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Who were the fili in ancient Gaelic society?
In ancient Ireland, filid were professional poets whose role was to record and protect the tales and genealogies of the ruling class and to write poems about the past and present glory of that class.
The filid were a large aristocratic class, and their demands on patrons were extravagant. They could enforce their demands with the feared lampoon, or poetâs curse, which could damage a patronâs reputation, cause physical harm, or even death.
After Christianity began to spread throughout Ireland, the filid took on the poetic role of the Druids, a powerful learned class of the ancient Celts that had been outlawed.
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What did the fili do?
The fili were professional poets in ancient Ireland. Their duties included preserving tales and genealogies, composing poems about the ruling class, and instructing others in law, literature, and national history.
As an aristocratic class, the fili could enforce demands with a feared lampoon, or poetâs curse. After Christianity spread to Ireland, the fili took on the poetic function of the Druids. By the 12th century, they composed lyrical nature poetry and personal poems praising human qualities, and the distinction between the fili and the bard broke down.
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How were the fili different from bards?
The filid and bards were both professional poets in ancient Ireland, but they differed in status and function. The filid constituted a large aristocratic class, divided into seven grades, with the ollamh being the highest rank, achieved after at least 12 years of study. After the 6th century, filid were granted land and were required to write official poetry and to instruct residents in law, literature, and national history.
Bards were of a lower grade than filid. By the 13th century, the status of the filid had diminished, giving way to the supremacy of the bards. The bardic reform of verse modernized the language, reduced the number of meters, and required greater rhythmic control and ornamentation.
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What subjects did the fili write about in their poetry?
The fili, who were professional poets in ancient Ireland, had the duty of preserving the tales and genealogies of the ruling class and to compose poems recalling the past and present glory of that class. After the 6th century, fili were granted land and were required to instruct the residents of the area in law, literature, and national history, in addition to writing official poetry. By the 12th century, they were writing lyrical nature poetry and personal poems that praised the human qualities of their patrons, especially their generosity, rather than the patronsâ heroic exploits or ancestors, and they no longer strictly adhered to set rules of prosody.
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How did the fili learn their craft and knowledge?
The filid, professional poets in ancient Ireland, were a large aristocratic class whose role was to preserve tales and genealogies, and to compose poems recalling the past.
Filid were divided into seven grades, with the highest grade being the ollamh, which was achieved after at least 12 years of study. During this time, the poet would master more than 300 difficult meters, 250 primary stories, and 100 secondary stories. After the 6th century, filid were granted land and were required to instruct residents in law, literature, and national history. These schools of learning would form the basis for bardic colleges in the Middle Ages.
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Why were the fili important to Gaelic kings and culture?
The filid, or fili (plural), held a vital position in Gaelic society as professional poets responsible for preserving and sharing the ruling class's history, genealogy, and traditions. They were an aristocratic class whose role was to compose poems that recalled past and present glory.
After the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, the filid took on the poetic duties of the outlawed Druids and were often linked to monasteries, which were important learning centers. By the 7th century, the church had relegated the druids while the filid retained much of their pre-Christian tradition, social status and privilege, operating harmoniously with their clerical counterparts. The role of the fili was to write official poetry and instruct residents in law, literature, and national history. Their knowledge and skills were essential to Gaelic kings and culture.
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fili, professional poet in ancient Ireland whose official duties were to know and preserve the tales and genealogies of the ruling class and to compose poems recalling the past and present glory of that class. The filid constituted a large aristocratic class who were expensive to support, and they were severely censured for their extravagant demands on patrons as early as the assembly of Druim Cetta in 575; they were defended at the assembly by St. Columba. Their power was not checked, however, since they could enforce their demands by the feared lampoon (ĂĄer), or poetâs curse, which not only could take away a patronâs reputation but also cause physical damage or even death, according to a widely held ancient belief. Although by law a fili could be penalized for abuse of the ĂĄer, belief in the powers of its curse was strong and continued after the collapse of the Gaelic order.
The poets of ancient Ireland (filid) were divided into seven grades. Attaining the highest grade (ollamh) entitled a poet to wear a cloak of crimson-colored bird feathers and carry a wand.
After Christianity began to spread throughout Ireland in the 5th century, the filid assumed the poetic function of the Druids, a powerful learned class of the ancient Celts that had become outlawed. The filid were often associated with monasteries, which were important centers of learning.
Filid were divided into seven grades. One of the lower and less learned grades was bard. The highest grade was the ollamh, achieved after at least 12 years of study, during which the poet mastered more than 300 difficult meters and 250 primary stories and 100 secondary stories. Attaining the highest grade entitled a fili to wear a cloak of crimson-colored bird feathers and carry a wand, signifying the ollamh status. Although at first the filid wrote in a verse form similar to the alliterative verse prevalent in Germanic languages, they later developed intricate rules of prosody and rigid and complicated verse forms, the most popular of which was the debide (modern Irish deibide: âcut in twoâ), a quatrain composed of two couplets, linked by the rhyme of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one.
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After the 6th century, filid were granted land. They were required not only to write official poetry but also to instruct the residents of the area in law (in particular, the ancient Brehon laws), literature, and national history. These seats of learning formed the basis for the great bardic colleges that developed in the Middle Ages and continued into the 17th century.
By the 12th century, filid were composing lyrical nature poetry and personal poems that praised the human qualities of their patrons, especially their generosity, rather than the patronsâ heroic exploits or ancestors. They no longer strictly adhered to set rules of prosody. The distinction between the fili and the bard gradually broke down; by the 13th century, the status of the filid had given way to the supremacy of the bards.