From the myths we find that the Irish druids had a tonsor, as did the early Celtic Christian monks. They cut their hair in a mystic figure called airbacc Giunnae (perhaps, “fence cut of the hair”)—a tonsor running from ear to ear, instead of the circular form on the crown of the head. The Celtic monks followed this form, which became a point of dispute with Rome, and the Roman tonsor eventually replaced the Celtic one.

Druids have long been the subject for myth making, from the time of the Latin writers, who were not exactly sympathetic to the Celts or the druids, until the nineteenth century romantic revival, which accorded all manner of weird and wonderful powers to the druids. Latin writers maintained that the druids were practitioners of human sacrifice, with particular reference to the Celts of Gaul. Cicero, Dionysius, and Pomponius Mela recite human sacrifice stories ad nauseam, which were taken up by such early Christian leaders as Tertullian, Augustine, and Lactantius. However, it must be pointed out that there is no native tradition of this. One would have thought that if there had been some hint of such a tradition then the Christian scribes would have undoubtedly seized upon it in an effort to denigrate the older religion and its practices, as they did with the story of Cromm Cruach, an idol who demanded sacrifice but who is portrayed as an aberration and not the norm in Celtic society.

The transition of moral and legal authority from the druids to the “saints” of the early Celtic Christian Church was an easy one. No martyrs are recorded. The answer seems to rest in the fact that the early “saints” were druids and that the new religion was seen simply as an extension of the old one. Illtyd, for example, is described in an early Life of St. Samson as “a most wise Magus Druid and a fore-knower of future events.” Taliesin makes the point that the druids believed in “Christianity” before it was brought to the Celts by missionaries. In others words, the doctrines of the druidic religion were little different from those of the new one.

Drunemeton

A place in Galatia referred to by Strabo. The name means “sanctuary of oaks,” a religious gathering place for the Galatian druids.

Dubh

[I] Wife of Enna and a druidess. When Enna was having an affair, she drowned her rival by magic. Enna slew her in revenge