The British Druid Order

The Bardic Tradition

Kevan Manwaring writes convincingly on the bardic tradition due being an excellent bard himself, one of our tradition’s finest storytellers. Particularly recommended are: ‘The Bardic Handbook: The Complete Manual for the Twenty-First Century Bard,’ Gothic Image, 2006, which does exactly what it says in the title. ‘The Way of Awen,’ Moon Books, 2010, which builds on the previous book.

Arguably Britain’s greatest living bard, Robin Williamson, has published a few books himself, as well as producing beautiful music as a solo artist and with the Merry Band and the Incredible String Band. He’s also a talented artist and a contributor to our courses. Again, some of these titles are out of print but available from online booksellers:

‘Celtic Bards, Celtic Druids,’ by Robin and R. J. Stewart, Blandford, 1999, is particularly good, combining decades of accumulated wisdom from these two great bards.

‘The Wise & Foolish Tongue: Celtic Stories & Poems,’ Chronicle Books, 1991, is a selection of some of Robin’s favourite traditional pieces re-worked for performance to modern audiences.

If you fancy getting musical but aren’t sure where to start, Robin has written a great introduction to a good starter instrument in ‘The Penny Whistle Book,’ Music Sales, 1992, which also covers the basics of reading music.

If you’re feeling bolder and have more cash to play with, you might fancy getting a harp. Robin and I both bought our first harps with one thing in mind, making pretty noises to accompany storytelling. Robin has since won awards for albums of harp music. I haven’t, but I still make pretty noises. Robin was first taught to play by Merry Band member, Sylvia Woods, whose book, ‘Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp,’ Woods Music, 2008, is an excellent introduction.

The text that underpins much of what we teach and do in the BDO is the great collection of medieval Welsh prose tales, ‘The Mabinogion.’ Of the many available translations, our recommendation is that by Sioned Davies, Oxford Books, 2008.

Kristoffer Hughes, chief of the Anglesey Druid Order, is a good friend of the BDO, a fine writer and an excellent advocate for modern Druidry, based firmly in the British bardic tradition. He’s written several books, and this one’s a great one to start with: ‘From the Cauldron Born: Exploring the Magic of Welsh Legend and Lore,’ Llewellyn Books, 2012.

A good collection of Irish bardic tales is ‘Over Nine Waves: A Book of Irish Legends,’ by Marie Heaney, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995. It includes the ‘Book of Invasions,’ the Cuchulainn stories, and legends of Finn mac Cool.

Perhaps the greatest product of the Irish bardic tradition is the saga of the great warrior, Cuchulainn. It has been translated many times, but never better than by the poet, Thomas Kinsella, in ‘The Tain: Translated from the Irish epic, Tain bo Cuailgne,’ Oxford University Press, 2002.

Since one traditional role of bards is that of historian, this seems a good place to introduce some histories of the Druid tradition. Here we are blessed to have Professor Ronald Hutton of Bristol University as a member of the BDO and of various other Druid groups. Ronald is the finest historian of paganism of our generation. Among his books are two dealing wholly with Druidry, particularly since the 18^th century revival, a period many other scholars tend to ignore: ‘The Druids,’ Hambledon Continuum, 2008. ‘Blood & Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain,’ Yale University Press, 2011.

For the earlier, archaeological and classical era of Druidry, the following work by Miranda Aldhouse Green, probably this generation’s finest Celtic scholar, fits the bill admirably: ‘Caesar’s Druids: An Ancient Priesthood,’ Yale University Press, 2010. Her Sacred Britannia: The Gods and Rituals of Roman Britain, Thames & Hudson, 2018, is another useful source.