When did druids become widely accepted as 'shapeshifters'?

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Druids became widely known as shapeshifters in the late 20th to early 21st century due to Dungeons & Dragons. There is no prior instance of this (and we all know how hard it is to prove a negative).

In today's culture, druids are widely seen as shapeshifters since this is what they can do in D&D and D&D is a major influence on many fantasy media, be it books, movies or games. A lot of media followed the D&D model and over time the modern image of the druid as a fantasy character class is now what most people associate with the term instead of their historical role. I'd like to highlight World of Warcraft here, a game with millions of players all seeing druids as a shapeshifting mage.

What could have inspired the D&D creators to give shapeshifting abilities to druids?

1) Shapeshifting has been a part of nearly every mythology known to mankind, implementing something like this in the game was to be expected.

2) Druids closeness to nature. While there is no evidence about this for the ancient druids, modern druidry developed beginning in the 18th century holds a high regard for the natural world.

In the late 18th century, modern Druids developed fraternal organizations modeled on Freemasonry that employed the romantic figure of the British Druids and Bards as symbols of indigenous British spirituality. Some of these groups were purely fraternal and cultural, creating traditions from the national imagination of Britain. Others, in the early 20th century, merged with contemporary movements such as the physical culture movement and naturism.

Modern interpretation of Druidism

Within Druidry, Nature is considered to be unconditionally sacred and an expression or manifestation of deity and divinity.

This movement is the most likely source for the modern interpretation of druids being nature-loving and in tune with nature.

Those two points combined, make an easy connection of druids being able to shapeshift into animals. Their closeness to nature allows them to do this magic in the fantasy setting.

Finally, there is also Merlin. Merlin is a wizard in the Arthurian Legend. It is easy to portray him as a druid. There are several stories, where he shapeshifts, e.g. a 13th century poem by Robert de Boron. Taking inspiration from that is also a possibility.

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