ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 942
http://www.s-gabriel.org/942
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* NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports     *
*       contain errors that we haven't yet      *
*       corrected.  Please use it with caution. *
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21 May 1998
From: Jodi McMaster 

Greetings from Academy of St. Gabriel!

You asked for information on either a pre-/non-Christian Welsh or Saxon
or a Celtic Druid/Priestess in Northern France or the British Isles
between the 6th and 12th centuries.

The Academy of St. Gabriel's mission is to assist people in finding
names historically appropriate for their personas rather than assisting
in persona development.  As a result, we can only offer some basic
suggestions.

Christianization in Wales was completed by the 7th century. [1]  Before
that time, the area was dominated by Rome or the remnants of Roman
culture (the Romans had destroyed the Druids in the first century A.D.
in Wales and Britain). The Welsh nation and language did not exist in
this period, as they had not yet separated from the larger
Romano-British culture in Britain.  The people living in Wales during
and after the Roman occupation are generally called "Britons." 

For general information on the period, try Peter Salway, _Roman Britain_
(Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1984). You may also want to look at Anthony
Birley,  _The People of Roman Britain_ (London: B T Batsford, Ltd, 1979)
for some good information on naming practices.

The Anglo-Saxons were converted a little later, but not much, with the
church being well-established by the 8th century.  For additional
reading, we suggest _The Anglo-Saxons_, edited by James Campbell
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982). Some good recreation websites
are available at Regia Anglorum's site:

http://www.ftech.net/~regia/ 

or at the Engliscan Gesithas site:

http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/

Cornwall and Scotland were completely Christianized at around the same
time as the Welsh and Saxons. 

The other areas referred to as "Celtic," the Isle of Man and Ireland,
were Christianized in the late 6th and early 7th century.  Although
druidic texts existed after the conversion period, they are not
indicative of the survival of the religion but of the legal structure. 
By the seventh century, Ireland is a Christian area.  For more
information, you might consult Daibhi O Croinin _Early Medieval Ireland
400-1200_ , Longman: London, 1995, particularly Chapters 1 and 6, "The
beginnings of Irish History" and "The Consolidation of the Church"; and
Peter Berresford Ellis _The Druids_, William B. Eerdmans Publishing 
Company: Grand Rapids MI, 1994, particularly Chapter 4, "Druids Through
Celtic Eyes."

In Brittany, there was no recognizable religious entity which survived
much after the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar in the century before
the common era. 

We hope this letter has been helpful.  Please write us again if any part
of it has been unclear or if you have other questions.  Arval Benicoeur,
Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Charles O'Connor, Daniel de Lincoln,
and Talan Gwynek contributed comments and/or research for this letter.  

For the Academy,

   AElfwyn aet Gyrwum
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References:

[1] "Wales, Church in," _Britannica Online_ at

http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/629/21.html