Donna Grant’s Midnight’s Lover is released tomorrow, and combines time-traveling, sexy Highlanders, and druids! We’ve asked Donna to join us here at H&H to explain just what her fascination with druids is all about. Thanks, Donna!
I get asked a lot why I chose Druids for my Dark Sword and Dark Warrior series. I find the legend of the Druids utterly fascinating, not least of which because there are so many conflicting accounts. Some records show the Druids to be spiritual and intellectual leaders who helped heal the sick and gave counsel to kings and other leaders.
The Romans would have us believe they were the basest of humans who routinely sacrificed humans and animals in order to appease their pagan gods.
I don’t think we’ll ever know who is right. Maybe, as I think, the Druids were both. In anything you look at, there is always good and bad. The idea that the Druids were “either” “or” could be a moot point.
Half of writing history is controlling it...and hiding what you don’t want known. Rome was very good at writing history, so I think its safe to say they were a tad biased when it came to writing about anything to do with Britain, the Celts, and most assuredly the Druids.
When there is no hard and fast rule regarding history—or a group of people —it makes it easy to bend whatever information there is about Druids to whatever is needed. One small sentence can open a gateway of ideas.
The Druids, their culture, the idea that they could very well have had magic captivates me. So many legends and myths state that Scotland had (or has if you listen to some people) magic. It was that magic that gave the Druids their abilities to heal and comprehend what the earth, plants, and the four elements said.
It is said that the magnificent standing stones all across Britain were used by the Druids for ceremonies. Many of those structures are aligned with solstices, lunar and solar events, and some are laid out for special astrological events and even observatories.
Take the Ring of Brodgar on the Orkney Isle. It was once known as the Temple of the Sun and the nearby Stones of Stenness as the Temple of the Moon. The two were part of a ritual complex used jointly. Was it a meeting place? Something to honor ancestors? Astronomical observatory? Or a ritual place as most believe?
Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever know the answer, yet you can’t help but feel the magic of the land when you see the megaliths up close. The sheer size of the stones and the amount of effort that went into creating the structures, some in a perfect circle, boggles the mind.
Could these same people who possibly erected such stones be the savages Rome speaks of?
The ones who studied the rising and setting of both the sun and moon daily? The ones who knew when the solstices would arrive, and even when comets would appear.
Hard to picture them as savages, isn’t it? Yet, you can’t have good without evil. It’s a delicate balance, and one that is battled every day.
Whether the Druids were the healers and intellectuals as some believe, or the brutes who sacrificed humans, they did walk this earth. They put their stamp on history whether they meant to or not, and we’ll forever be looking for the answers as to who they were. We might not ever know their true origins, but they are a part of history.
They intrigue and mesmerize us, this idea that they could be good or evil, and that they might have had magic (magic!). Their existence has created numerous stories for books and movies, and I don’t see that ending anytime soon. They are here to stay. And I for one am very glad.
Bestselling, award-winning author Donna Grant has been praised for her “totally addictive” and “unique and sensual” stories. She’s the author of more than twenty novels spanning multiple genres of romance—Scottish Medieval, dark fantasy, time travel, paranormal, and erotic. Her latest acclaimed series, Dark Sword, features a thrilling combination of Druids, primeval gods, and immortal Highlanders who are dark, dangerous, and irresistible. She lives with her husband, two children, a dog, and three cats in Texas.
