Folklore as an Historical ScienceGomme, George Laurence
History
Folklore as an Historical Science
Gomme, George Laurence
Folklore
This is the commencing point of the evidence which proves Druidism to
have belonged to the pre-Celtic people, though finding an adopted home
among them. This is so important a subject and has been so strangely
and inconsistently dealt with by most authorities that it will be well
to indicate where we have to search for the non-Celtic, and therefore
pre-Celtic, origin of Druidism. The Druidism revealed by classical
authorities is, for the most part, the Druidism of continental peoples
and not of Britain, and I hesitate to accept off-hand that it is
proper to transfer the continental system to Britain and say that the
two systems were one and the same. There is certainly no evidence from
the British side which would justify such a course, and I think there
is sufficient argument against it to suspend judgment until the whole
subject is before us. If Professor Rhys is right in concluding that
Druidism is at its roots a non-Celtic religion,[472] we must add to
this that it was undoubtedly a non-Teutonic religion. Celts and
Teutons were sufficiently near in all the elements of their
civilisation for this want of parallel in their relationship to
Druidism to be an additional argument against the Celts having
originated this cult. And then the explanation of the differences
between continental and British Druidism becomes comparatively easy to
understand. The continental Celts, mixing more thoroughly with the
pre-Celtic aborigines than did the British Celts, would have absorbed
more of the pre-Celtic religion than the British Celts, and hence all
the details which classical authorities have left us of continental
Druidism appear as part of the Celtic religion, while in Britain these
details are for the most part absent. But this is not all. There are
certain rites in Britain noted by the early authorities which are not
attached to any particular cult. They are not Druidic; they are not
Celtic. They are, as a matter of fact, special examples of rites
practised in only one locality, and accordingly referred to as
something extraordinary and not general. From this it is clearly
correct to argue that the British Celts had in their midst a cult
which, if they did not destroy, they certainly did not absorb, and
that therefore this cult being non-Celtic must have been pre-Celtic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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