Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain

by Ronald Hutton

Crushed by the Romans in the first century A.D., the ancient Druids of Britain left almost no reliable evidence behind. Because of this, historian Ronald Hutton shows, succeeding British generations have been free to reimagine, reinterpret, and reinvent the Druids. Hutton’s captivating book is the first to encompass two thousand years of Druid history and to explore the evolution of English, Scottish, and Welsh attitudes toward the forever ambiguous figures of the ancient Celtic world. Druids have been remembered at different times as patriots, scientists, philosophers, or priests; sometimes portrayed as corrupt, bloodthirsty, or ignorant, they were also seen as fomenters of rebellion. Hutton charts how the Druids have been written in and out of history, archaeology, and the public consciousness for some 500 years, with particular focus on the romantic period, when Druids completely dominated notions of British prehistory. Sparkling with legends and images, filled with new perspectives on ancient and modern times, this book is a fascinating cultural study of Druids as catalysts in British history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Paganism, Mythology, Ancient History, Spirituality

492 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ronald Hutton (born 1953) is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A professor of history at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio.

Reviews

[Abigail Bok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ronald Hutton has built his career on being a buzz-killer for all of us who had a childhood crush on British pagans. While I mourn my youthful fantasies, I have to admire his scholarly rigor and commitment to resisting over-interpretation.

I didn't finish this door-stopper tome (ca. 500 pages of large-format paperback in painfully small type) not because it was unworthy but because the portion of the "history of the Druids in Britain" that interested me was despatched in the first, devastatingly convincing, chapter. In it Hutton examines the entire documentary record (with strategic dives into archaeology) referring to the Druids from Greek and Roman sources to medieval Irish and Welsh in order to demonstrate that there is nothing, nothing at all, we can really know about who the Druids were, their beliefs, practices, or place in society. By implication, he suggests we can't even know whether they even existed, though he is inclined to think they did. For every claim made about them he is able to show why no single interpretation or determination of authenticity is possible. It's a shattering, bravura performance.

I suppose it is possible to be too skeptical, but considering the cultures writing about the Druids, the motives behind their portrayals, and the standards of "history" writing in antiquity and the Middle Ages, his skepticism of the sources seems thoroughly justified. He left me with nothing to hang my old sorcerer's hat on!

After tearing the ancient "record" of Druidry to shreds, Hutton moves on in subsequent chapters to a historiography of the ways subsequent British societies used the idea of the Druid to promote their worldviews, and the systems of belief constructed by modern people identifying as Druid. I got through some of the historiography but none of the modern religious practice and therefore can't comment on those aspects of the book, but if you're interested in these subjects, this is the third book by Hutton I have read and I respect his skills. Perhaps a search for authenticity in spiritual practice by plumbing the spiritual practices of the past is a misguided effort anyway.

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ronald Hutton is presenting the outcome of his research into the subject of Druidry, which took place between 2000 and 2007. Unlike his previous book The Druids, this book is in depth, and its format is chronological, which gives the reader time to fully integrate and compare each time period to the one preceding it. It talks about the druids from the time they were first mentioned until the modern day. In the last statement of the introduction to the book, Ronald Hutton tells us what this book is really about from his point of view.

“In the last analysis, however, this book is about neither archeology nor Druidry, but about the British, and the way they have seen themselves, their island, their species and their world.” (Hutton, p. XV)

I think anyone reading this book will come to the conclusion that not everything is as it seems. People from the modern druid orders might not like what they read in this book because it shows just how much REAL evidence we have for ancient druid orders and how the “modern” druid orders came about. The origins of some of the orders will certainly surprise the members who are in them now. This is an illuminating book that is a must read for anyone who is interested in Druidry and druids. As for the goal of the book which is a look at the British and how they saw themselves and their island I think that Hutton has done an amazing job of fulfilling that goal. I don’t think I will look at the British, the druids or the druid orders in quite the same way ever again.

For a full review of the book please check out my website: Blood and Mistletoe

[Alice Vandommele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a very good overview and very relevant context for modern discourses on the subject.

It does have the fault that works examining the history of ideas and discourses often have, and which Triumph of the Moon also suffers from, in that you often feel you're reading the same thing as before. But that's hard to avoid in this style of research.

I do wish more attention had been paid to more recent developments: the role of druids in postwar fiction and the more recent form of pagan druidry from the 90s on. Hutton himself admits much could be said about that. But it is already a heavy tome without another 50 pages tacked on (at least). So the omission is understandable

[Gabriel Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to write a more detailed review of this. Be aware that this is an academic (though marvellously readable) account of a strand of cultural history, not a new age pseudo-history. Certain kinds of Druids and pagans will struggle with this. Others (that would increasingly include me) will welcome the implicit challenge to critically construct our own myths and meanings out of such materials as we've inherited and created.

[S.L. Baron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lordy, there is so much information in this monster, and it took me a little over two years to finally finish it!

Hutton gives a us a thorough, highly detailed breakdown of what's known about Druids through his extensive research, which, I admit, overwhelmed me at times. He doesn't leave any stone unturned when it comes to Druids, and he presents the information in a very unbiased and sometimes conversational manner that I thought made the information easier to follow.

I think the things that made this book a challenge for me were the multitude of names mentioned--especially the Welsh. I needed a pronunciation guide--and the sometimes non-linear talk of historical events. I'd have to flip back and forth to make sure I knew who was doing what and when they were doing it. Those were usually the times my eyes crossed, and I had to put the book down so I could retain the information.

I had originally started this book to help me learn more about a religion I was considering. It's an eye-opener in that respect and, at times, made me laugh to think of the people I know who consider themselves Neo-Druids who have no idea about the Christians who shaped their practices. If they only knew who shaped their "religion," I believe their heads might explode. This should be mandatory reading for anyone considering this spiritual path.

But, my biggest takeaway from this book, despite all the information, is that no one really knows who the Druids were. As a writer, this makes me say "YAY!" because then I'm able to imagine them almost any way I want. As someone who was interested in pursuing it as a religious path, yes, I'm also saying "YAY!" because I can basically forge my own path based on what I've learned. Oh, to be able to time travel though...

Overall, this book is a worthy read for anyone who is interested in ancient religions, Druids in all their historical roles and representations, and the origin of today's Neo-Druids.

[Nimue Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for Druids, or anyone interested in the history of Druidry. It is academic, it is a doorstopper of a tome and it will probably tax you, but it is written with absolute style and is full of detail and insight. Not a comfotable read for anyone who might feel embarassed by the shape of revivalist druidry, but we ought to know, and we have to deal with it.

I've written a much longer review at www.druidnetwork.org

[Fred Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well researched history of what little is known about the Druids. Unfortunately, there is virtually no historical record of the Druids so this study is largely a discussion of the different interpretations that varying scholars have made over the years. The author is clear in pointing out the flaws in these interpretations, but from the perspective of a general reader the bottom line is that there is little to say on the subject.

[George Penn · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Merlin to Gandalf, from Finegas to Dumbledore - Druidery has been woven into tropes of folklore, literature, and myth from the British isles. But what historical basis do we have for their existence? Not much, according to this book.

This book is an explanation of the myth of where the Druid myth comes from, and this appears to be a case of Schroedinger’s Druid: the Druid has meant everything, often contradictory, to many different people, all at the same time. The Romans saw the Druids as an opportunity to explain both the barbarity of the Human Sacrificers of Angelsey to propagandise their conquest of ancient Britain, while also, using it to demonstrate how learned and organised ancient Gallic and Britton societies were - surely such a sofisticated people are worth adding to Rome’s empire? Later Christian sources did similar, both showing the brutality of pre-Christian society while also depicting Druids as the first Bishops - and evidence for a hierarchical religious ruling, a logical structure on which Christianity could be superimposed.

English sources in the 17th Century use it to somehow demonstrate their Island’s exceptionalism, and a pre-Christian Christianity through the Druids. This is « supported » by 17th century Welsh scholars arguing that due to false linguistic similarities between Welsh and Hebrew, the Druids came to Britain preaching the Old Testament from Israel. Modern Day Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Breton nationalists have used Druids to demonstrate a nativist link to the land. With hippies using them as a trope to hark back to a spiritual paganism that existed before capitalism and religion.

Oh and lots of stone circles that get misassigned to Druids, and then misappropriated by Neo Druidry. And fights between Archaeologists and Neo-Druid orders.

The book systematically takes apart all potential historical evidence for the image of the Druid in whichever way we wish to imagine them. It demonstrates, fundamentally, how the Druid served as a trope on which to build a nationalist link to the earth that is somehow unquestionable in the Welsh perception, or a justification of Christianity and Civilisation in the English and Scottish.

In line with Benedict Anderson’s seminal work « imagined communities », the historical accuracy of the myths we tell ourselves is rarely important, but myths are important for building the modern sense of nation state, a collective. What does it tell us about the nation states existing in the British isles - and the nations within it - that many hark back to a spiritual imagined pagan past? How has that shaped the peoples that have lived there? This book fails to really deliver answers to this question, but I think maybe this wasn't it's goal: the goal is explaining how these myths were curated by bogus elites with an agenda for nationbuilding.

Stories often shape reality more than reality itself. The trope of the friendly wizard or spiritual bearded leader that stem from the Druid is alive and kicking even if it perhaps never existed - or we have no evidence for it existing in the way it is represented. Despite the very scant Ancient evidence that even manages to contradict itself , I’m a romantic and believe Druids existed in some way shape or form. The fact that the Romans destroyed indigenous knowledge in their conquest of the British Isles is incredibly likely. And the inquiry into whether we can find this, or even potentially recreate it in a modern way, is important because in doing so we begin to unpick British and Irish nationalism and nativism, celebrate folklore that harks back to an imagined pas that may never have existed, and think about what it is we really want in willing these Druids to be something concrete.

The book is dense, and incredibly detailed, but is absolutely worth it.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In-depth, solid research tells an entertaining history of what is known about the druids with the central message being that everything we believe about is pretty much born out of wishful thinking and the forgeries and fantasies of Iolo Morganwg.

[Graculus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books which I'm glad I persevered with, considering that it's quite literally a solid piece of work (very small type too, which doesn't help) but it doesn't quite do what it says on the cover. It's not so much a history of the druids as a history of what people thought and wrote about the druids and why/how that changed over time.

Considering that the first chapter is all about how little we actually know and can prove about the druids in the first place, I suppose there wasn't really much else for the author to do, either in this book or in his previous one. Perhaps that one (The Druids: A History) was the one I should have read instead, though this one certainly introduced me to a wide variety of folks with varying degrees of scruples about making up history out of whole cloth if it didn't exist previously or didn't quite say what they wanted to hear.

[Wren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book could have been good if it had been half as long and structured very differently. It was worth the read, but thank merciful God it's over.

[Kai · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Blood and Mistletoe, Ronald Hutton, an acknowledged authority on Paganism on the British Isles, reconstructs the history of the druids in Britain. The subtitle of being a history about the druids might be misleading, though. In the first chapter the reader learns how very little modern scholarly actually knows about authentic druidism. From then on the account is as much about the literary reception, writers, and public spokesmen as it is about their subjects and adopted predecessors.

Over the twelve chapters, Hutton tells a continuous story woven together from numerous threads. Ideas, characters, and institutions make their recurring appearances, with later generations building on and evolving what came before them.

I have to admit, initially I was disappointed that this wouldn't be about druids in the common sense of a subject-matter. However, I was increasingly intrigued by how fictions and fantasies may have very real applications and consequences. In the hands of some influential people, druids became the substance of the newly-forming national identities of the seventeenth century. They are praised as recipients of divine revelation of an original religion shared by a unified humanity of ancient days and thereby susceptible for the true religion of Christianity. In more sober yet equally fanciful readings they have obtained the religion of the Old Testament by contact with Phoenician travelers. In later centuries it was emphasized that their pure theology wasn't the antic of Roman Catholicism.

According to ancient sources (as well as Asterix), they may have possessed deep understanding of herbs and plants and the oath and mistletoe may have have featured prominently in their rites allegedly performed in groves. In the days of romanticism, they were therefore admired as priests of nature living in unison with the environment around them. In the days of the French Revolution, druids – the brave resistance fighters against Roman conquest – then become proponents of peace and liberty.

When the literary movement took its gothic turn, the druids' rites of human sacrifice become the main motif in the poetic portrayal of their kind. While in earlier times ideas of the Noble Savage prevailed, following direct contact with the 'primitive' peoples of the colonies druids are suddenly said to have performed just the horrifying practices found abroad. And in the age of revolution and progress, druids no longer appeared as wise philosophers and scientists; they were barbarians, the starting point from where Western civilization strived towards enlightenment.

As becomes obvious, the attitude towards druids is highly subject to (what the author at one point calls) swings of cultural fashion. It's not primarily about the abstract movements, though. They gain importance and reality in the lives of certain individuals.

More than anyone else - with the possible exception of the Welsh scholar Iolo Morganwg – it was William Stukeley who influenced the modern British understanding of druids. He popularized the idea (held especially by John Aubrey before him) that the stone monuments and other physical remains all around Britain were in fact constructed by druids. It is admitted that the work in his younger years – before later turning to the Church – makes him one of the most important predecessors to the discipline of archeology. He writes two influential books, one on Stonehenge and the other on the Avebury stone circle. He later adopts a druidic name for himself by which people would refer to him all throughout his life.

The third chapter goes into much detail about the life of this important man. It's genuinely interesting in its own right, not only because of his influence on many generations after him, but also because of the many contradictions it seems to have involved. For one thing, in his early writings he seems fully indifferent towards Christianity and expresses belief in an original religion. He's fascinated by structure and the origin of things and expresses an interest in Egypt and the religion of its people. All this doesn't seem to matter anymore when in 1729 he suddenly becomes a passionate adherent to Christianity. Hutton goes some way to explain the motives and reasons behind this sudden religious shift.

Edward Williams – or Iolo Morganwg as he will later be known – is a very important figure in the history of Wales. As his nickname suggests, he identified strongly with his homeland, the Vale of Glamorgan (called Bro Morgannwg in Welsh). He leaves his home after his mother died and makes a name of himself as author and editor of medieval works of bardic traditions, of whom he claimed a oral continuity with the bards of ancient days. The ideas he develops more and more loose their touch with reality, a fact that to some degree might be explained by his livelong addiction to laudanum.

In his own writings, he depicts the social system of ancient Celtic societies as one in which druids were bards specialized in religious concerns and thought that in their theology they weren't that different from Christianity. He mirrors the New Testament theme of words being there in the beginning and points to national heroes not dissimilar to Greek gods. He is also among the first who interprets them in terms of Far-Eastern religions. As we now know, many of his publications and sources are nothing but forgeries.

He might have had good intentions. He sympathize with the liberal ideas of the ongoing French Revolution and wanted to create an ideal society, former glories for his people to emulate. However, the author finds unusually strong words in his assessment of Iolo's influence:

"The implications of his deceptions should not be underestimated. The Myvyrian Archaiology was designed specifically to introduce ordinary literate Welsh people to the glories of their heritage; and Iolo had sabotaged it. Deeming the actual literature of the bards to be inadequate, he had substituted an imagined early Wales of his own, and so cut off readers of the book – which indeed became a classic – from much of the real achievement of the medieval Welsh. In doing so, he had at once betrayed his friends and his country."

Scholars would base their theories on Iolo's manuscripts for many centuries to come. He also created an influential druidic institution in which he himself functioned as (the only) direct descendant of the historic bards. It's understandable that he was met with opposition – not the least because of his quarrelsome personality – and even in his day people accused him of dishonesty. Among them, Edward "Celtic" Davies was the most influential, whose often arduous life made for intriguing reading, too. There are other biographical pieces that kept me thoroughly interested. For one thing, the story of Iolo's son Taliesin, named after an early medieval bard, is deeply entwined with the labor movement of the industrial age and he later assumes important offices in the druidic institution founded by his father. It's never quite clear whether he genuinely believed in the teachings of his father.

More picturesque still was William Price. To call him an eccentric character would be an understatement. He was very active in the druidic circles of his day, political to the bone, and highly irritable in his interactions with others. In public he appeared as the druid par excellence:

[He wore] a beard flowing to his waist, and his hair, which has evidently not been cut for many years, descends to as great a length, but is tied up with sundry long tails, à la chinoise. His dress consists of a jacket and trousers of emerald green, fancifully notched and scalloped, lined and pointed with bright scarlet, and adorned with numerous small gilt buttons bearing devices. His cap is of sable, of singularly quaint form, and has attached to it three pendant tails of the same fur, one falling over each shoulder of the wearer, and the third coming down to the centre of his back.

He was fully convinced in his role as some sort of messiah figure, an aspect well exemplified by the fact that he baptized his son Jesus Christ. Said son died tragically after only a few month and his father cremated him in the most public fashion on a hill. Price is today remembered as being highly influential in the legalization of this burial practice, which followed when he was able to argue his case in court in surprisingly sober and convincing manner.

The later chapters of the book are mostly dedicated to the various druidic societies and clubs. Social institutions of this kind became increasingly popular in Britain during the eighteenth century. Of particular importance was the Ancient Order of Druids that was founded in in 1781 and that exists to this day. Organizations like this became increasingly important as early insurances, as members paid there fees for certain hedge in case of illness or death. In other respects they were very similar to the Freemasons and other secret societies.

Unhappy with the elitism of the Ancient Order – their was a Grand Lodge that determined how their finances would be used – there were an early segregation of what became to be the United Ancient Order. In their heydays of later centuries, their was an immense increase in the number of members of the already popular organizations and they further split up and modernized themselves. They certainly were able to convey a sense of importance, probably not the least because of their glamorous ceremonies that must have looked every bit like the demonic rites in classic Hammer horror films. Of the stories told, the one about the Universal Bond of the twentieth century and its often confirmed right to Stonehenge was probably the most thrilling to read.

It's really amazing how some ideas and topic reemerge over the centuries over and over again. For instance, there is a legend (told by Tacitus) according to which Roman attackers on the Welsh island of Anglesey were met by dark women (later interpreted as witches) and druids in what might have been military functions. It seems so random, yet it often served as basis for other theories on the nature of ancient druids. They are also very often associated with the Neoplatonic thought of the Pythagorean school claiming an elaborate theology of resurrection. It's also amazing how two images (produced by Aylett Sammes) had such a lasting influence on our ideas of druids as wise men in robes and with long bears – and of their savage rite of burning the Wicker Man, made famous in the 1960s horror-film classic with Christopher Lee.

It blew my mind when the author observed that the modern-day ceremonies at Stonehenge might very well be the first druidic rituals and the most famous of sights. Druidism has become real, irrespective of any historic authenticity.

Rating: 4/5

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book about the history of the idea of Druids. Unfortunately, there is little we know for certain about the original Druids, but Hutton covers everything known in an erudite and comprehensive fashion. I read the first three or four chapters and lightly skimmed the rest - hence unfinished.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rigorous, well researched, and thorough - I would recommend Hutton's book to anyone interested in the subject of how the figure of the Druid has been taken up in different ways at different periods in British history. Hutton notes toward the end of the book that he could've just as easily titled it 'Thinking with Druids,' and this is certainly true as he traces the ideas that ancient Druids have inspired and the attitudes that various figures - archaeologists, religious leaders, writers, musicians, contemporary Druidry practitioners, and more - have taken toward them. With very little historical record of ancient Druids to go on (and the little there is to go on being questionable for a host of reasons), the figure of the Druid has meant - and means - many different things to different people. As a practicing Druid, I appreciate the respectful approach Hutton takes.

Content warnings: discussions of racism and colonialism

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

In any other hands this could be a heavy, dense work, and a challenge to get through. Not so as it's Professor Hutton, though. Immensely readable, and likely to remain the definitive work on the subject, unless something dramatic happens in the archaeological world.

[liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay I skimmed it, didn't fully read but I find the topic so interesting and I loved all the pictures! A bit too historical/archeological for me to read in practice but I love it!

[Greg Brundle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit dry

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tore me up a little bit, and I'm still working through it.
What it is, is a history of those who have self identified as Druids in Britain. He touches on the ancient sources, but the focus is on the 'modern' iteration of Druids, from about 1600 on.
My bedrock takeaway is that there may not have been Druids at all. Not in the way we think about them, as some traditional priesthood of the Celts. The Celts did not leave any written records. Very little of what is written about them from the ancient sources were in a position to actually know, and those guys were politicians. They had ulterior motives, to put it generously, as their main argument seemed to be 'these guys are terrible, therefore I should invade their country.' Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Iraqis throwing babies out of incubators, the Kaiser had his men bayonet whoever. Atrocities happen, but if you're hearing about it from a politician, look close at the source material. History teaches us to take that shit with a grain of salt.
So everything I've ever heard about Druids, good, bad and indifferent, says more about the people saying it and their critique of the society they were living in, than about anything ancient, anything Celtic. Use the Druids to stand in for the Church and either elevate them or critique them as needed. Create your own society that is mostly political, or philanthropic, and plop that name on there if it helps sell the cause. Use it to create your own religion that jettisons the baggage of the present for the baggage of a made up past. Are they savage headhunters or ancient patriots who would definitely be on the side of the modern nation-state? Well, depends on which one you need.
The scientists don't come across much better. Once modern archeology enters the scene they seem to be mired in the politics of the profession and roping off their piece of the pie as much as the Druids. A lot of, 'you are wrong, but here is my own totally made up take on Druids with just as much, or as little, actual evidence'.
So many of the, mostly, men who made Druidry today what it is were at least half con man. It takes that kind of hutzpah and charisma to buy into something like this and sell it to others.
I have practiced a version of this made up Keltica, psychology, nature study, the occult, masonic ritual and old New Thought philosophy. I've gotten a lot out of it. I will continue with my practices.
But as I get older I find there are fewer and fewer truths to cling to. People pass away and their lives make a ripple. No one will go back and painstakingly research any part of their lives. What looks new and shiny today, things, people, ideas, entertainments, will look old and stodgy to your grandchildren. Humanity will go on, unchanged. There is not progress, not the kind you see in the chart that moves from chimpanzee to upright human. We like to think it all just continues to improve and history shows us that isn't the case. Any progress we achieve has to do with an individual, however imperfect, making a correct choice and seeing it through. And whatever progress happens will be undone, sooner or later. Civilizations rise and fall, just as individuals do, and ours is no different, no better or worse. In a hundred years all those computer files and electronic clouds of date will be as accessible as all those books and records from the 1920's. All the blogs and youtube videos and kindle files and netflix shows will be nearly forgotten. There's a comfort in there somewhere. No matter where we are in history an individual making the best choice they have available can make a difference. It helps to be a bit of a megalomaniac huckster, apparently, but we already knew that, didn't we?
Still, we all make a difference to the people around us, and that's always the best place to start. It's just jarring to have the lack of solid ground pointed out in such painstaking detail.

[Bryan Boring Van Unen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ronald Hutton's "Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain," is many things. For one, it's a tome of epic proportions. In short, the book is an exhaustive yet entertaining, brutally honest yet easygoing look at the history of Druids in what may be considered their homeland of Britain.

What are druids? Well, as the book slowly reveals, no one really can say. Some mentions and descriptions in ancient accounts such as Caesar and Pliny and Strabo, but those fall short of being anywhere near definitive or trustworthy. From here, Hutton takes us on a long journey through the re-emergence of Druids up until the revivalist groups such as the Universal Bond and OBOD.

As a practicing Druid, I thought I'd be biased to the subject. But what I find is that the more honest you are, the better it turns out. Hutton shows you not only the pros but also the embarrassing cons of some of the most recognizable names in modern day Druidry. We find the history full of charlatans, liars, eccentrics, and men of questionable standings. But we also find men of pure intentions, who want a better world, to unify men and women regardless of differences. This, I find, lies at the very heart of modern Druidry.

The history of Druidry has been revealed. What we have left are pieces to pick up and help form a definition of what Druidry means today. We won't be able to do this through means of false or alternative history. We need to instead look at what is certain--or pretty damn close--and realize that modern Druidry is just that: modern. Ancient Druidry--if indeed it had ever existed--is in the past, and what we have left are sources of questionable origins, but sources nonetheless, to inspire us. And we are not devoid of any history at all. In this book, we are shown that Druidry, a subject which many presume doesn't really have a track record of any sort of repute, in fact does. We've built one for ourselves in the last couple hundred years. We are dreamers, and we've dreamed Druidry into existence.

I've never read any of Hutton's materials, though I've seen many programs and documentaries featuring him, and have heard his lectures via Druidcast. PIcking this book up scared me a little, and I can't lie--many names, places, and dates probably flew right over my head. This book saturated my mind like a soaking wet sponge, and there seems to be a limit to how much I could absorb! His writing style may be trying for some--it was for me at points! But in all it was a readable, enjoyable, immensely informative piece of academic literature. I learned a LOT, and now have an even greater respect for Druidry and those involved in not just the history, but also the present and the future we have yet to dream.

Anyone who professes to be a Druid or are interested in Druidry must read this. It sheds the light on something we Druids need to know, where we've come from, where we haven't come from, and who we are.

[Toviel · Rating 5 out of 5]

ACTUAL RATING: 4.5

So, it turns out almost everything we “know” about the druids can be attributed to blatant fraud and propaganda.

In typical Hutton fashion, BLOOD AND MISTLETOE isn’t a history of the druids, but a history of the historians of the druids. As there are precious few accounts and artifacts left of Druids—and what little we have is so unreliable that it isn’t even certain if the legendary order even existed—Hutton cross-references a multitude of sources instead to explain how the modern concept of the Druid came to be. It’s as much as a discussion on the effects of revisionism and belief as it is a book on the druids. The first third of the book focuses on how Roman and British politics and idealism contributed to the modern conception of the Druids in equal measure, while the second portion deals with the transformation of the druids’ image in relation to Romanticism and the rise of the British Empire, while the final section explores the Druids’ place in modern reconstructionism, popular culture, and archaeology.

Hutton’s thorough and multi-layered research makes BLOOD AND MISTLETOE a heavy read—person X believes/believed Y because they reinterpreted record Z to mean V, but theory Z was based on possibly flawed accounts of W, etc., etc. The book’s a companion piece to one of his earlier works, THE DRUIDS, so Hutton doesn’t spend a lot of time establishing the basics. Meanwhile, the font is tiny, making the already lengthy book feel hundreds of pages longer than it is. While Hutton is a strong enough writer to give life to the minutiae of details he’s collected, heaven help the reader who’s bad at memorizing names and dates.

Someone at my local library must have been very interested in druidry, as almost every neo-pagan book available there is about the Druids or the Celts. BLOOD AND MISTLETOE is easily the most factual of the bunch, and it showcases why Hutton has such a good reputation in both academic and pagan circles. The book was partially funded by the Order of Bards and Druids, and Hutton always takes care to be respectable of modern druidic beliefs, even when he’s criticizing the foundations they’re based on. Highly recommended for history nerds and pagans alike.

[Anie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent history -- it takes the reader from the ancient Druids (about whom virtually nothing is known) and then traces how the concept of "the druid" ebbed and flowed, changed and twisted, through the history of Britain and Ireland -- how it is molded by national identity, in particular. It's an interesting read, well-sourced and engaging, and worth it for anyone who's interested in this topic. (If you're not interested in druids... well, 800 pages of druids is probably too much for you then.)

[Bryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, challenging, inspiring book that I would advise every contemporary druid to read. It is a doorstopper of a tome, and it is hugely complicated, but Hutton is a lovely writer, and the prose sparkles. This is the known history of druidry, and we turn out not to know very much at all. I think it's also a challenge to the druid community to define who we are in ways that do not depend too much on the intricacies of how we got to be here in the first place.

[Margueritte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too much detail and way too long. Repetitive. Interesting information, but I gave up half way and skimmed the rest.

[Stacie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hutton's book isn't for the everyday reader for it is dense, highly researched, and long with multiple topics that could have been books of their own. Hutton attempts to cover 2,000 years of the British relationship with Druids. The main issues this book has is the structure, the repetition of information over and over again that had already been explained in multiple chapters, how many names, and at one point he decides to use their Druid name without telling the reader that he was going to reference that person by that name for the remainder of the chapter and in some chapters changed from one topic to another without really rhyme or reason. Thus, making it even more difficult for the reader to keep track of and understand how this information is important to the overall whole of the main topic of this book. Many times it felt like Hutton had a stream of thoughts and information dumped on the reader to prove that he knows stuff and how much research he did on Druids and all the men who influenced the idea of the Druid, which essentially after reading the book everything has been mostly made up to suit the fancy of the men who created these societies so that they could the attention they wanted or to prove a point as to how Druids were misunderstood and that early Britons weren't savages or barbarians, but scientists and Philosophers that believed in transmigration of the soul, which we can't confirm that as true because many of the documents come from the biased Romans who barely made it and stayed in Britain. The example that Hutton gives is that Julius Ceasar said there were not any Druids in the Germanic Tribes, but of course, there were some in Gaul and Britain. Someone told him so, which would mean that Ceasar heard a second-hand account, which is why Hutton also states in the same chapter that one has to look at the Celtic literature of that time, which again we cannot confirm that is even true, and archeological evidence cannot be trusted either because some of it can be generalized to other parts of Europe. So essentially, Hutton could have focused on the topic "Did the Druids exist in Britain?" Instead, Hutton just focuses on an entirely different topic, which is the religious aspect of Druidism and the development of a nationalistic history that connected them to the past and the controversies later in chapters 11 and 12, which chapter 12 is three chapters into one. Thus, this book is not for a beginner reader of Druidic History and is very difficult for someone who only wants to know about Druids, this book isn't it. It is about the evolution of the mythology of Druids in the British Isles. With the main focus on Wales and the development of their nationalism as well as justifying Protestantism as Hutton calls it the One True Religion all the while bashing Roman Catholicism, which was normal for the Tudor-Stewart era in English History, which isn't explained either.

As I was reading this book the constant question I kept asking myself was how do we know this? How does this relate to the topic of this book the Druids? Yes, this is a well-researched book, but you need a basic understanding of British History and an encyclopedia to look up all the names and how they connect to Druids. The question would also be why should I care about this as it pertains to British History? I can understand how the modern Druids of the Universal Bond tried to practice their religion which is a mixture between Pagan and Christian. But why is it important for Modern Britons? Hutton explains that many mocked the group that would hold rites at Stonehenge even though there isn't much evidence if any that connects the Druids to the historic monument.

This essentially at worst is a poorly written textbook on Druidic History in the British Isles, in which there is a hardcore neglect of the Irish literature and even what they did since they have a long history with the British Empire. At best it is a wonderful look at how men adopted the concept of the Druid and made up a story to make themselves feel connected to their country's culture.

In all honesty, you only need to read the first 5 chapters, chapter 8, chapter 11, if you want to know more about the archeological accounts chapter 12, and the conclusion.

I found the Conclusion and Chapter 8 were some of Hutton's best chapters. When he explains a topic he is great, but many times he information dumps on the reader, thus making it tedious to read though, without a really good explanation and you can tell this book should have been multiple books not just one. It would have solved his issue of how long and jammed with information this book is. It needs a revision and another good edit because this book is really good once you get past how condensed it is.

[Sherry Sharpnack · Rating 3 out of 5]

All I knew about Druids before I read this book was that they were "tree-worshippers," especially favoring oak trees. As a tree-lover myself, I have often jokingly referred to myself as a Druid. wasn't wrong about the association w/ oak trees, but I was wrong about much else.

"Blood and Mistletoe: the History of the Druids in Britain" is an EXHAUSTIVE (and I mean that adjective!) look at pretty much everything ever written that mentioned Druids in Britain, whether in history, archaelogy, books, plays, or musicals. Um... wow. It took me a LONG time to read this b/c once I started highlighting, I couldn't stop. I have over 3,000+ highlights on my Kindle, and had to recharge it multiple times in the reading. That's unusual.

Anyway, either Druids practiced human sacrifices, or they didn't. They either had a "purer" form of religion that evolved into the "purest" form of Christianity, or they didn't. They were either pre-Roman or Anglo-Saxon. They either built megalithic structures for worship, or merely worshipped at pre-existing sites - or maybe they actually worshipped in groves of trees and only sacrificed at the megalithic structures. What is for sure is that quacks and charlatans in the Georgian and Victorian periods glommed onto Druids as particularly British characters, and were used to develop a pride in the nation-state that was created on the isle of Great Britain during these years. Many of the services created by societies to "preserve" the memory of Druids had outlandish rituals and costumes, and opened themselves up to public derision when they appeared in public in costume for the rituals, especially at Stonehenge, where these rites have caused heckling and violence, especially in the 1950's and 60's. I learned about the arguments between the Druidic societies and the new field of archaelogy, and the fights BETWEEN the groups over the megalithic sites. I was interested in the various British nationalities and their relationships w/ Druids. The nationality most associated w/ the Druids - the Welsh - like their bardic aspects, as the Welsh emphasize their musical heritage. However, the Welsh "discovered" Druids two hundred YEARS after the Scots had decided they liked Druids. Interestingly, when the Welsh developed musical events dedicated to Druidism, the Scots decided they didn't like Druids after all. The English tried to use Druids as proof of their ancient race, and the superiority of the British as they subjugated native peoples around the globe. I didn't like that usage of Druids at all.

So I LEARNED nothing of substance about Druids, or even what the deal is w/ mistletoe being associated w/ them. What I learned INSTEAD was a history of how Druids have been treated through the writings of Caesar, Tacitus, and Pliny, and how those writings influenced all successive writing about Druids.

This would have been a much easier read in a physical book form. I'm always thrown off when approximately 30% of a Kindle book ends up being notes and the index. This one actually ended when I was 72% into the book. In a scholarly work such as this, I also like being able to go back-and-forth, which is difficult in this format. By finishing this ginormous book today, I've neatly ended my 2020 reading on Dec. 31st. I can start fresh on January 1.

I will only give the book three stars because it was as dry as dust. If I was ever NOT going to finish a book, it would have been this one. I gave it more stars than I wanted to because it is very professorially written, meaning it was easy to follow information from one paragraph to another and to follow lines of reasoning by the author, and it followed a very defined chronological order. Some folks might like an exhaustive look at a certain subject, w/o any conclusions ever drawn. If so, this is the book for them.

On to 2021.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read by Hutton, and both are impressive in their ability to expound for 400+ densely packed pages, only to conclude at the end that actually nothing is really known about the topic.
Druids seem to have originated in prehistoric Gaulic/Celtic culture, noted specifically by several Greek and Roman historians and then more or less never again except in mythology. The Greek and Roman sources, including Julius Cesar as a young general bent on capturing Britain, were notoriously self-serving and contain a number of logical inconsistencies... so... ya know... who knows. A hallmark of Druidry that most eyewitness sources seem to agree on is that they were a learned people - part sorcerer, part astronomer, part bard, part judge. Druids did not believe in writing anything down - training was purely oral, sometimes taking decades to complete. Written records were therefore left to outside observers, and after the Greek/Roman eyewitnesses, didn't include much of anything until the literate monks of the Middle Ages sought to make a written record of pre-Christian oral lore and mythology from the British isles. This was about as historically reliable as it sounds, and then sometime around the 1600s, the Welsh realized they also had a strong bard tradition in oral folklore, so maybe those guys were the real Druids? And when I say, "the Welsh," I specifically mean one guy who gave himself the name of Iolo Morgenwg-something and then proceeded to forge a vast array of "secret, ancient Welsh-Druid-bard" texts... and these totally-not-made-up texts became the foundation of Druidry for the next 500 or so years. There seemed to be waning interest in turn between Wales, Britain, and occasionally Ireland on who could claim the most national pride in Druid history, which by this point, was almost entirely made up.
These "modern" Druids took two main forms - those who decided megaliths like Stonehenge were probably made by Druids (they probably weren't) and invented elaborate ceremonies for worship at these sites, and a second group which is more like the Freemasons except Druid. There seemed to be an unnecessary amount of bickering and vying for power in both of these, but somehow by the onset of WWII, the Freemason-Druids counted among their ranks both future-Queen Elizabeth and the Archbishop of Canterbury. With such persons of high birth, the Freemasons began distancing themselves from the decidedly commoner megalith-ceremonial crowd, who themselves were awash in schism and infighting over ceremonial procedure and belief systems that were - again - entirely made up.
Despite all this, Hutton simply can't be topped on level of detail and completeness of scholarship. Most books like this would choose a subtitle of ~A~ History of the Druids but Hutton wisely goes with ~The~ History. He's not wrong. Everything about this book feels definitive. Docking him one star for readability though - despite the excellent academics, it is a bit of a slog. I think Hutton really hit his stride a few years later with Pagan Britain, which is both broader in its coverage of megaliths and timber circles, and more readable.

[Plateresca · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Druids may well have been the most prominent magico-religious specialists of some of the peoples of north-western Europe just over a couple of thousand years ago; and this is all we can say of them with reasonable certainty.'
This is the sad truth.

'They left no accounts of their beliefs and practices, so our impressions of them depend ultimately on images produced in other cultures or at later periods.'

Thus, this book is not so much about the ancient figures themselves, since so little is known of them, but rather about the British relationship with Druids: what people thought about them over the centuries and why.

That said, Hutton writes so well that I would probably read anything by him. His careful research and excellent sense of humour make reading him an exquisite pleasure.

I've learnt a lot of interesting things along the way!
Such as:
'... the figure of the classic medieval Irish saint - a mighty and combative figure with power over the forces of nature and an effective propensity for cursing - may well have taken on the characteristics of the pagan Druid.'

'With the possible exception of a few Welsh poets, nobody in medieval Britain was interested in Druids...'

'There are no Druids in Shakespeare.'
That's a feature of Hutton's writing, by the way, that he analyzes the mentions of his subjects in literature, too.

'In 1740 Druids had been marginal figures in the imagination of the English and Welsh; within fifty years they and their presumed monuments were virtually everywhere. They loomed out of books, strutted in plays, and peered through shrubbery.'

'Taliesin was remembered in Welsh medieval tradition as the greatest of the first generation of native poets known to history... It seems possible now that not a single one of the surviving poems credited to him is his own work.'

Edward Davies probably turned a 'ruthless and selfish sorceress' Cyrridwen or Kerritwen into our 'beloved and fair' goddess Ceridwen. Also about Davies:
'Thus equipped, with a misunderstanding of the nature and date of his main source material, an idiosyncratic translation of its contents, an additional body of evidence forged by Iolo, and a false model of historical explanation, Davies proceeded with his work.'

Oh, and this Iolo! A Dickensian character.

'Thus demented and homicidal Druids, armed with knives and exclamation marks, were stock and fashionable figures in British verse by the time William Wordsworth began to write in the 1780s.'

'...modern Druids had arrived at Stonehenge just as archaeologists were evicting the ancient Druids from it...'

'The habit of gathering at the stones to watch the midsummer sunrise was in origine a distinctively late Victorian phenomenon.'

'The Victorian antiquarians had been a social aristocracy, which for the most part ruthlessly policed entry to their company. The twentieth-century professionals were a meritocracy, but their control over entry to their ranks was even more rigorously policed.'

I only wish that more authors on neo-pagan subjects would strive to achieve this level of depth and precision.

[John Flicker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spanning ~ 800 pages of meticulous historical content with another ~100 pages of footnotes, Prof. Ronald Hutton clearly articulates the gaps in knowledge and understanding about the Iron Age Celtic priestly class known as Druids in what is now Britain. Throughout, Hutton expresses a dire sense of skepticism and critical insight, never taking any bias among either ancient or modern sources. To practitioners of modern neo-pagan Druidry, the read is both necessary and eye opening. To students of history, this read will be appreciated for its historical method and its objectivity.

Much like any pagan religion, our understandings of the often unrecorded beliefs of the pagan past, outside of the Greeks and Romans, is almost always filtered through the lens of Medieval Christian monks. Hutton points out the paucity of Roman and Greek textual evidence, but critiques the authors motives, such as Ceaser’s demonizations of Druids as justification for his conquest in Gallo Bellica.

In the Medieval period and beyond, Hutton draws attention to authors views of Druids as emerging from a Biblical cosmology centered around the supremacy of Christianity, drawing either ire and scorn as a pagan religion, or a sense of nationalistic ancestry as a more pure but corrupted faith descended from the ancient Hebrews.

Further, Hutton points out the obvious falsification of documents and texts in the 1800’s and beyond, both lambasting characters like Iolo Morganwg for his forgeries, while simultaneously praising their ingenuity in other areas. Hutton always remains balanced in his critique, and never quite oversteps the historicity of the material to assert a clear opinion.

He maintains this simultaneous critique and praise through the founders of modern neo-Druidry, pointing out the rather obvious disconnect of modern Druidry with its ancient counterpart. Hutton’s thesis revolves primarily around the notion that authors of every generation who wrote about Druids, did so with their own motives, coloring Druids with regard to their own religious aspirations, their nationalistic attitudes, or indeed even their personal ambitions. On this, he delivers an excellent point.

Much like Hutton’s understanding of Wicca as a modern religion, I believe Hutton is merely pointing out that neo-Druidry is a decidedly modern religion, but that modernity does not invalidate its followers desire to develop a unique stream of modern nature spirituality. Though, with Wicca he explicitly states this and fails to do so with Druidry in this text. Nevertheless, by his association with the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, and his continual participation in their Mount Haemus Lecture series, I think we can glean an iota of respect in Mr. Hutton for the modern approach that seeks to cultivate nature spirituality without requiring continuity from the Druids of the Iron Age celts. This book is a must read for all those Celtic Pagan adjacent, and a quite intriguing book if for Hutton’s tactful, meticulous, and humorous approach to scholarly historical analysis.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this hugely informative and pretty comprehensive history book. There were genuine insights into a world I thought I knew, but clearly didn't. My view of eisteddfods, William Blake, 18th century Anglicanism and Stonehenge itself will never be the same. It also inspires me to get out and take a look at my nearest stone megalith just to re-imagine what it was all about.

I do have a couple of wishes that prevented me from giving the five star rating. The first is its length. Goodreads, for some reason have listed this book as 493 pages. It isn't, it's over 900! I have no objection to exhaustive books being this long, however, the average chapter length was around 60 pages. It could have done with a few more breaks or at least subtitles to keep us laity from hazing over. The second may have been connected with the Kindle version, since there were no diagrammes, pictures or photos. This might have added some really good perspectives and value to those who are unfamiliar with Welsh rocking stones, Callanish circles, or the European megaliths.