The Druids

Fülszöveg

This modern study of the Druids has a double attraction. Not only does Professor Piggott detail the little that can be said with any certainty about this shadowy Celtic priesthood; he also traces, through remarkably exact stages, the evolution of a legend.
Posidonius and Julius Caesar and other classical writers (not always objective) combine with ancient Irish texts to supply the scanty written evidence: to this Stuart Piggott adds his great knowledge of recent archaeological discoveries about Celtic society before the impact of the Romans.
So much for the facts . . . and they are few. The author then turns his spade to literary archaeology and exposes the eighteenth-century foundations of our cherished myths of bloody sacrifices and flowing robes and bearded sages wending their way to Stonehenge at the summer solstice. Aubrey's modest hints, Stukely's wilder theories, and Blake's prophetic maunderings burgeon into the plain forgeries of lolo Morganwg in a fantastic flowering... Tovább

Fülszöveg

This modern study of the Druids has a double attraction. Not only does Professor Piggott detail the little that can be said with any certainty about this shadowy Celtic priesthood; he also traces, through remarkably exact stages, the evolution of a legend.
Posidonius and Julius Caesar and other classical writers (not always objective) combine with ancient Irish texts to supply the scanty written evidence: to this Stuart Piggott adds his great knowledge of recent archaeological discoveries about Celtic society before the impact of the Romans.
So much for the facts . . . and they are few. The author then turns his spade to literary archaeology and exposes the eighteenth-century foundations of our cherished myths of bloody sacrifices and flowing robes and bearded sages wending their way to Stonehenge at the summer solstice. Aubrey's modest hints, Stukely's wilder theories, and Blake's prophetic maunderings burgeon into the plain forgeries of lolo Morganwg in a fantastic flowering of dotty Britishism with a Welsh accent.
'Readable, balanced and valuable introductory survey' - The Times Literary Supplement
The cover shows a detail of 'An Arch Druid in His Judicial Habit', a coloured aquatint from The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands by S. R. Meyrick and C. H. Snnith
For copyright reasons this edition is notfor sale in the U.S.A Vissza