I’ve been reading about the Druids of Britain during the Roman occupation. I read that they lead marriage ceremonies and acted as a form of priesthood. Does anyone know if the Druids be married, or did they only lead marriages and never “walked down the aisle” themselves? Any knowledge is appreciated, thanks in advance.
I may be wrong, but I think the Druids, as such, vanished long before the Roman occupation. Julius C. made reference to another form of preisthood, but I believe that was for a different ethnic group entirely.
Druids were certainly around at the time up to the Roman occupation. In fact, Caesar himself presumably refers to one in his records of the Gallic War (Diviacus, one of the Aedui). The druids also had the distinction of being officially outlawed by the Romans, the only religious group besides Christianity to have that distinction.
As for the original question, we simply don’t know enough about the druids to answer definitively for all over. Celtic culture was widespread over a broad area for about a thousand years; I would presume that local cultures may have varied during that time.
The ancient Irish laws of marriage, as far as I recall, just denote marriage types; there is no specific rule against druidic marriage.
Fionn mac Cumhail, a famous hero, was the son of a woman named Muirne, who has been referred to as a “druid’s daughter”, as were several other figures in mythology. I may be missing a specific reference; if someone can remind me, great.
I think it’s pretty safe to assume that at least some druids did marry.
In A Book of Saints and Wonders by Lady Gregory, a famour Irish writer, she speaks of a druid and his wife that visited the home of Brigit (an Irish saint) when she preforms a smaller version of the miracle of the loves and fishes.