Review of Ronald Hutton in Independent

The Druids: A History, by Ronald Hutton

White robes, mistletoe, and heroes from ancient times to the present day

Reviewed by David V Barrett

Published: 21 June 2007

With his relaxed style and his refreshing insights into the historical origins of modern pagan beliefs, Ronald Hutton is one of the most recognised historians on British television. He has also become something of an iconoclast, tearing up what we thought we knew, and emphasising that all history is interpretation: who is telling the story, when, and why, obviously affects the content: what we call "history".

So what do we know as fact about the Druids? Almost nothing, because the few Roman sources are very questionable. Recent scholarship on Tacitus reveals that his work "represents beliefs, rather than recording reality". The evidence for the Druids as early British heroes, or even for their existence in Britain at the time of the Roman conquest, "consists of a molehill of completely unreliable material. On this a mountain of literature was to be built."

In this detailed but readable and in places hugely entertaining study, Hutton explores the many perceptions of the Druids; as patriotic heroes, as men of wisdom, as people close to nature.

Popular belief is often out of step with scholarly opinion; the idea that the Druids built Stonehenge was dismissed by scholars from the mid-19th century, but books were still promulgating this myth in the 1950s. They were also repeating one of the strangest beliefs, "that Druids had been bearers of the true patriarchal religion of the ancient Hebrews". In contrast, Victorian poetry and 20th-century popular fiction portrayed Druids performing bloody sacrifices.

Hutton challenges both popular and scholarly beliefs. He argues that Lindow Man, found in a Cheshire peat bog in 1984, may not have been a human sacrifice as claimed; and that the 1945 find of metal objects and bones in Anglesey is evidence neither for "a cruel and bloody religion" nor even for Anglesey being a centre of Druid activity.

Today's Druids are very different from all the supposedly historical stereotypes. Some, dating from the 18th century, are fraternal societies. Others embrace a variety of spiritual ideals. Hutton charts the long and uneasy relationship between different groups of Druids and the authorities at Stonehenge. "Druidry as an expression of a counter-culture now has a continuous history in Britain of more than 200 years," he writes, ending his richly-illustrated book with the counter-cultural Druid and environmental activist King Arthur Pendragon.

http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article2688275.ece