Fili

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See Fíli and Kíli for the Dwarves appearing in The Hobbit.

A Fili, also spelled File, plural Filid and Filidh (in Old Irish the singular is Fili, the plural is Filid; in modern Irish the singular is file, the plural is filí; in Scots Gaelic the singular is filidh, the plural is filidhean), is a member of the class of poets in Ireland, up into the Renaissance, when the Irish class system was dismantled. Even now, it is the Gaelic word for "poet".

Miss Eleanor Hull’s Textbook of Irish Literature says:

"The file is to be regarded as in the earliest times as combining in his person the functions of magician, lawgiver, judge, counsellor to the chief, and poet. Later, but still at a very early time, the offices seem to have been divided, the brehons devoting themselves to the study of law, and the giving of legal decisions, the druids arrogating to themselves the supernatural functions, with the addition, possibly of some priestly offices, and the fili themselves being henceforth principally as poets and philosophers. The division seems to have already existed in Ireland at the time of St Patrick, whose preaching brought him into constant opposition with the druids, who were evidently, at that time, regarded as the religious leaders of the nation, though there does not seem to be much sign that they were, as they undoubtedly were, even at an earlier age in Britain and Gaul, sacrificing priests."

Some practitioners of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism are working to reconstruct trance and visionary techniques that were used by the Filidh, such as Imbas Forosnai and aspects of the Tarbhfeis ritual.