Flathinnis

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Flathinnis , also Flath Innis , is a supposedly Irish / Gaelic word constructed in the 18th century. It is made up of the two parts flath / flaith ( Old Irish for ruling nobility and "people with skills", see Aithech fortha ) and the Scottish Gaelic innis ("island"). The Flathinnis would thus be the "island of the noble / good" and should correspond to the Greek Elysion and the Valhalla of Nordic mythology .

Historical background

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, in the course of the Celtomania of that time, something that could not be proven or proven in the mythology and history of the Celts (predominantly the island Celts ) was often simply "invented". The Austrian Celtologist Helmut Birkhan calls this procedure “fictional science”. This was the time of the forged texts of " Ossian " by James Macpherson and "Barddas" by Iolo Morganwg . However, some of the authors of the time - including Johann Gottfried Herder - pointed out that the term Flathinnis was not to be found in "Ossian" of all places .

At the end of the 19th century the made-up word disappeared from the lexicons. The word can no longer be found in the works of modern Celtologists. One of the main reasons for this was that neither the ancient Greek and Roman authors nor the early medieval records of (pre-Christian) island Celtic myths used the term Flathinnis .

Ancient Celtic words for a "beautiful" afterlife of deceased good people and its "punitive" counterpart for bad people are actually not handed down, the Celtic Otherworld is primarily not only the abode of the dead, but rather a world of spirits parallel to the human world. This is also the meaning of the Old Irish andomhain and the Kymrian annwn (both words can be translated as “shallows”, “underworld”, “inner world”).

Keyword collection (selection)

  • Göttingen scholarly advertisements from 1779:
The Flathinnis, island of peace, the abode of separated souls.
  • General mythological lexicon from 1804:
Flathinnis, ie the island of the brave, was called by the ancient Gals and Celts the place of bliss where good people were received after death.
  • The sky of the future from 1804:
The Caledonian bards, just not Ossian, let the souls of good people go to heaven immediately after death. This is their Flathinnis, the island of the brave and virtuous, where eternal spring and immortal youth bloom. […] The counterpart to this Flathinnis is the description of Hell, called Ifurin.
  • A Gaelic dictionary in two parts from 1825:
Elysium: flathinnis nam cinneach, aite rothaineach sam bi.
  • Johann Gottfried von Herder's complete works from 1828:
Although the works of the Caledonian bards also think of an island of peace Flathinnis [...] in Ossian's poems I do not remember any trace of this Elysium of his departed fathers [...]
  • Older and more recent history of belief in a spirit world protruding into ours from 1834:
For the Gallic druids their Flathinnis or the island of the virtuous was a place from which every unpleasant idea was banished.
  • Ladies Conversations Lexicon from 1835:
Flathinnis (mythology): According to old Galish and Celtic traditions, the island of the brave, the Valhalla of those peoples, a cheerful, paradisiacal land, charmingly described. There the souls of the brave and the good dwell with one another in pure bliss, and rejoice in the enjoyment of an everlasting spring of immortal youth. The sky is almost cloudless, the tops of the trees are never bowed by a storm, only gentle whispers rustle through the branches; the brooks that fall from the mountains into the valleys sound like distant harps, and the halls where the spirits of the dead indulge are enthroned on green hills.
  • Dictionary of Mythology from 1874:
Flathinnis (Celt. M.): The Elysium, the abode of the blessed, that is: the brave who were left with wounds in the war.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-7069-0541-1 , p. 571.
  2. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 ; Pp. 838-844.
  3. ↑ Bernhard Maier: The religion of the Celts. Gods, myths, worldview . Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-48234-1 , p. 136.
  4. ^ Göttingische learned advertisements, Volume 1. Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Society of Sciences in Göttingen, Göttingische advertisements of learned things, Academy of Sciences, Göttingen 1779.
  5. ↑ Friedrich Majer, Johann Gottfried Gruber: General Mythological Lexicon: Edited from original sources. Verlag des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, 1804.
  6. ↑ Christian Wilhelm Flügge: The sky of the future. IF Hammerich, 1804.
  7. ^ Robert Archibald Armstrong: A Gaelic Dictionary in Two Parts. To which is Prefixed a New Gaelic Grammar. Duncan, 1825, p. 710.
  8. ↑ Johann Gottfried Herder, et al .: Johann Gottfried von Herder's entire works. JG Cotta, 1828.
  9. ↑ Ernst Heinrich Simon: Older and more recent history of belief in a spirit world protruding into ours. Claßische Buchh., 1834.
  10. ↑ Ladies Conversations Lexicon. Volume 4. 1835, p. 145.
  11. ^ Wilhelm Vollmer: Dictionary of Mythology. Stuttgart 1874, p. 205.