Mi primera revista sterio de Belicena Villca editorial de la cas | Page 433

¨El Misterio de Belicena Villca¨
British Isles - There is one mention of druids in Great Britain as contemporaries of the Gallic
clergy, and that is the reference to them by Tacitus (Annals, xiv, 30) from which it is learned
that there were elders of that name in Anglesey in A.D. 61; but there is no mention of the druids
in the whole of the history of Roman England, and it may be questions whether there ever were
any druids in the eastern provinces that had been subjected, before the Roman invasion, to
German influence.
On the other hand, there were certainly druids in Ireland and Scotland, and there is no reason
to doubt that the order reaches back in antiquity at least to the ist or 2nd century B.C.; the word
drai (druid) can only be traced to the 8th-century Irish glosses, but there is a strong tradition
current in Irish literature that the druids and their lore (druidecht) were either of an aboriginal or
Pictsih origin. As to Wales, apart from the existence of druids in Anglesey there is little to be
said except that the earliest of the bards (the Cynfeirdd) very occasionally called themselves
derwyddon.
The Irish druid was a notable person, figuring in the earliest sagas as prophet teacher and
magician; he did not possess, nevertheless, the judicial powers ascribed by Caesar to the
Gallic druids, nor does he seem to have been a member of a national college an archdruid at
its head.
Further, there is no mention in any of the texts of the Irish druids presiding at sacrifices,
though they are said to have conducted idolatrous worship and to have celebrated funeral and
baptismal rites. They are best described as seers who were, for the most part, sycophants of
princes.
Origin - Some confusion is avoided if a distinction is made between the origin of the druids
and the origin of druidism. Of the officials themselves, it seems most likely that their order was
purely Celtic, and that it originated in Gaul, perhaps as a result of contact with the developed
society of Greece; but druidism, on the other hand, is probably in its simplest terms the pre-
Celtic and aboriginal faith of Gaul and the British Isles that was aposted with little modification
by the migrating Celts. It is easy to understand that this faith might acquire the special
distinction of antiquity in remote districts, such as Britain, and this view would explain the belief
expressed to Caesar that the discipline of druidism was of insular origin.
The etymology of the word druid is still doubtful, but the old orthodox view taking dru as a
strengthening prefix and uid as meaning “knowing”, whereby the druid was a very learned man,
has been abandoned in favor of a derivation from an oak word. Pliny's derivation from Greek
δρυς is, however, improbable.
A great revival of interest in the druids largely promulgated by the archaeological theories of
Aubrey and Stukeley and by romanticism generally, took place in the 18th and 19th centuries.
One outcome of this interest was the invention of neodruidism, an extravagant mixture of helio-
arkite theology and Welsh bardilore, and another result is that more than one society has
professed itself as inheriting the traditional knowledge and faith of the early druids. The United
Ancient Order of Druids, however, a friendly society founded in the 18th century, makes no
such claim).
Tío Kurt me había alcanzado un artículo de la Enciclopedia Británica, idéntico al que
Tarstein le hiciera leer en Alemania, en 1937. Considerando lo que había aprendido
últimamente sobre los Druidas, desde que éstos asesinaran a Belicena Villca, y luego de leer
su carta y recibir las explicaciones magistrales del Profesor Ramírez, es natural que
compartiese el criterio de Konrad Tarstein, en el sentido de que aquel artículo era sumamente
resumido y ambiguo para justificar su inclusión en una obra tan prestigiosa: la primera edición
de la Enciclopedia Británica databa de 1771, por lo que cabía esperarse que en 1930 hubiesen
reunido suficiente material sobre los Druidas como para componer un artículo más extenso y
completo. Pero resultaba obvio que los ingleses no deseaban profundizar sobre la historia de
unos antiguos y olvidados Sacerdotes, que podían matar hoy mismo con renovada eficacia.
–En la segunda visita que hice a Konrad Tarstein –recordó tío Kurt– aprobó mis
razonamientos y me aseguró que lo ocurrido en el artículo era el hecho más común, y que
deseaba alertarme sobre ello; por eso me lo había dado: para ponerme sobre aviso de que
una increíble conspiración europea negaba la información o la distorsionaba, con la finalidad
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