SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

CELTIC AND GERMANIC RELIGION
By JAN DE VRIES*
JULI US CAESAR has given in the sixth book of his
Commentaries a most important sketch of the Gaulish
religion; he speaks about the gods, about the sacrifices
and the druids. After finishing this account, he adds
some remarks about the religion of the Teutons and writes
down the remarkable phrase, that there is a great difference
in this respect between the Gauls and the Germanic
peoples. This sentence has often been the corner-stone
of comparison between the religious ideas and cults of
both peoples, for it seemed to be an indubitable proof
that on the one hand the religion of the Teutons at Caesar's
time was still very crude and primitive, whilst on the
other hand the Celts had arrived at a much higher
standard of civilization.
It may therefore be worth while to reconsider the exact
value of Caesar's statement. At the time when he was
writing this little essay on the Gaulish creed, he had
scarcely had the opportunity of becoming acquainted
with the cultural and social situation on the other side
of the Rhine. As far as we can judge now, after having
got much more extensive information about the Germanic
religion, we must state that Caesar's remarks show a very
superficial knowledge of it, although they are not altogether
erroneous. But his fairly detailed account of the
situation in Gaul seems to prove that he had both the
wish and the opportunity to be well informed.
Still, modern scholars doubt his reliability in this part
of his memoirs. Some do not shrink even from asserting
• Dr Jan rIe Vries, Honorary Life Member of the Society, died on 23 July
1964. This paper was given as one of the O'Donnell Lectures before the
University of Oxford in May 1962. It is now published hy kind permission
of the Board of English in Oxford, in whom the management of the
O'Donnell Lectureship is vested, and the copyright of the article lies with
the Board. Dr de Vries's other O'Donnell Lecture, 'Germanic and Celtic
heroic traditions', was printed in the Saga-Booh XVI I (rQ62), 22-40.
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