Druid Coloring Pages
I have a never-ending love of learning about myths and history, so the druids feel a bit like kindred spirits to me. Learning was their whole job!
Druids are real, not fantasy. Sometimes in stories like Merlin they get a bit magical and legendary... but overall, they were very real, very hard working leaders and healers.
Druids spent years memorising the rules of society, stories, star lore and the names of every plant in the forest, and they did it all without writing any of it down (they really didn't write much! How weird is that... they used their voices and memories to share knowledge, not their pens).
Who Were the Druids?
Picture the smartest, most respected person in your whole town, then make them the teacher, the judge, the doctor and the king's advisor all at once.
That was a druid.
When two families had an argument, the druids settled it, and when a king had a big decision to make, a druid was standing right beside him. In one old tale, nobody was allowed to speak before the king... and the king wasn't allowed to speak before he had a wee chat with his druids!
Real historical druids lived all over the Celtic lands, from France to Britain to Ireland. They were around when people in Greece still worshipped Zeus, when the first big sections of the Great Wall of China were being built, and when Cleopatra ruled Egypt.
Becoming a druid wasn't quick. The Romans wrote that some students trained for twenty years, learning everything by heart, because druids believed their most important knowledge shouldn't be written down. Imagine studying for twenty years with no notes allowed!
And they weren't all grumpy old men in hoods, either. Some of the old tales mention youthful druids and women druids too.
The Romans didn't like the druids much, mostly because the druids helped hold the Celtic tribes together and reject the power of Rome.
About 2,000 years ago, a Roman army marched to an island in Wales where lots of druids lived. The druids lined up on the shore, raised their hands to the sky and called down curses, and for a little while the soldiers were so spooked they just stood there. Then the Romans remembered they were a mighty army.
The Romans came to shore, won the fight and... cut down the druids' sacred trees.
Oak Trees and Mistletoe
Druids didn't need use temples or fancy buildings.
Their special places were groves of trees out in the forest, and the oak was their favourite of all. A lot of people think the word druid itself means something like "oak-wise."
The Romans described one druid ceremony that sounds like something out of a storybook. When mistletoe was found growing on an oak, which doesn't happen often, a druid in a white robe climbed the tree and cut it down with a golden sickle, while someone below caught it in a white cloth so it never touched the ground.
Druids and Their Animals
Druids watched nature closely for clues about what was coming, and birds were a big part of that. Ravens were often linked with seeing the future, and with the battle goddess the Morrígan. Stags show up all through Celtic art and stories, sometimes leading hunters deep into the woods and right into the Otherworld.
Merlin, the famous wizard from the stories of King Arthur, started out in old Welsh tales as Myrddin, a wild prophet who lived in the forest and could see the future. Sound familiar?
Wise, magical, living among the trees and giving advice to kings... Merlin borrowed a lot from the druids. The tall pointy hat came much later, from storybook pictures, but this little guy and his raven wear it well.
Cathbad, the King's Druid
The old stories of Ireland are full of druids, and the most famous is Cathbad. He was the druid of King Conchobar, and in some versions of the story he was the king's father, too. He was wise, he could read signs in the sky, and he always seemed to have students trailing along behind him.
One morning he was teaching his pupils when one of them asked what that day would be good for. Cathbad thought about it and said that any young warrior who picked up weapons that day would be famous forever, but wouldn't live a very long life.
A little boy playing nearby overheard. He ran straight to the king and asked for weapons of his own, then snapped every spear and sword they handed him until the king finally gave up and lent him his own. That boy grew up to be Cú Chulainn, the greatest hero in all the stories.
When Cathbad found out, he was horrified, but the boy just shrugged. If his name would be remembered forever, he said, he didn't mind if he only lived one day. Cathbad turned out to be right on both counts. Cú Chulainn's life wasn't long, but people are still telling his stories today.
Druids Today
About three hundred years ago, people got curious about the druids all over again, and that interest never really went away.
Today there are modern druids who meet outdoors to celebrate the seasons, and some of them gather at Stonehenge to watch the sun come up on the longest day of the year.
Fun fact: Stonehenge is actually much older than the druids, by a couple of thousand years!
The druids' favourite plant never went anywhere, either. Hanging mistletoe in a doorway at Christmas is a much later custom, but the druids were treating it as something special long before anyone thought to stand underneath it.