- Ritual and the Druids -
used again in Britain, as far as we can tell, until a much later period. The word dry,
probably from Irish drui, and compounds such as drycraeft are employed regularly
in Anglo-Saxon connoting 'magician', 'sorcerer', and used to translate Latin magus
(Bosworth and Toller, Anglo-Saxon Dictionary).
However, some degree of druidic influence and authority must have survived the
proscription of the order throughout the empire, in Britain as in Gaul. In some
instances druids were referred to as magi. In Irish, for example, Simon Magus
appears as Simon Drul. Pictish druids are also referred to as magi in Adamnan's Vita
Sancti Columbae, for example, written in the seventh century, almost a hundred
years after the death of the saint. When St Columba journeyed into the Inverness
region of Pictland to convert the pagan Picts to the Faith, he had an encounter with
Broichan, the hostile druid of the pagan Pictish king Brude. The royal fortress
may have been sited on Craig Phadruig near Inverness, on which are the remains of
a 'vitrified' fort. Just as St Patrick attacked Irish paganism at the court of the power-
ful king Loegaire, on the Hill of Tara, so did Columba attack Pictish paganism at the
court of King Brude beside the river Ness.
When King Brude refused to open the gates of the fortress to Columba and his
clerics, the saint made the sign of the cross and the bolts fell away. Alarmed, the
druids (magi) exhorted their king to turn a deaf ear to the men of God; but Columba
overcame all opposition and the king was converted to the Faith. Columba worked
among the Picts for nine years after this, and mastered their language. However,
Broichan, Brude's foster-father and tutor, remained hostile to the clerics, and did all
he could to hinder their mission. One evening when the saint and his monks were
chanting Evensong Broichan and his fellow druids tried unsuccessfully to hinder the
service. But eventually the druid was converted by the superior magic of the saint.
When Broichan became ill and no cure could be found, Columba was eventually
summoned to cure him. The saint caused a white quartz pebble to be placed in some
water, and the stone came to the surface of the liquid. A draught of the water was
given to Broichan, then near death, and he recovered at once. In this context the
druids are referred to as magi. However, in the metrical version of Saint Columba's
Prayer we find the statement 'mo drui ... Mac De', 'My druid ... the Son of God'
(Fowler 1920).
So it is clear that after the Roman conquest of the southern half of Britain official
druidism could not be acceptable to the imperial administration. However, native
deities and their cults were countenanced; and native gods must have necessitated
native priests, who could communicate with the gods in their own language. These
are matters about which we have little knowledge to date, although archaeological
work on Romano-British temples is constantly bringing more evidence to light with
regard to native cult practices. Perhaps the Celtic priesthood was allowed to continue
under another name, one which did not have the connotation of the word 'druid'.
Functions would then be confined to the correct performance of such ritual as was
permitted in the centuries following the Roman conquest.
The Vortigern (Welsh Gwrtheyrn) legend certainly indicates that druids (called
magi) were still functioning in some parts of Britain after the end of Roman
occupation. Possibly the earliest reference in Welsh literature to druids occurs in the
tenth-century poem Armes Prydein, 'The Prophecy of Britain', from the Book of