Druids

A Very Short Introduction

By: Barry Cunliffe

Narrated by: Donald Corren

The Druids have been known and discussed for at least 2400 years, first by Greek writers and later by the Romans, who came in contact with them in Gaul and Britain. According to these sources, they were a learned caste who officiated in religious ceremonies, taught the ancient wisdoms, and were revered as philosophers. But few figures flit so elusively through history, and the Druids remain enigmatic and puzzling to this day.

In this Very Short Introduction, one of the leading authorities on British archaeology, Barry Cunliffe, takes the listener on a fast-paced look at the ever-fascinating story of the Druids, as seen in the context of the times and places in which they practiced. Sifting through the evidence, Cunliffe offers an expert's best guess as to what can be said and what can't be said about the Druids, discussing the origins of the Druids and the evidence for their beliefs and practices, why the nature of the druid caste changed quite dramatically over time, and how successive generations have seen them in very different ways.

©2010 Barry Cunliffe (P)2021 Tantor

Great summation.

Great summation. Though I wish it weren’t so. Sometimes myth is greater than reality, not that the reality was by any means poor.

Informative

Druidry is a part of my life now, and learning much of what Druids were versus what they are now has become a goal of mine. This brief audiobook is filled to the brim with information that I found incredibly helpful and mentioned many sources that I will look at in a historical context rather than a religious. It even mentioned the modern Druids including OBOD, a group I am part.

Thank you for this book, it helps to know what is true and what is not based on the imagination of some fellows like Iolo Morganwg.

A great book

A wonderful book that I found to be developmental and maturative for a young man coming of age such as myself. I found great relation with the author and I further highly recommend this book.

Very good.

Filled with a lot of good information and far more than the average on the topic .

Exactly what it says on the tin.

A very short introduction to druids is exactly what the title says. It gives a quick overview of what we know about this somewhat lost to time caste, shows very well where the info comes form, explains why some of the info may be inncorrect, gives a view of how they were viewed through the ages up until the writing of the book. For someone who has always been interested not only in the iron age, celts in general but also druids this was a very informative quick dive into how all of those things c onnect.

Druids

A review and history of Druids, divided facts and fiction, modern from classic history

Scholarly discourse

The author reveals a thorough knowledge of sources. I would have liked more field discoveries of ancient sites and less about the more modern socieies.

prescient about climate change.

published more than 30 years ago, the author was very prescient about how drastically climate change would effect us, and how we didn't take action to save the planet. The last chapter was our future, May we get it right.

Excellent

I find nothing wrong with this it was very interesting and references other authors and books that I will likely read.

Druidism..a short introduction with a very long introduction

I felt the first chapters of the book focused more on the history of early Briton and took considerable time to address the topic of Druidism.