The legendary Merlin was the forerunner of all the wizards of fiction,
from Gandalf to Harry Potter. The historical Merlin seems to have
been something very different but equally mysterious: a druid.
Wizards and Druids
The Roman occupation of Britain lasted from 43BC to around 400.
Before the Romans invaded, the druid priesthood was the undisputed
power in the land. For the previous two or three centuries the
druids had been a dominant force throughout what was then the
Celtic world, which included France, the Netherlands and parts
of Scandinavia as well as Britain.
History is written by the victors; this can
make it hard to get a clear picture of the people on the losing
side. When the Romans conquered the Celts and Ancient Britons,
they gave unflattering descriptions of the druids. Some sources
describe the druids as bloodthirsty barbarians who were addicted
to human sacrifice. Others maintain that they were gentle and
peaceful, and that they derived their authority from being in
touch with nature.
There are a few things we can say for certain.
Druids:
They held ceremonies in oak groves
They saw mistletoe as a sacred plant with healing powers
They practised divination and believed they could foretell the
future
Merlin Druid or Wizard 
Their powers of divination underpinned the druids' authority.
Their supposed ability to foretell the future made the druids
a vital source of information, equally able to advise the community
on when to start the harvesting and the king on when to go to
war. Like Arthur's adviser, Merlin, the druids wielded a power
based on their superior insight into the workings of the universe.
Druids and Human Sacrifices
Information about druid practices can also be gained from archaeological
evidence. The Gundestrup Cauldron was preserved for 2000 years
in a peat bog in Denmark. Intricately carved and made of solid
silver, the cauldron looks like a classic piece of wizard's equipment.
It seems to have been put in the bog as a form of sacrifice, after
being used in ceremonies for many years. The carvings on the cauldron
present a wild and hallucinatory panorama: there is a horned god;
figures which are half human, half animal; and scenes of animal
and perhaps human sacrifice.
More gruesome - and mysterious - evidence
is supplied by Tollund Man. The body of Tollund Man was found
in 1950 in a Danish peat bog, where - like the Gundestrup Cauldron
- it had been preserved since the 1st century BC. Tollund Man
was about 40; he was stripped naked and garrotted before his body
was laid to rest in the bog. Examination of his stomach contents
found a wide variety of different grains, suggesting a ritual
last meal. There were also traces of ergot, a highly toxic mould
found on rye. If Tollund Man was the victim of ergot poisoning
('ergotism') he would have suffered convulsions and hallucinations.
It may be that this ergot-induced trance state was part of a ritual
sacrifice.
Tollund Man was not the only victim. Other
bog bodies have been found in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands,
Ireland - and Britain. In 1984, a 2000-year-old body was found
in a peat bog in Cheshire: Lindow Man. This time the signs of
human sacrifice were unmistakable. Lindow Man had been struck
on the head, strangled and had his throat cut, perhaps to drain
the body of blood. He was young, fit and well-groomed, suggesting
high social status. There was no ergot in his stomach; but there
were traces of mistletoe, suggesting a definite druidical connection.
The druids' political authority was severely limited under Roman
rule. However, druidical practices and Roman religion seem to
have coexisted. In particular, the druidical arts of divination
appear to have survived into the Roman era: one Romano-British
burial site in Colchester has been found to contain equipment
for a divining ritual. As the Roman Empire crumbled in the 5th
century CE, it is not hard to see how men such as Merlin could
have revived druidical practices.
Wizardry as we know it is deeply marked by
druidical practices. But the druids themselves had roots in a
truly ancient and mysterious form of magic: shamanism.
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