The Filidh were the Inheritors of the Druids
Searles O'Dubhain

Sun Aug 18 00:28:46 2002
Most modern reputable scholars in Celtic studies acknowledge that a strong link exists between the Filidh (Poets) and the Druids within Irish society and tradition. They see this connection as a given, even going so far as to say that in ancient times a distinction could not be made between the functions of a Fili and a Druí. I've provided some references for further reading and understanding: *p*"In Ireland there was a special class, which may be regarded as sub-class of nobles, the oes dána, whose art ennobled them. The oes dána, or learned class, included the judge, the leech, the joiner, the metal-worker, and most important of all, the poet (fili), who seems to have inherited much of the prestige of the druid of pagan times. His duty was first of all to praise his patron, but also to preserve his genealogy, to be learned in history and literature, and to be a master of the craft of poetry. There are tracts prescribing the metres he must learn, the number of tales he must know, and the other leaned works he must study, during a course of twelve years. He demand rich rewards for his service, and he was likely to satirize a thrifty prince or nobleman. The fili was honoured and feared, like brahmin in India. He was no longer a priest in this Christian society, but he had means of divination akin to magic. Or at any rate, he had had them in the pagan past, and the tradition of his magical power survived." (16) *p*"This is the tripartite society of priest fili (druí), warrior (rí) and husbandman (aire) that Dumezil has traced so successfully in many areas of the Indo-European world. In Gaul druides, equites, and plebs are the classes recognized by Caesar, so that early Irish society maintained the old Celtic, and apparently the Indo-European pattern." *p*From: The Celtic Realms by Myles Dillon & Nora Chadwick, pg 129, 1973*br*Cardinal Edition *p*(16) is a reference to T.F. O'Rahilly, _Early Irish History and*br*Mythology_, (Dublin, 1946), p. 340. *p*"Latin Learning came to Ireland in the fifth century not as a discipline imposed by conquerors but as the medium of a new religion of peace and holiness. The Irish already had a long tradition of native learning, which had grown up in the druidic schools and was preserved by the filid by oral transmission, as in the Brahmin schools of India." *p*From: _Early Irish Literature by Myles Dillon (1994 University of*br*Chicago Press reprint of a 1948 original), p xvi. *p*"As I mentioned earlier, the poet in early Christian Ireland was the inheritor (or one of the inheritors) of the functions and attributes of the druí ("druid"), the priest of pagan Celtic society, who along with the rí ("king"), was the mediator between the human realm and the world of the gods, and who continued to play a prominent role in the Irish tales recorded during the Christian era. The result of such a transfer of attributes from druí to fili was not so much a radical alteration of the poetic function as it was, more likely, a magnification of the "shamanic" characteristics already a part of the poetic persona. (I am assuming here that a distinction could have been drawn between the druí and the fili in the first place - an assumption that cannot be proved, given the evidence available to us on traditional priestly and poetic activities in pre-Christian Ireland.) 26 Both the druid and the poet are characterized in Irish myth as ossessors of special knowledge and power from the otherworld. The close connection between the two figures is evident in the tales about the youth of Finn, who is fostered by the druidess Bodbmall and grows up to be a poet.27" *p*From: _The Wisdom of the Outlaw_ by Joesph Falaky Nagy, University of*br*California Press, 1095, pp. 26-27. *p*26 is a reference to a variety of authors (Eleanor Knott, Rudolph Thurneysen, Anne Ross, James Carney, Wolfgang Meid, Patrick L. Henry) and their statements supporting the connection between Fili and Druí. *p*27 is a note on the meaning of Bobdmall's name. *p*" For the filid the tales were primarily part of the coimcne (see p. 123 ff. infra), the body of inherited knowledge on which the authoritative view of the past depended, and as such they meshed closely with law, genealogy, customary ritual, and the several other branches of traditional learning that served to define the origins and history of the social order and of the tribal and ethnic elements comprised within it. It was the fili's responsibility to preserve, authenticate and interpret these traditional documents and it is in this light that one must view his interest in the body of traditional narrative." *p*From: _The Learned Tales of Medieval Ireland_ by Pronsias Mac Cana*br*(DublinInstitute for Advanced Studies), 1990, pp. 18-19. *p*There are many other references to the connection and overlap between the Druids and the Poets of Irish society. As we all know, the Poets of Ireland were a class and a force within the Celtic society there until its destruction in the 17th century. Daniel Corkery tells us of Poetic schools that lasted until almost the end of the 18th century. In other works we are told that Poets still were viewed as supernatural and magical even in the 19th century in Ireland. I think they are still viewed that way outside of the clash and rash of modern society in Ireland. Where is a better place for us to learn about Irish Druids than in the writings, actions and works of the Filidh? *p*Searles*p*







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