Druidism was the religion of the Brythons - the
Iron-Age inhabitants of
Britain. The Druids served as priests, teachers and judges. They believed in an
afterlife, burying food, utensils and weapons in their graves for the use of the
deceased - they also practised human sacrifice.
The Druids held the oak tree to have supernatural properties and held the evergreen
mistletoe which grew upon it in special reverence - believing that by its winter greenery
it held the soul of its host tree until it came back to life in the spring.
|
Contrary to popular belief, the ancient monument on Salisbury Plain known as
Stonehenge might have been used by the
Druids but its erection pre-dated the Iron-Age
and Druidism in Britain.
|
During the Roman occupation of Britain,
Suetonius Paulinus (Governor of the newly-conquered province from AD 59
until AD 75) conquered Mona (modern Anglesea) which
was the centre of the Druids. He destroyed their
sacred groves.
The Romans probably saw crushing the religion of
the Britons as one of the
means of assisting in their subjugation - Druidism was likely to have been seen by the
Romans as a cohesive force between the seperate Brython tribes who did not oppose the
Romans in unison.
Iron-Age Britain
Roman Britain
| 
