A historical background of Celtic poetry

"The high status of poets within Celtic societies is well attested and was maintained down to the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. In Gaelic societies the name for a poet, file (or filid - plural), is derived from a root word meaning "to see". [sic] Celtic poets may be better known as bards and though the Irish and Scottish peoples poets also came to be known as either file or bard, originally there was a distinction in rank between the two with the hereditary file having the higher status and greater training." --on Celtic poetry from The Poet's Garret. The rest of the site is worth a read.