In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional
story teller, verse-maker, music composer,
oral historian and
genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a
monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.
With the decline of a living bardic tradition in the modern period, the term has loosened to mean a generic
minstrel or author (especially a famous one). For example,
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
and
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
are respectively known as "the Bard of Avon" (often simply "the Bard") and "the Bard of Bengal".
Oxford Dictionary of English
The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''ODE'') is a single-volume English dictionary published by Oxford University Press, first published in 1998 as ''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''). The word "new" was dropped from the titl ...
, s.v. ''bard'', n.1. In 16th-century Scotland, it turned into a derogatory term for an
itinerant musician; nonetheless it was later romanticised by Sir
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...
(1771–1832).
Etymology
The English term ''bard'' is a
loan word from the
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...
:
Gaulish
Gaulish was an ancient Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium ...
: ''bardo-'' ('bard, poet'), mga, bard and ('bard, poet'), wlm, bardd ('singer, poet'),
Middle Breton: ''barz'' ('minstrel'),
Old Cornish
Cornish ( Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language, having become extinct as a living community language in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. However, k ...
: ('jester'). The ancient Gaulish *''bardos'' is attested as (
sing.) in Latin and as (
plur.) in Ancient Greek. It also appears as a
stem
Stem or STEM may refer to:
Plant structures
* Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang
* Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure
* Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
in ''bardo-cucullus'' ('bard's hood'), ''bardo-magus'' ('field of the bard'), ''barditus'' (a song to fire soldiers), and in ''bardala'' ('
crested lark', a singing bird).
All of these terms come from the
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed through the compar ...
noun ('poet-singer, minstrel'), itself derived, with regular Celtic
sound shift
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
> , from the
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
compound ''
'', which literally means 'praise-maker'. It is
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
with
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
: ('calls, praise'), la, grātus ('grateful, pleasant, delightful'), lt, gìrti ('praise'), and
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
: ('raise voice').
History
In the words of the
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
, the bards were an "ancient Celtic order of minstrel-poets, whose primary function appears to have been to compose and sing (usually to the harp) verses celebrating the achievements of chiefs and warriors, and who committed to verse historical and traditional facts, religious precepts, laws, genealogies, etc."
In medieval
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
and
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
society, a ''bard'' (
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
and Irish Gaelic) or ''bardd'' (
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
) was a professional poet, employed to compose
elegies for his
lord
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...
. If the employer failed to pay the proper amount, the bard would then compose a satire (c.f. ''
fili'', ''
fáith
In modern English, the nouns vates () and ovate (, ), are used as technical terms for ancient Celtic bards, prophets and philosophers. The terms correspond to a Proto-Celtic word which can be reconstructed as *''wātis''.Bernhard Maier, ''Dictio ...
''). In other Indo-European societies, the same function was fulfilled by
skald
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionally ...
s,
rhapsode
A rhapsode ( el, ῥαψῳδός, "rhapsōidos") or, in modern usage, rhapsodist, refers to a classical Greek professional performer of epic poetry in the fifth and fourth centuries BC (and perhaps earlier). Rhapsodes notably performed the epic ...
s,
minstrels and ''
scops'', among others. A hereditary caste of professional poets in
Proto-Indo-European society
Proto-Indo-European society is the reconstructed culture of Proto-Indo-Europeans, the ancient speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, ancestor of all modern Indo-European languages.
Scientific approaches
Many of the modern ideas in this ...
has been reconstructed by comparison of the position of poets in medieval Ireland and in ancient India in particular.
Bards (who are not the same as the Irish or ) were those who sang the songs recalling the tribal warriors' deeds of bravery as well as the genealogies and family histories of the ruling strata among
Celt
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
ic societies. The pre-Christian Celtic peoples recorded no written histories; however, Celtic peoples did maintain an intricate oral history committed to memory and transmitted by bards and filid. Bards facilitated the memorization of such materials by the use of
metre
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...
,
rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...
and other formulaic poetic devices.
Regions
Ireland
In medieval Ireland, bards were one of two distinct groups of poets, the other being the ''
fili''. According to the
Early Irish law
Early Irish law, historically referred to as (English: Freeman-ism) or (English: Law of Freemen), also called Brehon law, comprised the statutes which governed everyday life in Early Medieval Ireland. They were partially eclipsed by the Norma ...
text on status, ''
Uraicecht Becc
''Uraicecht Becc'' (Old Irish for "Small Primer"; ''uraicecht'' is a variant of ''airaiccecht'' 'air''- 'before' + ''aiccecht'' 'instruction,' from Latin ''acceptum'' 'primer') is an Old Irish legal tract on status. Of all status tracts, it has t ...
'', bards were a lesser class of poets, not eligible for higher poetic roles as described above. However, it has also been argued that the distinction between ''filid'' (pl. of ''fili'') and bards was a creation of Christian Ireland, and that the ''filid'' were more associated with the church.
[Breatnach, Liam. '' Uraicecht na Ríar'', ca. p. 98] By the Early Modern Period, these names came to be used interchangeably.
Irish bards formed a professional hereditary
caste
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
of highly trained, learned poets. The bards were steeped in the history and traditions of
clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship
and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...
and country, as well as in the technical requirements of a verse technique that was
syllabic and used
assonance,
half rhyme Perfect rhyme—also called full rhyme, exact rhyme, or true rhyme—is a form of rhyme between two words or phrases, satisfying the following conditions:
*The stressed vowel sound in both words must be identical, as well as any subsequent s ...
and
alliteration
Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
, among other conventions. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles. They were
chronicle
A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...
rs and
satirists
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires.
Under Contemporary, 1930-1960 ...
whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, , could raise boils on the face of its target.
The bardic system lasted until the mid-17th century in Ireland and the early 18th century in Scotland. In Ireland, their fortunes had always been linked to the Gaelic aristocracy, which declined along with them during the
Tudor Reconquest
The Tudor conquest (or reconquest) of Ireland took place under the Tudor dynasty, which held the Kingdom of England during the 16th century. Following a failed rebellion against the crown by Silken Thomas, the Earl of Kildare, in the 1530s, H ...
.
The early history of the bards can be known only indirectly through mythological stories. The first mention of the bardic profession in Ireland is found in the
Book of Invasions
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arra ...
, in a story about the Irish colony of
Tuatha Dé Danann
The Tuath(a) Dé Danann (, meaning "the folk of the goddess Danu (Irish goddess), Danu"), also known by the earlier name Tuath Dé ("tribe of the gods"), are a supernatural race in Irish mythology. Many of them are thought to represent deity, ...
(Peoples of Goddess Danu), also called Danonians. They became the ''
aos sí'' (folk of the mound), comparable to Norse ''
alfr
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "l ...
'' and British
fairy
A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, ...
. During the tenth year of the reign of the last Belgic monarch, the people of the colony of Tuatha Dé Danann, as the Irish called it, invaded and settled in Ireland. They were divided into three tribes—the tribe of Tuatha who were the nobility, the tribe of De who were the priests (those devoted to serving God or De) and the tribe of Danann, who were the bards. This account of the Tuatha Dé Danann must be considered legendary; however the story was an integral part of the oral history of Irish bards themselves. One of the most notable bards in Irish mythology was
Amergin Glúingel
Amergin ''Glúingel'' ("white knees") (also spelled Amhairghin Glúngheal) or ''Glúnmar'' ("big knee") is a bard, druid and judge for the Milesians in the Irish Mythological Cycle. He was appointed Chief Ollam of Ireland by his two brothers th ...
, a bard, druid and judge for the
Milesians.
Scotland
The best-known group of bards in Scotland were the members of the MacMhuirich family, who flourished from the 15th to the 18th centuries. The family was centred in the
Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrid ...
, and claimed descent from a 13th-century Irish bard who, according to legend, was exiled to Scotland. The family was at first chiefly employed by the
Lords of the Isles
The Lord of the Isles or King of the Isles
( gd, Triath nan Eilean or ) is a title of Scottish nobility with historical roots that go back beyond the Kingdom of Scotland. It began with Somerled in the 12th century and thereafter the title w ...
as poets, lawyers, and physicians.
With the fall of the Lordship of the Isles in the 15th century, the family was chiefly employed by the
chiefs of the
MacDonalds of Clanranald. Members of the family were also recorded as musicians in the early 16th century, and as clergymen possibly as early as the early 15th century.
The last of the family to practise classical Gaelic poetry was Domhnall MacMhuirich, who lived on
South Uist in the 18th century.
In
Gaelic-speaking areas, a village bard or village poet ( gd, bàrd-baile) is a local poet who composes works in a traditional style relating to that community. Notable village bards include
Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna
Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna (Red Donald of Coruna; 9 July 1887 – 13 August 1967), legally Donald MacDonald or Dòmhnall MacDhòmhnaill, was a Scottish Gaelic Bard, North Uist stonemason, and veteran of the First World War. Literary historian Rona ...
and .
Wales
A number of bards in
Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology (Welsh: ''Mytholeg Cymru'') consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of the predominantly oral societies Cel ...
have been preserved in
medieval Welsh literature such as the
Red Book of Hergest
The ''Red Book of Hergest'' ( cy, Llyfr Coch Hergest, Oxford, Jesus College, MS 111) is a large vellum manuscript written shortly after 1382, which ranks as one of the most important medieval manuscripts written in the Welsh language. It preser ...
, the
White Book of Rhydderch
The White Book of Rhydderch (Welsh: ''Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch'', National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 4-5) is one of the most notable and celebrated surviving manuscripts in Welsh. Mostly written in southwest Wales in the middle of the 14th century ...
, the
Book of Aneirin and the
Book of Taliesin
The Book of Taliesin ( cy, Llyfr Taliesin) is one of the most famous of Middle Welsh manuscripts, dating from the first half of the 14th century though many of the fifty-six poems it preserves are taken to originate in the 10th century or before ...
. The bards
Aneirin and
Taliesin
Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the '' Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts ...
may be legendary reflections of historical bards active in the 6th and 7th centuries. Very little historical information about
Dark Age Welsh court tradition survives, but the Middle Welsh material came to be the nucleus of the
Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the list of legendary kings of Britain, legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It ...
and
Arthurian legend as they developed from the 13th century. The (Welsh) Laws of Hywel Dda, originally compiled around 900, identify a bard as a member of a king's household. His duties, when the bodyguard were sharing out booty, included the singing of the sovereignty of Britain—possibly why the genealogies of the British high kings survived into the written historical record.
The royal form of bardic tradition ceased in the 13th century, when the 1282
Edwardian conquest permanently ended the rule of the Welsh princes. The legendary suicide of ''The Last Bard'' (c. 1283), was commemorated in the poem ''
The Bards of Wales'' by the
Hungarian poet
János Arany in 1857, as a way of encoded resistance to the suppressive politics of his own time. However, the poetic and musical traditions were continued throughout the Middle Ages, e.g., by noted 14th-century poets
Dafydd ap Gwilym and
Iolo Goch. The tradition of regularly assembling bards at an
eisteddfod never lapsed, and was strengthened by formation of the
Gorsedd
A gorsedd (, plural ''gorseddau'') is a community or meeting of modern-day bards. The word is of Welsh origin, meaning "throne". It is spelled gorsedh in Cornish and goursez in Breton.
When the term is used without qualification, it usually r ...
by
Iolo Morganwg
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg" From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclopedi ...
in 1792, establishing Wales as the major Celtic upholder of bardic tradition in the 21st century. Many regular ''eisteddfodau'' are held in Wales, including the
National Eisteddfod of Wales
The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Eur ...
(), which was instituted in 1861 and has been held annually since 1880. Many Welsh schools conduct their own annual versions at which bardic traditions are emulated.
[e.g.]
Our Eisteddfod
at St Julian's School, Newport, 19 March 2013. Accessed 20 June 2013
Literature
From its frequent use in Romanticism, 'The Bard' became attached as a title to various poets,
* 'The Bard of Armagh' is
Martin Hearty Martin may refer to:
Places
* Martin City (disambiguation)
* Martin County (disambiguation)
* Martin Township (disambiguation)
Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Austral ...
* 'The Bard of Avon,' 'The Immortal Bard' or (in England) simply 'The Bard' is
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
* 'The Bard of Ayrshire' (or in Scotland, simply 'The Bard') is
Robert Burns
* 'The Bard of Bengal' is
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
* 'The Bard of Olney' is
William Cowper
William Cowper ( ; 26 November 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scen ...
* 'The Bard of Rydal Mount' is
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
* 'The Bard of Salford' is
John Cooper Clarke
* 'The Bard of Twickenham' is
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
* Australian
bush poet
The bush ballad, bush song or bush poem is a style of poetry and folk music that depicts the life, character and scenery of the Australian bush. The typical bush ballad employs a straightforward rhyme structure to narrate a story, often one of a ...
s such as
Henry Lawson and
Banjo Paterson are referred to as 'bush bards'
*
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
,
Jim MacCool Jim MacCool (born 1954) is a British dramatic poet in the shanachie or travelling bard tradition. MacCool is the author of ''Ionan Tales'', a series of twelve lengthy tales in verse inspired by the Canterbury Tales and which he has performed more t ...
and the band
Blind Guardian have also been termed 'bards'
Popular culture
From its Romanticist usage, the notion of the bard as a minstrel with qualities of a priest, magician or seer also entered the
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
genre in the 1960s to 1980s, for example as the '
Bard
In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...
' class in
Dungeons & Dragons and
Pathfinder
Pathfinder may refer to:
Businesses
* Pathfinder Energy Services, a division of Smith International
* Pathfinder Press, a publisher of socialist literature
Computing and information science
* Path Finder, a Macintosh file browser
* Pathfinder (w ...
, ''Bard'' by
Keith Taylor (1981), ''
Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish'' by
Morgan Llywelyn
Morgan Llywelyn (born December 3, 1937) is an American-Irish historical interpretation author of Historical fiction, historical and Mythic fiction, mythological fiction and history, historical non-fiction. Her interpretation of mythology and ...
(1984), in video games in fantasy settings such as ''
The Bard's Tale'' (1985), and in modern literature and TV like
The Witcher books by
Andrzej Sapkowski(1986–2013) show by
Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich ( ) is an American television producer and screenwriter. She is the series creator of the television series ''The Witcher''.
Early life
She was raised in Westerville, Ohio, and graduated from Wittenberg University in S ...
(2019).
As of 2020, an online trend to cover modern songs using medieval style musical instruments and composition, including rewriting the lyrics in a medieval style, is known as
bardcore.
See also
*
Aois-dàna
The ' (Scottish Gaelic, literally "people of the arts", often translated as bards) served as advisers to nobles and chiefs of clans throughout the Scottish Gàidhealtachd until the late 17th century. Many of them specialised in preserving th ...
*
Bard (Dungeons & Dragons)
*
Bard (League of Legends)
''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...
*
Bard (Soviet Union)
*
Bhāts
Bhāt is a "generic term" used to refer to a bard in India. The majority of ''Bhats'' hail from Rajasthan and worked as genealogists for their patrons, however, they are viewed as mythographers. In India, the inception of Rajputization was foll ...
*
Cacofonix
This is a list of characters in the ''Asterix'' comics.
Main characters
Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix are the first characters with short descriptions usually listed at the beginning of each of the ''Asterix'' books (after the map of Gaul). They ...
*
Charan
Charan ( IAST: Cāraṇ; Sanskrit: चारण; Gujarati: ચારણ; Urdu: ارڈ; IPA: cɑːrəɳə) is a caste in South Asia natively residing in the Rajasthan and Gujarat states of India, as well as the Sindh and Balochistan provinces ...
(India)
*
Contention of the bards
The contention of the bards ( Irish: ''Iomarbhágh na bhFileadh'') was a literary controversy of early 17th century Gaelic Ireland, lasting from 1616 to 1624, probably peaking in 1617. The principal bardic poets of the country wrote polemical v ...
*
Druid
A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...
*
Fili
*
Gorsedd
A gorsedd (, plural ''gorseddau'') is a community or meeting of modern-day bards. The word is of Welsh origin, meaning "throne". It is spelled gorsedh in Cornish and goursez in Breton.
When the term is used without qualification, it usually r ...
*
Gorseth Kernow (Cornwall)
*
Griot
*
Poet as legislator
The theme of poet as legislator reached its grandiose peak in the Romantic era, epitomised in the view of the lonely, alienated poet as 'unacknowledged legislator' to the whole world.
However the concept had a long prehistory in Western culture, ...
*
Skald
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionally ...
* ''
The Bards of Wales''
*
The Bard's Tale (1985 video game)
*
Vates
*
Welsh bardic music
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
Further reading
*
Walker, Joseph C., ''Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards''. New York: Garland, 1971.
External links
Irish Bardic PoetryCorpus of Electronic Texts, University College Cork.
*
{{Authority control
Occupations in music
Celtic culture
History of Wales
Irish literature
Scottish literature
Welsh literature
Welsh folk music
Welsh poets
Medieval Ireland
Culture of medieval Scotland
Cornish culture
Romanticism
Eisteddfod
Medieval performers
Poets