Copyright 1995 by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. druids {droo'-idz} Among the ancient CELTS, the druids were a class of priests and learned men. They formed an important part of every Celtic community in Ireland, Britain, and Gaul, and their leaders often rivaled kings and chiefs in prestige, if not power. They seem to have served as judges as well as priests, and their counsel was eagerly sought by all classes of society. Unfortunately, most knowledge about the druids is derived from Roman sources, for the druids themselves disdained writing and preferred to pass along their tradition orally. They were responsible for educating the sons of chiefs and generally served as the guardians of the sacred tradition. It is known that oak trees and mistletoe played an important part in druidic rituals (the word druid itself may be related to daur, the Celtic word for oak tree), as did human sacrifice. Sacrificial victims were burned in large wicker baskets in order to ensure military success or the health of the chief. These acts, as well as the druids' fierce resistance to the spread of Latin culture, led to their suppression by Roman authorities in Britain and Gaul; only in Ireland, which never came under Roman rule, did druidism survive until AD c.500. It is for this reason, perhaps, that pre-Christian Irish mythology is far better preserved than that of any other ancient Celtic group. Earlier scholars frequently associated the druids with STONEHENGE, but it is now known that Stonehenge was completed well over a millennium before the first Celts reached the British Isles (between 550-450 BC). The LINDOW MAN, a human corpse from the 2d century BC found near Manchester, England in 1984, is believed by some scholars to have been a druid sacrificed in a religious ritual. C. Scott Littleton Bibliography: Kendrick, Thomas D., Druids (1966); Piggott, Stuart, The Druids (1968; repr. 1985); Rutherford, Ward, The Druids (1978; repr. 1986).