Druidism/Bardry

[ArrowsOfSilver]

Okay, I know there is a post on Wicca, which I also practice, but my branch of Wicca is based more on Druidism and Bardry.

Druidism is also known as the "Old Religion", and is the same as Wicca in the sense that they worship the God and Goddess. They have rituals, rites, and practice herb and spell lore.

Bardry is like Druidism, except Bards seek the God and Goddess through music, and the inspration that They give them.

[Gryphon]

Is that where they got the term Bard?

[LifeMaiden]

Doesn't Druidism have to also do with nature worship to some extent, particularly the trees and the woods?

[PrinceOfTheWest]

Kind of a Taliesen thing then, right? Oops - except Taliesen was Christian, for all we know...

Have you ever read Lewis' That Hideous Strength? I'd be very interested in your views on the character of Merlin in that story.

[LifeMaiden]

Merlin. Now there's an interesting figure.

[onlymystory]

i don't know about modern day druids and bards or the wiccan interpretation of them but druidism is much more than a simple worship of the god and goddess and bards have very little to do with druidism.
Bards are and to my knowledge still are merely poets and musicians who record the history of their people. I say merely not to degrade the work they do but to emphasize the lack of involvement they had in the rituals. bards did not seek the god or goddess. Rather they wrote poems and songs lauding them and often used the songs in worship. While practicers of druidism in some cases, much of history shows that many bards did not actually practice as stringent a religion as did most of the Celtic people. We know little about the bards during the time of antiquity but as time went on they moved from being a sort of troubador for their clan to being more of a teacher. Often bards were hired by nobility to perform for them as well as teach their children. A bard was often more accessible and was able to teach well through songs and stories. Even today a bard is someone who tells a story of their people through song.

Druids--while yes certainly pagan in nature did not simply worship the god and goddess. From what we know, there were over 400 gods that druids worshiped. The druids practiced animal sacrifice (not so odd really as nearly every old religion did) and were primarily the priests overseeing the rituals. With the arrival of Christianity in Brittania, the druids roles began to change slightly. While many held on to their pagan gods, some changed to Christianity. Celtic legend is full of stories that seem to be taken directly from Christianity. Perhaps this was appealing to many of the Celtic people. but even as Christianity spread so did the desire for knowledge. The Celtic Christians were excellent at recording all events and stories and songs, etc and the druids followed suit. Soon there were schools and monasteries across Britainnia especially in Ireland. in fact, we've seen that thanks to the druids and the priests efforts many great works were preserved. The druids taught math, astronomy, chemistry, physics, history, literature, Latin, Greek, theology, and philosophy. Wiccan druidism is actually a good deviant from original pagan druidry. Druidry essentially died out in the twelfth century. In the late 17th and early 18th century we began to see a revival of druidism but it was interwoven with a worship of the sun god (Sol) and bits of unorthodox Christianity and freemasonry. From there it changed further in 1964 when Ross Nichols founded the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. His order deviated even further from the ancient order of Druids. Gerald Gardner (the founder of modern day Wicca) used some of his ideas in his writings and a key development was the eightfold festival now commonly practiced by most pagans. This a new development not even fifty years old. Druidism today is very different from the original.

That's just a little of my insight. Celtic and druidic tradition is an especial favourite subject of mine. Especially the literary aspects.

[echoscot]

Onlymystory, You have delivered quite a history lesson. That was fascinating, thank you.

you should consider that for a doctoral thesis. :D

[onlymystory]

If i can pull it off my doctoral thesis will be either The influence of Christianity on early Celtic literary tradition or something along the lines of how celtic and christian literary tradition combined to create the legends of Merlin, King Arthur, etc. so in 7 years i might just turn out a nice little dissertation on that stuff.

if anyone wants to know more I'd be happy to help. I have a paper somewhere too that i wrote a couple years ago that gives a decent insight as well into the history.

[Jood]

I'm schocked...very much so.....

[PrinceOfTheWest]

From my small studies in the matter (especially compared to OMS), I understand that the role of "bard" (or "minstrel", or any one of several names) is much more important than we understand. The reason is that our modern culture is based on transmitting information by written form, and has been for several centuries. But reach back a millenium or so, and most information was transmitted via oral recitation, and writing was a specialized skill like accounting is today. Thus we misinterpret the role - when we hear that bards composed and sang epics, legends, and poems, we think they were entertainers, since that is the role song and recitation play in our culture. But in an oral culture, that is how heritage, culture, and group identity would be passed along. Bards were serious business indeed, and still are in those cultures which maintain an oral tradition. The best of them would be equivalent to college professors.

[inkspot]

Wow, OMS, that was cool information, yours too PoTW.

This reminds me of two favorite books of mine (although outside of an entertaining read, I don't think either has much enlightenment to offer):

* Mists of Avalon, with its reinterpretation of the Arthur legend. They seem to be Druids, but heavily focused on the goddess and her horned consort -- and there is even human sacrifice at one point. The Druid/Bardry title of the Thread made me think of this book, also because in this book "Merlin" is the title for the Bard of England, not an actual person, but a position, The Merlin.

* The Dragon Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey, DragonFight, DragonQuest, The White Dragon. In their culture on their planet of Pern, instead of Bards they have Harpers, and they do present musicals and songs and concerts, but they are also like the news media and the shapers of opinion and the ones who preserve history and culture. Like the Bards PoTW mentions.

[onlymystory]

POTW is right about how important bards are. Originally they weren't quite as important because their primary focus was songs and stories about just their clan and songs praising the gods. Not that the history isn't important but they were small clans. They grew to take more responsibility and by the time Christianity started growing they were vital to a clan and its kingdom. And actually the best wouldn't be so much on the level of a college professor but more like an Oxford professor with tenure. The bards (later called minstrels and troubadours) recorded everything and all orally. Because most songs and stories weren't written down until much later historians don't know how long these tales were. However there are estimates that some of the superior bards had tales of great battles or great kings that were as long as a book. Bards are truly an impressive bunch.

It is also important to note differences between bards. Welsh bards were either nothing more than singers/reciters of simple poetry or they were required to go under strict training. An advanced bard in Wales spent over seven years studying the art of poetry and language. Bards without schooling who traveled with clans are known as hedge-bards. Interestingly enough most Irish hedge-bards were equal to an advanced bard in Wales and often viewed as superior. In Ireland an advanced druid spent 12 years in training. Irish bards who had been trained were feared in battle. It was said their satire could strike down an entire army while their praise exalted kings. In Ireland bards and druids often were one and the same both teaching and singing tales of their people. There were several other levels of bards too but those were the primary differences between the main ones in Ireland and Wales.

I forgot to mention, POTW, that Talesien was indeed a bard. Just not a pagan bard (so far as we can tell). Just to clarify for others, while the early druids and bards were primarily pagan, they lasted quite a while and many weren't pagan.