Filid

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Filid [ 'fʼilʼð ] (“poet” or “bard”), singular fili or (younger) file , is the name for poets or bards in medieval Ireland . The Latin name is bardi , the old Irish baird , the Cymrian bard or awenydd . The filid belonged to the cult personnel of the Celtic religion , together with the druids and fathers , and had a high social status. Their office was hereditary and was also valid outside of their own tribal association ( tuath ).

Training and tasks

Just like the bards and fathers, the filid had to go through an apprenticeship in which they received the knowledge that was passed on orally. They had to acquire skills in the writing of price poems and abusive poems ( old Irish glám dícenn or áer ) and in turn train adepts again . They had to recognize the future ruler through magic ( tarb-feis , "bull sleep"), mastered the practices of divination, possessed extensive knowledge, healing powers and other magical abilities. Because of the "refusal to write" in the transmission of mystical knowledge, this knowledge was only recorded later. The book Auraicept na n-Éces ("Guide for the learned poet") is a collection of rules for grammar and metrics that a fili had to master, as well as the Dindsenchas ("place names explanations") had to be studied.

In the story of Sanas Cormaic (“Cormac's whispering”) the imbas forosna (“the comprehensive illuminating knowledge”) is reported: The fili chews a piece of raw meat, sings an incantation and falls into a trance . After a short or long time, he wakes up and answers all the questions asked beforehand. Further mantic practices are the teinm laída ("breaking open, prophecy in song"), the díchetal do chennaib ("invocation from the ends of the bones") and the tarb-feis already mentioned . The tarb-feis is described in the saga Togail Bruidne Da Derga ("The Destruction of the Hall Da Dergas"). If the fili lied while reciting a prophecy, his lips are said to have died.

According to various traditions, there should have been a ranking with up to seven levels, which were assigned according to knowledge. The highest rank, the chief poet of Ireland, was called ollam . The ollam had to master all four of the above practices. The ollam flatha was the name given to the personal poet of a ruler who had a special relationship of trust with him. In what is now Ireland, a university professor is known as an ollamh . In the Irish legend Immacallam in dá Thuarad (“The Conversation of the Two Wise Men”), a competition between two filid before the king for the title of ollam is described.

The duties of the filid overlapped with those of the Druids and Fates. Especially after the elimination of Druidism in the course of the Christianization of the British Isles, they took over their tasks.

In Wales the chief poet was called pencerdd (from cerd , "art"), the storyteller corresponding to the fili was called cyfarwydd . According to the traditional Welsh legal texts, poets and blacksmiths were seen as artists. Their activity was forbidden for unfree people and their position at the royal courts was correspondingly high. In the story Math fab Mathonwy ("Math, the son of Mathonwys"), the fourth branch of the Mabinogi , Gwydyon pretends to be pencerdd in order to gain the trust of Pryderi , whom he wants to cheat out of his pig herd.

See also

literature

Web links

  • John T. Koch (Ed.): Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia. Vol. 1-, Volume 4 . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2006, ISBN 1-85109-440-7 , pp. 174 ff . (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • James Hastings: Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Part 9 . Ed .: John A. Selbie. Kessinger Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-7661-3680-9 , p. 83 ff . (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Bernhard Maier: Lexicon of the Celtic religion and culture . P. 125.
  2. ^ Joseph F. Nagy: Celtic Religion. History of Study. P. 1481.
  3. Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Pp. 896, 931 f.
  4. ^ Bernhard Maier: Lexicon of the Celtic religion and culture . P. 256 f.
  5. Bernhard Maier: The legend book of the Welsh Celts . Pp. 142 f, notes 74.15, 74.17.
  6. Bernhard Maier: The legend book of the Welsh Celts. P. 74.