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The ancient Celts, a patchwork of tribes that spread across Europe, feared in battle, guided by druids and bound together by ritual.

Long before Rome pushed north, Celtic peoples ruled forests, hilltops and river valleys.

They built fortified settlements, forged weapons of iron and lived in a world where warfare and worship were inseparable.

To the Celts, power was not political, it was spiritual.

It was spiritual. Hello and welcome to After Dark, I'm Anthony, and as you may have noticed, I am Maddieless and have been for the last few episodes and will be for a short time to come yet because she is trekking in the Andes on discovery missions that will change the world. But until then, you have me and a plethora of incredible guests to navigate the historical terrain that we're about to discover today.

And in this episode, we will be talking about the dark side of the Celts, the rituals,

the violence, and the dangers that shaped these ancient societies.

And who would we rather have to help us navigate that particular terrain than Professor Ronald Hutton, who is, of course, a returning guest and a fan favourite.

And Professor Hutton is at the University of Bristol and specialises in early modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and modern paganism.

Professor Hutton, welcome back to After Dark.

Thank you very much. I am a bit of plethora. It's delightful to be one.

It is, this is a really interesting one for me, right? Because we're going to be talking about the Celts.

And somebody had the nerve to say about middle-aged Celts earlier.

And I don't know if I quite fit that category just yet.

But we're not too far from it.

Yeah, yeah, just about.

But this is something culturally that we in Ireland grow up with.

This idea of our Celtic, you know, DNA, our background.

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