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The Fulacht Fiadh and Tigh ‘n Alluis
(still a work in progress)

Originally this page contained an archive of a post from 2004, as well as notes for an eventual updated article on this subject. One of the main sources I used for the original article was J.F. Nagy's The Wisdom of the Outlaw. Though I still think Outlaw is a thought-provoking and valuable addition to the field of Celtic studies, I have since completely changed my ideas on this matter. As there were some ideas in the original post that I no longer support, I have now edited it down. Sorry, if that's what you came here looking for, but I'll explain.

In the time since the 2004 post I've reached the conclusion that, even if these particular tales in Old Irish manuscripts show a possible pattern based on the metaphor of "the raw and the cooked", I'm just not feeling connected to that particular idea for a ritual structure, and I think it is highly questionable whether our ancestors practiced anything along those lines. I also think Nagy is taking the metaphor too far, and I am doubtful that his hypotheses can really be applied to any sort of functional, spiritually meaningful, fulacht fiadh, taigh an fhallais or teach an allais ritual.

I'm more interested in the way the ceremonies survived in the Gaelic lore, as recorded by Martin Martin: Heating the sweathouse, laying on the rushes, and praying in Gaelic till one reaches a state of peace. We have many surviving prayers for purification and healing. We have songs and prayers to the spirits one talks to about these things, stories about these spirits, as well as traditional ways of honoring them and asking for their help. And while we may not know for certain which exact prayers were used in the taigh an fhallais and teach an allais structures, having a solid understanding of the prayers and songs, and the situations in which they were (or still are) used, is a firmer foundation to me than suppositions based on an academic "raw vs cooked" hypothesis.

Examining the original Gaelic in Martin Martin's commentary also shows multiple layers of meaning that could also refer to the ancestors and the Gaelic Otherworld. This is the sort of tradition that speaks to me.

What we have from Ireland and Scotland

(notes: Martin Martin, Carmina, Campbell, Black, McNeill, etc.)

The fianna lore is relevant, of course, especially when we look at the name fulacht fian, and think on the many reasons our ancestors took to the woods. However, the "fian" part of the name could just be a later folkloric addition. It may not reflect that much on the sites' original usage, beyond the fact that they were probably used for cooking by those camping in the wilderness. If we do explore this connection, there are a number of tales to examine in this light.

However, after praying and experimenting with this for a number of years now, I've come to the conclusion I'm not interested in a ceremony that's about Nagy's ideas of "becoming civilized". I don't even particularly relate to the idea of going into the woods to be "wild" and then returning to "civilization". I do think there is something to be said for acknowledging that some "wild" behaviours are not appropriate for "civilized" society, and marking transitions between these states, if they happen naturally. But I'm not interested in "wild" behaviours that are so beyond the pale as to be unacceptable among sane people, nor am I persuaded that we should be pursuing some sort of ceremony that pushes people into a "wild" state only to "civilize" them later. I just don't see a traditional basis for that. That sort of pursuit sounds too based on fantasy and amateur psychodrama, and could probably be harmful to those playing with such things. I'm not going to support untrained people trying to push others into that sort of experience. I would go so far as to say that making up some sort of ritual based on that idea and inflicting it on others could easily verge into abusive territory.

I'm also cringing at Nagy and Levi-Strauss's use of "savage". And their definition of what is and is not "culture". I don't think this is particularly in harmony with a Gaelic worldview.

I think many of the metaphors Nagy outlines could be seen as illustrations of natural rites of passage that just happen. Marking them in some way would be appropriate, but forcing the experience is not.

Many of these tales that polarize the "wild" and the "civilized" also categorize women, along with animals and forests and natural phenomena, as "wild". How much are those Christian-era tales from a solely male perspective, and about keeping women and nature "in their place" and "taming" them? And what relevance do they have to those of us who are women, and who already live in the forest?

I want to keep my connection with the forest, the animals, with nature. I don't need elaborate rituals of "raw vs cooked" to connect with the spirits, nor do I particularly want to become "civilized".

What we have from the Sauna cultures

(notes: Need to find out how much is OK to share online. Can probably at least mention times of year, basic purposes, and stuff that's in print if it checks out with oral tradition.)

Notes from Other Discussions

We've had some discussion about the Irish and Scottish sweathouses, and the bogus English "reconstruction" of a burnt mound site, on NAFPS:
* Initial comments on the Irish and Scottish taigh an fhallais, teach an allais and fulacht fiadh sites and what we do and don't know about how they were used.
* Thread on "Bronze Age" burnt mound and sweathouse sites in general.
* My comments in that thread, expanding a bit on what we know of Irish and Scottish sweathouse usage into living memory.

Note: This is an archived post from the Multicultural Polytheistic Hearth: http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/thread.php?forumid=30650&threadid=128955
As I have been doing more research into this, I have been rethinking the entire theory I posited here. My thoughts on this have diverged significantly. I am leaving this up for the record, but, any forthcoming work from me in this area will probably look very different.

Posted to MPH August 14th, 2004 06:19 PM

The Fulacht Fiadh and Tigh ‘n Alluis
(a work in progress)

Note: As Wisdom of the Outlaw is not an easy book for folks to find, I’m going to quote at more length here than I normally would from a more commonly available book. I’m also leaving a few bits of information out, as I’m considering working this up as an article or book chapter at a later date.

Possible ritual purposes of the Fulacht Fiadh

Nagy connects the fulachtaí fia to the “Raw vs Cooked” theme, which is a pattern he claims to have found in ritual and lore describing transformation and initiation. Here he is discussing a tale in which the fian Derg Corra jumps back and forth over a cooking fire:

“As the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss has amply demonstrated, cooking and fire in myth and ritual often represent the process of socialization. Ideologically, just as food is turned from raw and indigestible to cooked and edible by being exposed to fire, so, concurrently, it is translated from the realm of nature into the realm of culture by the civilized and civilizing act of cooking. In the language of myth and ritual symbolism, that which exists outside society or is not entirely social is designated “raw,” while that which exists within society and has an identifiable social function is designated “cooked.” Metaphorically, therefore, the savage who lives beyond society and the youth who is not yet an adult and does not enjoy a complete social identity, are both “raw” and must be “cooked” – culturally transformed – before they can fully become members of society.”

Here he also gives the Irish medieval story of Mis as an example. This involves civilizing/taming someone who has been a geillt. The process involves attracting her with music, feeding her cooked meat, and washing her in water in which the meat has been cooked. The theme of immersing an initiate in cooking water also appears in Gerald of Wales’ late twelfth-century description of an Irish Kingship ritual. “In both of these instances, the initiate who is fed and treated as food is invested, as a result of this treatment, with a new social identity.”

“Derg Corra’s leaping over the pit therefore symbolizes his going from raw to cooked, from nature to culture, from childhood to adulthood – transitions at the heart of the related states of gillacht and fénnidecht. The leaping gilla’s repeated exposure to fire, whereby he becomes almost roasted food himself, complements the image of his mentors – the fénnidi of the Fenian tradition – as expert cooks in the wilderness. According to Keating’s history, burned-out pits in unsettled areas were commonly called by the folk of his time the fulachta fian (“cooking pits of the fiana”), as if they had been dug and used by the hunter heroes of the Fenian tradition. In the Cúldub tale, the Derg Corra tale, and several other Fenian narratives, the act of cooking becomes the focal point of tension among fénnidi, or between them and supernatural beings. Indeed, the cooking place is often a setting for an encounter with the otherworldly in Irish narrative tradition. Fire and cooking are perennial motifs in the Fenian tradition because they are especially meaningful in such a “natural” context, where they connote transition and contrast between culture and nature, a distinction that is fundamental to this mythical fénnidecht. By his droll stunt of leaping over the cooking fire, Derg Corra, a humble fían member, touches the core of the Fenian complex of themes.”

Physical structure

The fulachtaí fia are mentioned in a number of archaeology books, often as “burnt mounds,” “boiling mounds,” or “cooking sites.” They are always found near a water source, and are sometimes given the alternate name of fulacht fian. “While fulacht refers to the cooking place, fian or fiadh can mean variously ‘deer’ or ‘out of doors’ or ‘of the wild’.”

For studying the physical structure, O’Kelly seems to be the best source of those I have at hand. I gather he was involved in some of the reconstructions, at both Ballyvourney and Newgrange. He is often the source for fulacht fiadh material in other books, and he includes diagrams and photographs of the reconstruction done at Ballyvourney I, Co. Cork.

The Ballyvourney structure seems to have been made with nine or ten poles, beside the requisite trough of water and hearth. While it is conceivable that four or five tall saplings were bent over to make a dome, since some of the spacing is uneven, I tend to think it was the larger number. The Ballyvourney reconstruction was built in a tall, conical shape, with the poles lashed together in the center high in the air. While this shape is necessary if one has only deadwood or frozen wood to work with, it is not practical for sweating use. To keep the heat and steam down among the people, a low ceiling is needed, or a way to climb up to the roof, such as in the sauna with its tiered benches. I have been in structures where we had to use deadwood and a tall shape and, while it is possible to fill the structure with some steam, it takes a lot longer and results in a much cooler experience than in a domed structure. We basically had to kneel or stand to get sufficiently steamed. I see no reason in the archaeological evidence for the use of the tall shape. Indeed, if the poles were even used to build a structure, isn't it more likely they'd be like other contemporary structures, which built the walls perpendicular to the ground and created a low roof atop the walls?

Also, as the only hearth inside the structure is not central, as usually found in Irish dwellings, the whole idea that the poles were used to make a structure is suspect. The water trough is outside the ring of poles, and the inner hearth is too close to where a wall would be for it to have been used for heat if a wall were there. This puts the entire idea that the structure was used to hold steam and heat into serious question. My conclusion - if it was a structure, it wasn't a heated one.

Harbison proposes that some of the fulacht fiadh sites are from the early Bronze Age, while stone structures began in the late Bronze Age.

Nagy finds it significant that Derg Corra leaps back and forth over the fire repeatedly, much as the young Finn leaps repeatedly over the chasm that separates him from an Otherworldly woman in another tale, and feels this back-and-forth indicates “a volatility in the character’s identity and relations.”

O’Kelly and others believe the archaeological evidence is for approximately fifty “cookings” at the Ballyvourney site. And if, as it appears, the stone tigh ‘n alluis sites are the later versions of the fulachtaí fia, these were obviously intended for repeated use.

As for the tigh ‘n alluis stone structures, I agree with Anthony Weir that they were probably not originally constructed as “a treatment for arthritis.” There are more common (and effective) Gaelic arthritis treatments on record during that time period, and the labor and strain involved in doing a sweating ceremony in these cramped, stone structures would probably do more harm than good to an arthritic body. This is not to say that, like the use of the sauna, there were not also physical benefits to the “sweating cure.” It seems that a solely physical experience did become the later focus of use.

But I think the evidence from Martin Martin indicates there was a spiritual use as well, even if it was mostly abandoned in more recent, Christianized, generations. Like the fulachtaí fia, the tigh ‘n alluis structures are situated relatively far away from any “civilized” dwellings, and seem to fit into the larger mythos of journeying into the wilderness to seek vision and healing. While the tigh ‘n alluis sites may not be quite as remotely situated as the fulachtaí fia, this may simply be because the tigh ‘n alluis needed to be on or near land owned (or rented) by the people building these permanent structures. The recent tigh ‘n alluis structures were certainly built in less “wild” times, with much less open land and wilderness to flee to. So it’s possible that the “wild” places simply were forced to move closer to the “civilized” realms.

Sources
Nagy, Joseph Falaky, 1985. The Wisdom of the Outlaw – The Boyhood Deeds of Finn in the Gaelic Narrative Tradition. University of California Press, Berkeley. pp. 132-133.
O’Kelley, Michael J., 1989. Early Ireland – An Introduction to Irish Prehistory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. pp. 223-227.
Harbison, Peter, 1988. Pre-Christian Ireland – From the First Settlers to the Early Celts. Thames and Hudson, New York. pp. 8, 110-112, and plate 65.

Language Notes
For the “burnt mounds,” I’ve used the most common name and spelling: fulacht fiadh (singular) and fulachtaí fia (plural). For “Gaelic stone sweathouse” tigh ‘n alluis is the spelling given by Martin Martin. In modern Gaelic it is taigh an fhallais, and in Modern Irish, teach an allais .

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Copyright ©2004, 2009 Kathryn Price NicDhàna,
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