by a silver one moving on from these idols it is also clear from these texts their degree of organized opposition existed amongst the pagan peoples of ireland against the activities of early christian missionaries however the only groups mentioned as victimizing patrick's followers comprised of local chieftains and warlords and the druids themselves got unmentioned in these documents leaving any role they may have played in this persecution unclear [Music] in addition to these works we also have access to a small number of other documents and hymns from this period that mention the druids and that in some cases may shed light on the relationship between the christian church and the non-christian inhabitants of ireland perhaps the earliest to reference the druids directly is a hymn known as the breastplate of st patrick whilst this hymn is popularly attributed to st patrick it likely dates from the 6th century and indicates a degree of hostility towards the druids quote i called today on all these powers to protect me from the cruel and merciless forces that might attack my body and soul from the incantations of false prophets from the dark magic of pagans from the misleading ways of heretics from the snares of idolatry from the spells of women blacksmiths and druids from all that attacks body and soul to this we can add a set of rulings from an early church council known as the first synod of saint patrick whilst this document itself claims to date from the 5th century and indeedless contemporary saints such as patrick auxilius and isernius amongst the council's attendees it is now fought to date from the 6th century from its contents we can infer that the society it took place in was likely still predominantly pagan this can be seen in a number of rulings that are concerned with the proper conduct of priests towards non-christians who they appear to have been encountering on a regular basis along with a ruling that instructs priests to take disputes to the church rather than to the native judges according to professor claire downham the segregation of christian law for more secular law codes likely indicates that christianity was still a minority religion within ireland and there is evidence that this faith did not become dominant until the early 8th century however whilst we can again infer from these rulings that the christian faith was being actively opposed during this period amongst this list only one ruling is fought to make any reference to a figure that may be a druid quote a christian who has committed murder or fornication or in the manner of the pagans has sworn before a soothsayer shall spend a year in penance for each offence when the year is complete he shall come with witnesses and be absolved by a priest both this rule along with the earlier description of false prophets contained within the breastplate of st patrick can be argued as a degree of supporting evidence for the druids role as prophets in the tales of irish mythology if this rule was intended to refer to them outside of this point we can also conclude from these early documents that the druids were indeed a part of early medieval irish society that the church was attempting to reform though they seemed to have been far from the only group that presented opposition to its teachings considering these documents it seems likely that the druid's role in later church accounts as an arch enemy of early christian missionaries is an exaggerated one however it should be conceded that the surviving early christian literature is slim and the true picture of early christian interactions with native religious practitioners is likely to have been more complex than the picture presented by these documents it is around the beginning of the 8th century that we see what are thought to be our final reliable references to the druids as we mentioned before around this time christianity appears to have become the dominant faith and with this seems to have come new societal prescriptions against the druids this can be seen in a contemporary collection of canon law code and decrees known as the collectio canonum hibernensis in its the practice of druidry is prohibited as being against the teaching of the church alongside acts such as marauding heresy an illegal satire according to dr kim mccone similar prescriptions also appear in earlier works such as a 7th century penitential that assigns druids alongside heretics and adulterers as requiring a penance of seven years on bread and water whilst another old irish table of penitential commutations refuses remission of a druid's sins altogether and whilst in the 6th century the first synod of st patrick would ban participation by christian priests within the native judicial system by now the church seems to become reconciled to much of ireland's pre-christian laws with the canonum hibernsis justifying their use due to what it terms their natural goodness known as breton law after the name of the judges who administered it these law codes would continue to be used in varying forms in christian ireland up until the early modern period and it is amongst these documents that we find what may be the druid's final activities as a religious class in ireland [Music] the irish law codes are a diverse group of documents whilst most surviving copies that date from between the 14th and 16th centuries according to professor fergus kelly of the irish royal society we can tell from their language that many of these codes were first written down between the 7th and the 8th century with the majority of the work likely being done by the same church writers who compiled other early irish writings unlike many other early documents however these legal texts are fought to reliably depict the status of various groups within contemporary irish society given their origin as practical law codes and they're largely been occupied with secular rather than religious offences of the roughly 100 surviving texts about half belonged to a collection known as the shena castema which was likely composed in the northern midlands a number of other codes belong to a collection known as the nevad texts which may originate within the territory of munster as with the mythological cycles these codes were likely in oral circulation well before being committed to writing and similar legal terms are known in the surviving languages of medieval whales in their texts we see a description of irish society as being split into a patchwork of tribes or tua each led by their own king or re the society appears to have been largely rural in nature with prestige and legal penalties often being measured by the ownership and exchange of cattle here the population is split into three loosely defined groups the privileged nevad the sower and the doer the first group whose name roughly means holy or sacred consisted the various grades of king lord cleric and craftsmen who appear to have had special legal privileges above the other groups amongst their ranks we also see the surviving pre-christian institution of the philly whose role seems to have morphed into transmitters of oral culture with their tales also acting as the legitimizers of kingly deeds below these figures were the sower or the freedmen who seemed to have constituted a free farmers who retained a small degree of legal privileges and deciding power within the tour finally the doer comprised of tenants serfs and slaves who held no land and few legal privileges according to professor fergus kelly there were also figures occupied something of an uncertain position amongst this society such as senior clergymen with some codes even implying that senior bishops held a status on par with that of kings the resulting picture we have is of a hierarchical male-dominated society that bears many similarities with that described in irish mythology and like the other bodies of early irish writing the druids are to be found amongst its texts the inclusion of the druids amongst the irish law codes indicates that whilst their role had likely diminished by the 8th century they remained widespread enough to be accommodated within the law actual status granted to a druid differs between these texts likely reflecting the different periods and regions in which these codes were applied in the uraket back the druid is listed amongst the nevered though the actual status granted is that of a lesser craftsman a status that ronald hutton has speculated may either be an accurate listing or a calculated insult by the author elsewhere the druids are considered in a more discriminatory fashion in the brehacrolia the druid is listed amongst brigands and illegal satirists as a figure to be repudiated though the actual penalty inflicted is to have their sick maintenance reduced that of a modestly well-off farmer in addition to this reduced status there are also small hints as to older privileges that the druids may once have held according to a line in the brethren toy shek a defeat against odds and setting territories at war confers status on the druid this passage has been interpreted by ronald hutton as either meaning the druids played a part in warfare possibly deciding when tribes were at war or in line with their role in irish mythology as prophets with their prestige being enhanced by successful military pronouncements however it is clear from the druid status elsewhere in the law codes that this role had likely lapsed by the time they were transcribed if we had to further entertain the depiction of the druids as found in irish mythology then this group is also one that has lost any judicial role that it may once have played with these duties instead being conducted by professional legal officials known as brethef and anya ultimately the image we have of the druid in these law codes is of a marginalized figure and one who whilst prescribed no longer seems to have been considered a major threat to the christian authorities so what have we learned of the druids activities in ireland here today well despite the concerns we expressed regarding the accuracy of the druids role in irish mythology we must say that there does seem to be enough supporting evidence from later church accounts and the irish law codes that figures referred to as druids did exist in both pagan and early christian ireland whilst the archaeological record understandably provides little direct evidence for the existence of such a figure it does also seem that during the iron age much of ireland may have had a common package of ritual building behaviors the presence of newly identical structures at the different royal centers such as the wooden figure of eight buildings found at both navan fort and dunalin may also indicate that a somewhat unified system of worship existed between these centres though whether this was administered by a common religious order is impossible to tell the presence of evidence for mass feasting at these centers along with the patterns of repeated burnings at places such as ishnok may also indicate a degree of truth in descriptions of the great pagan festivals many of which were said to be marked by ritual bonfires finally some of the references found the druids in early church documents and hymns may indicate that the druids claimed role as a seer and spellcaster in irish mythology did have some basis in reality despite this we are still left with only the briefest view of the druid's role in irish society and we are none the wiser as to the exact rights and practices held by this group the exact vanishing point of the druids in ireland is uncertain much like the druids of britain and gaul whose disappearance may have been in part due to their proscription by the roman authorities the irish druids appear to have been slowly marginalized by its christian authorities whilst they may have lost whatever role they previously held it is possible that these figures may have continued to exist on the periphery of irish society for some time reduced to the level of hedge wizards or petty seers eventually however they seem to have lost whatever remaining purpose they held and from then on the figure of the druid would be consigned to writing alone it would remain there for many centuries until well after the end of the medieval period itself only then would men and women take up the name of the druids once more hello everybody charles here thank you for watching the video all the way through this one's certainly been a long time coming as you can probably tell from the length so i'm really happy to finally be able to share it with you folks before i go today i just wanted to say a special thanks to a few of the people who were involved in the making of this particular video so firstly i'd like to thank the site managers at the sites of raf kraken and the hill of ishnok dr daniel curley and dr francis cody respectively a big thanks to them for helping us out both in terms of helping us arrange permissions to film there on site and also helping us out by acting as our guides around their respective complexes in addition i'd also like to thank the irish office of public works for allowing us to film at the hill of tara and then finally i'd like to thank all our patrons here on his scrap channel thank you for helping support our work i know this has taken quite a while to come out so hopefully the next video will be somewhat shorter and out somewhat quicker okay thanks again folks for watching and hopefully i'll be talking to you again soon [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Histocrat

Views: 654,238

Keywords: Druids, histocrat druids, irish mythology, iron age ireland, ancient druids documentary, ancient ireland documentary, iron age documentary, iron age ireland druids documentary, druids documentary, druidism, irish druids, irish druids documentary, ancient history documentary

Id: HRNravHcb_Q

Length: 143min 33sec (8613 seconds)

Published: Thu May 26 2022