Fashioning druids from Caesar to today (Dr Brigid Ehrmantraut)

This talk explores the myriad ways in which authors and audiences from Classical writers such as Caesar and Tacitus, to medieval literature set in the pre-Christian past, to the modern opera stage have interpreted and reinterpreted Celtic druids.

As figures of bloodthirsty sacrifice, pagan philosophy, prophecy and much more, druids have sparked many imaginations over the last three millennia. While these interpretations may bear little resemblance to druids in historical reality, they are interesting in their own right and attest to the range of creative responses that druids inspired.

Prompted by a presentation on druids that I was asked to give to a major fashion house recently, my talk will consider thematic similarities between Classical Greek and Roman and medieval Irish depictions of druids, before asking how these sources influence contemporary re-fashioning of these ancient figures.