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difficulties
in the state of the sources
our
prejudicial denotations
animistic
component
fairy
tales and legends as legitimate sources
shamanism
and druidism
the
stratum of divinities
themes
polarity
Death / Mothers
changes
in material existence
Mabon
vab Genoveva
interface
of Death and Mothers
isolated
themes
the
realities of the world
contact
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They are even more conspicuous
when fairy tales, legends and popular traditions are admitted as being
sources for revealing traces of druidism. This may not be asked too much
considering that for shamanism a tradition in form of fairy tales is
quite typical. Oral tradition as proper to all shamanistic and
animistic cultures is also known for the pre-roman, pre-Christian Celts
and consisted in the numerous tales druids and bards were obliged to
know and to recite. By the time and by design the old traditions were
shaped into a system of more or less artful tales which kept alive and
preserved in a canonized form the ancient beliefs and individual
experiences (e.g. of journeys to the Otherworld, of shapeshifting or of
ancestors). Some of those tales remained alive until they found their
way into medieval manuscripts, the authors of which however did no
longer understand their meaning and interpreted them on the grounds of
Christian concepts. Parallel to it is the fate of those tales which were
communicated orally to become popular tales and legends. The magic of
the druids turned to be the witchcraft in fairy tales.
We are
therefore justified in scrutinizing those tales for elements of ancient
religious beliefs of the shamanistic stratum.
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