Fili
Encyclopedia
A fili was a member of an elite class
of poets
in Ireland
, up into the Renaissance
, when the Irish class system was dismantled.
:
that predated the Christianization
of Ireland. In this tradition, poetic and musical forms are important not only for aesthetics
, but also for their mnemonic
value. The tradition allowed plenty of room for improvisation and personal expression, especially in regard to creative hyperbole
and clever kenning
. However, the culture placed great importance on the fili's ability to pass stories and information down through the generations without making changes in those elements that were considered factual rather than embellishment.
In this manner, a significant corpus of pre-Christian myth and epic literature
remained largely intact many centuries into the Christian era. Much of it was first recorded in writing by scholarly Christian monks
. The synergy between the rich and ancient indigenous oral literary tradition and the classical tradition resulted in an explosion of monastic literature that included epics of war, love stories, nature poetry, saint tales
and so forth which collectively resulted in the largest corpus of non-Latin literature seen in Europe
since Ancient Greece
.
See Early Irish literature
for more details.
(O'Daly), several of whom were accorded the rank of 'chief ollamh of poetry of all Ireland,' and O'hUiginn (O'Higgins) who were hereditary filí in more than one Gaelic house such as O'Conor Slighit, The MacDermotts, The McDonagh and O'Doherty, The Ó Maol Chonaire chiefly as ([Ollamh Síol Muireadhaigh]) to the O'Conor Donn although this family was also associated with Ulster and spread from Connacht into the courts of Munster and Leinster, and the Ó Cleirighs who served the O'Donnel chieftans of Tír Connell. The hereditary poets that were a fixure of court life in medieval Ireland
serving as entertainers, advisors and genealogists maintained practices of and enjoyed a similar status as the pre-Christian fili. But from the 12th century onwards, Anglo-Norman
elements had increasing influence on Irish society. As Gaelic
culture waned, these folk became increasingly involved with written literature and such non-native traditions as heraldry
. Eventually classical literature and the Romantic literature
that grew from the troubadour
tradition of the langue d'oc
superseded the material that that would have been familiar to the ancient fili.
See Bard
for more details.
and the Celtic world
in general.
Besides its value to historians, this canon has contributed a great deal to modern literature beginning with retellings by William Butler Yeats
and other authors involved with the Celtic Revival
. Soon after, James Joyce
drew from material less explicitly. Now fantasy literature
and art
draws heavily from these tales and characters such as Cúchulainn
, Finn McCool
and the Tuatha Dé Danann
are relatively familiar.
Through such traditional musicians as Turlough O'Carolan
(who died in 1738 and is often lauded as "the last of the bards") and countless of his less-known or anonymous colleagues, the musical tradition of the fili has made its way to contemporary ears via artists such as Planxty
, The Chieftains
, and The Dubliners
.
Perhaps most notably,in their subject matter and techniques, the seanachie
are very much the inheritors of the ancient Irish traditional of oral literature.
The modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic words for "poet" are derived from fili.
Finally, practitioners of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism
are working to reconstruct trance and visionary techniques that were used by the filid, such as imbas forosnai
and aspects of the tarbhfeis ritual.
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
of poets
Irish poetry
The history of Irish poetry includes the poetries of two languages, one in Irish and the other in English. The complex interplay between these two traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, up into the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, when the Irish class system was dismantled.
Elite scholars
According to the Textbook of Irish Literature, by Eleanor HullEleanor Hull
Eleanor Henrietta Hull was born in England, of a County Down family. She was educated at Alexandra College, Dublin and was a student of Irish Studies. She was a journalist and scholar of Old Irish and in 1899 was co-founder of the Irish Texts Society for the publication of early manuscripts...
:
Oral tradition
The fili maintained an oral traditionOral literature
Oral literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken word to literature as literature operates in the domain of the written word. It thus forms a generally more fundamental component of culture, but operates in many ways as one might expect literature to do...
that predated the Christianization
Celtic Christianity
Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages...
of Ireland. In this tradition, poetic and musical forms are important not only for aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, but also for their mnemonic
Mnemonic
A mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...
value. The tradition allowed plenty of room for improvisation and personal expression, especially in regard to creative hyperbole
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally....
and clever kenning
Kenning
A kenning is a type of literary trope, specifically circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry...
. However, the culture placed great importance on the fili's ability to pass stories and information down through the generations without making changes in those elements that were considered factual rather than embellishment.
In this manner, a significant corpus of pre-Christian myth and epic literature
Irish mythology
The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...
remained largely intact many centuries into the Christian era. Much of it was first recorded in writing by scholarly Christian monks
Hiberno-Scottish mission
The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a mission led by Irish and Scottish monks which spread Christianity and established monasteries in Great Britain and continental Europe during the Middle Ages...
. The synergy between the rich and ancient indigenous oral literary tradition and the classical tradition resulted in an explosion of monastic literature that included epics of war, love stories, nature poetry, saint tales
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
and so forth which collectively resulted in the largest corpus of non-Latin literature seen in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
since Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
.
See Early Irish literature
Early Irish literature
-The earliest Irish authors:It is unclear when literacy first came to Ireland. The earliest Irish writings are inscriptions, mostly simple memorials, on stone in the ogham alphabet, the earliest of which date to the fourth century...
for more details.
Decline
The ultimate accommodation of Christianity within Irish Gaelic society resulted in a strain on the resources of the Chiefs and in that they were required to provide land and titles for both fili and bishop alike. Consequently, a decision was made in the 6th century to limit the number of fili to certain families who were respected and believed to be poets as a birth right. The greatest of these families included the Ó DálaighÓ Dálaigh
The Ó Dálaigh were a learned Irish bardic family who first came to prominence early in the 12th century, when Cú Connacht Ó Dálaigh was described as "The first Ollamh of poetry in all Ireland" .-Name derivation:The name Ó Dálaigh means 'descendant of Dálach'...
(O'Daly), several of whom were accorded the rank of 'chief ollamh of poetry of all Ireland,' and O'hUiginn (O'Higgins) who were hereditary filí in more than one Gaelic house such as O'Conor Slighit, The MacDermotts, The McDonagh and O'Doherty, The Ó Maol Chonaire chiefly as ([Ollamh Síol Muireadhaigh]) to the O'Conor Donn although this family was also associated with Ulster and spread from Connacht into the courts of Munster and Leinster, and the Ó Cleirighs who served the O'Donnel chieftans of Tír Connell. The hereditary poets that were a fixure of court life in medieval Ireland
History of Ireland
The first known settlement in Ireland began around 8000 BC, when hunter-gatherers arrived from continental Europe, probably via a land bridge. Few archaeological traces remain of this group, but their descendants and later Neolithic arrivals, particularly from the Iberian Peninsula, were...
serving as entertainers, advisors and genealogists maintained practices of and enjoyed a similar status as the pre-Christian fili. But from the 12th century onwards, Anglo-Norman
Norman Ireland
The History of Ireland 1169–1536 covers the period from the arrival of the Cambro-Normans to the reign of Henry VIII of England, who made himself King of Ireland. After the Norman invasion of 1171, Ireland was under an alternating level of control from Norman lords and the King of England...
elements had increasing influence on Irish society. As Gaelic
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
culture waned, these folk became increasingly involved with written literature and such non-native traditions as heraldry
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
. Eventually classical literature and the Romantic literature
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
that grew from the troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
tradition of the langue d'oc
Southern France
Southern France , colloquially known as le Midi is defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean, and Italy...
superseded the material that that would have been familiar to the ancient fili.
See Bard
Bard
In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...
for more details.
Legacy
Fortunately, many manuscripts preserving the tales once transmitted by the fili have survived. This literature contributes much to the modern understanding of druids, Celtic religionCeltic polytheism
Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts...
and the Celtic world
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
in general.
Besides its value to historians, this canon has contributed a great deal to modern literature beginning with retellings by William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
and other authors involved with the Celtic Revival
Celtic Revival
Celtic Revival covers a variety of movements and trends, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries, which drew on the traditions of Celtic literature and Celtic art, or in fact more often what art historians call Insular art...
. Soon after, James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
drew from material less explicitly. Now fantasy literature
Fantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
and art
Fantasy art
Fantasy art is a genre of art that depicts magical or other supernatural themes, ideas, creatures or settings. While there is some overlap with science fiction, horror and other speculative fiction art, there are unique elements not generally found in other forms of speculative fiction art...
draws heavily from these tales and characters such as Cúchulainn
Cúchulainn
Cú Chulainn or Cúchulainn , and sometimes known in English as Cuhullin , is an Irish mythological hero who appears in the stories of the Ulster Cycle, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore...
, Finn McCool
Fionn mac Cumhaill
Fionn mac Cumhaill , known in English as Finn McCool, was a mythical hunter-warrior of Irish mythology, occurring also in the mythologies of Scotland and the Isle of Man...
and the Tuatha Dé Danann
Tuatha Dé Danann
The Tuatha Dé Danann are a race of people in Irish mythology. In the invasions tradition which begins with the Lebor Gabála Érenn, they are the fifth group to settle Ireland, conquering the island from the Fir Bolg....
are relatively familiar.
Through such traditional musicians as Turlough O'Carolan
Turlough O'Carolan
Turlough Carolan, also known as Turlough O'Carolan, was a blind, early Irish harper, composer and singer whose great fame is due to his gift for melodic composition. He was the last great Irish harper-composer and is considered by many to be Ireland's national composer...
(who died in 1738 and is often lauded as "the last of the bards") and countless of his less-known or anonymous colleagues, the musical tradition of the fili has made its way to contemporary ears via artists such as Planxty
Planxty
Planxty is an Irish folk music band formed in the 1970s, consisting initially of Christy Moore , Dónal Lunny , Andy Irvine , and Liam O'Flynn...
, The Chieftains
The Chieftains
The Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:...
, and The Dubliners
The Dubliners
The Dubliners are an Irish folk band founded in 1962.-Formation and history:The Dubliners, initially known as "The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group", formed in 1962 and made a name for themselves playing regularly in O'Donoghue's Pub in Dublin...
.
Perhaps most notably,in their subject matter and techniques, the seanachie
Seanachie
A seanchaí is a traditional Irish storyteller/historian. A commonly encountered English spelling of the Irish word is shanachie.The word seanchaí, which was spelled seanchaidhe before the Irish-language spelling reform of 1948, means a bearer of "old lore"...
are very much the inheritors of the ancient Irish traditional of oral literature.
The modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic words for "poet" are derived from fili.
- Old Irish: fili, plural filid
- Modern IrishIrish languageIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
: file, plural filí - Scottish Gaelic: filidh, plural filidhean
Finally, practitioners of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism
Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism
Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism is a polytheistic, animistic, religious and cultural movement...
are working to reconstruct trance and visionary techniques that were used by the filid, such as imbas forosnai
Imbas forosnai
Imbas forosnai, is a special gift of clairvoyance believed to be possessed by the poets, and Druids, in Early Ireland. Imbas means inspiration or knowledge and forosnai means illuminated or that which illuminates. Descriptions of the practices associated with Imbas forosnai are found in Cormac's...
and aspects of the tarbhfeis ritual.
See also
- BardBardIn medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...
- DruidDruidA druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age....
- Early Irish literatureEarly Irish literature-The earliest Irish authors:It is unclear when literacy first came to Ireland. The earliest Irish writings are inscriptions, mostly simple memorials, on stone in the ogham alphabet, the earliest of which date to the fourth century...
- GorseddGorseddA gorsedd plural gorseddau, is a community or coming together of modern-day bards. The word is of Welsh origin, meaning "throne". It is occasionally spelled gorsedh , or goursez in Brittany....
- RhapsodeRhapsodeA rhapsode or, in modern usage, rhapsodist, refers to a classical Greek professional performer of epic poetry in the fifth and fourth centuries BC . Rhapsodes notably performed the epics of Homer but also the wisdom and catalogue poetry of Hesiod and the satires of Archilochus and others...
- SeanachieSeanachieA seanchaí is a traditional Irish storyteller/historian. A commonly encountered English spelling of the Irish word is shanachie.The word seanchaí, which was spelled seanchaidhe before the Irish-language spelling reform of 1948, means a bearer of "old lore"...
- SkaldSkaldThe skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
- VatesVatesThe earliest Latin writers used vātēs to denote "prophets" and soothsayers in general; the word fell into disuse in Latin until it was revived by Virgil...