FACHLAIREACHDD NAN

DRUIDHEACHD

A GLOSSARY OFGAELIC MAGIC

ruair mac aoidh

Copyright © by Rod C. MackayIllustrations and Designby Rod C. Mackay________________________________________________________All rights reserved. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced except as a single reading copyand back-up for the personal use of the registered discpurchaser. This electronic book is licensed to be stored onone hard-drive but is not otherwise offered to be lent, stored inadditional retrieval systems, or transmitted, in any form or by anymeans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or the like,without the express permission of the author at Box 793, Sussex, N.B.Canada, E0E 1P0. Registered purchasers will be made aware of correct-ions, deletions, and the availability of new illustrations and textualadditions.________________________________________________________Published in Canada by The CaledonianFirst Edition Before Publication

INTRODUCTION

The Celts were a language, rather than a racial, group. The Celtictongue is a branch of the Indo-European family of speech which includesEnglish and German and certain Slavonic languages among its survivingmembers. The dead Indo-European tongues include ancient Persian, Latinand Greek.The Celtic group now comprises five living languages, Cornish havingexpired in the 18th century. These six were divided into two dialectswhich shared a common vocabulary but had dissimilar speech patterns;one was the Brittonic or Brythonic branch, the other the Gadhaelic. Theformer speakers were located in Wales, Cornwall and Briton (or England),the latter on the Isle of Man and in Ireland and Scotland. These peopleswere not the first settlers of the islands now called Great Britain but theywere there well before the Anglo-Saxons who gave rise to the English raceand language after their arrival from the Continent in 449.Druidheachd was literally the business of the druids, who were thechief men and women of the community next to the “ard righ” or “highking” of each realm. Because their activities were little understood by thecommon folk most of what they did was taken in the same context asAnglo-Saxon witchcraft and the arts which the Anglo-Normans termed