---
title: Druid
description: "Celtic mythology - druid - mythology - Druid: The druid and the king"
author:
  name: Graciela Paula Caldeiro
  url: http://graciela-caldeiro.idoneos.com
canonical: https://mitologiacelta.idoneos.com/en/303217/
source: en/303217/index.md
---

<h2 id="druida">Druid</h2>

This is the name given to the priests of the Celtic religious system. The word derives from the root *dru*, which is a superlative, and from a term related to the Latin *videre* and the Greek *idein*. A druid is therefore one who is very far-seeing or very wise.

Druids constitute a very powerful priestly class, within which various specializations and a very strict hierarchy are grouped. At the apex of the hierarchy stands the druid proper.

Anyone could gain entry to the druidic class after completing extensive studies over a period of twenty years.

<h2 id="el-druida-y-el-rey">The druid and the king</h2>

The druid participates in the social, political, cultural, juridical and religious life of the group to which he belongs. He forms with the king a genuine pair, a two-headed power, without which nothing can be accomplished. The druid is the one who inspires the action that the king will carry out. In an assembly, the king always speaks after the druid, yet the druid is nothing without the king. In pagan Ireland, the druid came to be a *file*, and it was the *fili* whom St. Patrick converted to Christianity. On the continent, the Roman authorities prohibited druids from teaching, and the druidic institution gradually died out. In Great Britain, the druids persisted for longer, slowly integrating into the Christian priestly class.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, druids (neo-druids) appeared whose connection with the druids of Celtic times is nonexistent. The druid, as such, can only exist within the historical context of a Celtic society.