Yesterday, during the Lunar Eclipse, I was at Fiddler's Dream in Glendale, playing music and telling tales. There was nothing I would rather have done during such a powerful astrological moment! http://www.fiddlersdream.org It was started back in the eighties by Sol Rudnick, the state champion fiddle player at the time... I'm pretty sure I remember this right... as a place to go for live, acoustic music away from the bars, smoke, and inattentive audiences. Because there is no PA or microphone on stage, the audience is required to be "there" for whoever's performing. There is generally jamming happening outside, as well, and coffee plus other munchies.

It's really fun to play there! I asked specifically for this date, the annual Spring Fling, not knowing about the eclipse. But whatever one is paying attention to during such an occasion is likely to color one's actions and opportunities during the next phase. And I found myself with a small but very appreciative audience, hanging onto my every word and not wincing visibly at my missed guitar notes that creeped out now and then (especially when I strapped on my classical guitar for "Spanish Heritage" and discovered, too late, that my problems were recurring because the strap was too long!)

I wish I'd had a camera, not only to have had photos of myself but also because the young man who followed me was SO outstanding! He gave me a homemade CD and said his website will be up soon: www.paulneedzafriend.com He was animated, funny, well-written lyrics in the young-guy-whose-girlfriends-all-turn-out-to-be-psychos mode... and had a unique vocal style that was his own, yet the songs were all different within that style. Paul Needzafriend. I cracked up when I saw the name on the Fiddler's website.

Anyone who's in Phoenix, go to Fiddler's. Near 17th Street and Glendale Rd., on the grounds of the Friends' Meeting House. What fun! --MaryK

Keepers of Story: the Bardic Tradition


A bard is a storyteller and poet, using the power of words and music to entertain, to instruct, to tell history, and to counsel his/her audience. In this paper, I will examine the importance of the bardic tradition in the history of storytelling, and will primarily discuss the Celtic bards of Ireland and Great Britain, and their use of and responsibility to the art of Story and the Oral Tradition in the English language. Other cultures which have similar functions will also be discussed, including predecessors and other bardic storytellers. Training is an important part of becoming a bard; the Celts and others were known to spend years educating talented young people. Before Rome became an empire, the bards were part of the Druidic religion of the Celtic tribes scattered through Europe and the British Isles; they were the branch of Druids who took the stories to the people. They also spoke Truth to Power, as advisors and confidants of kings, and with the threat of using poetic sarcasm if the powerful behaved badly. With the coming of the Romans and then the Christians, the bards survived when the Druids were suppressed. The bardic tales, however, have continued to be told: through the oral tradition by memorization and telling to the next generation, in manuscripts written down as soon as writing became available, and in the recent revival of this storytelling style.

Early Bards
I believe that, long before literacy, some people were the “explainers.” These tellers described why things were; who made thunder, where the sun went at night, and what the behavior of humans was expected to be. They were given a more important role than others who did not tell these types of stories. It must have taken talent to be able to enrapture an audience, as well as the ability to memorize a great many words, the beginnings of the oral tradition. When genealogy and tribal history was added to all this, along with some musical accompaniment, then that person was truly a bard.

Before the Druids there were predecessors to the bardic tradition in other parts of the world. Did the bard come later, after the development of storytelling through poetry as a specialty? Or did this specialization lead to the establishment of bardry? Scholars are examining this transition. In the earliest written works in Sanskrit and Sumerian, professional-type storytellers are referred to, those who were companions of kings and other important persons:
Did these bards… precede or follow the telling of tales by persons not looked on as professionals? Did this special career develop as a secularization of originally priestly or religious functions? Or were the first storytellers merely the best from those who entertained their particular social group informally, then realized their special talents and power, and gradually sought to protect their status by devising systems regulating training, practice, and performance? (Pellowski, 8)

The bardic tradition was practiced by the ancient Greeks, before their language was written. Homer, the blind poet who’s credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey, is considered the best known example of an early bard in European culture; in high-school history and early college History of Western Civilization class, as well as literature classes from both levels of schooling, this is what is taught. His works were rigorously memorized by those who followed him, according to Kirk in The Songs of Homer, quoted by Nancy Pellowski in her book, The World of Storytelling. These “were oral epics, written down.” (Pellowski, 9) She wrote of Homeric schools in which the poetry, accompanied by a stringed instrument, was maintained by the training of new students over many generations. With the advent of writing, the poems were transcribed and became considered literature.

But more questions remain about whether Homer actually existed, or if he did, was responsible for both the Iliad and the Odyssey. “Are they relics of a second-millennium culture that survived in the tradition of court poets who recited from memory? Are they really true only to a later age in which they seem to have been composed?” (Beye, 2) By studying linguistics, scholars such as Albert B. Lord and his mentor, Milman Parry, proposed that as an individual, Homer did not exist; this was in the 1920’s and 1930’s when they studied the oral narrators of epic tales still practicing in Yugoslavia, in order to theorize about the oral nature of the Homeric works. By studying the language of the ancient Greek texts, Milman concluded that all Greek dialects were represented, which seemed to show multiple authorship. (Lord, 11)
The quarrel about the errors and inconsistencies in the Homeric poems, inherited from the seventeenth century, has continued steadily until our own times… Of far greater importance than the labeling of the inconsistencies themselves has been [development of] the theory of multiple authorship which emerged when the quarrel over the “errors” began to find fuel from the attention paid to still living bards and bardic tradition and to medieval minstrelsy. (Lord, 10)

In the more than half-century since Albert Lord wrote his dissertation based on Milman’s theories (who had died and therefore it was up to Lord to finish the work), others have continued the discussion. The Iliad and Odyssey were indeed originally oral works, according to Charles Beye, because of these “two facts: (1) that over the several centuries over which it is assumed the poems took their shape there was no system of writing, and (2) that these poems describe or allude to a world that ended before writing was invented.” (Beye, 3) Archeological evidence, begun with Heinrich Schliemann in the late nineteenth century in both northwest Turkey and at Mycenae in Greece and continued through the late twentieth century, supported the historical accuracy of these poems. (King)

Perhaps it really doesn’t matter whether or not Homer was a particular individual. But modern scholars are still examining the Homeric works through the methodological lenses of both history and linguistics. It appears to me that this field of study established that the oral tradition was alive during the pre-literate Greek civilization, and that the Homeric poems were indeed created in the bardic tradition.

Bards in Other Cultures
As the oral tradition took on specific form and tales were committed, word for word to memory, a need for young students to carry on the memorized works was filled in many ways: by inheritance, such as my friend Uqualla, the hereditary “Coyote Teller” of the Havasupai Tribe; by aptitude shown, leading to apprenticeships, as in the Druidic Celtic societies; or simply by anyone who wished to participate.

A similarity between the Celts and the civilization of India has been noted. Joseph Campbell touches on this in his book Hero with a Thousand Faces in which he compares tales from many cultures. But he’s not the only one. Others note that the position of bard is similar in these distant locales, touching on the bards’ speaking Truth to Power:
There is evidence from Celtic countries and from India that the poets were also the official historians and the royal genealogists. The poet’s praises confirmed and sustained the king in his kingship, while his satire could blast both the king and his kingdom. …It was initiates with this power and authority who had custody of the original tales, and they recited them on auspicious occasions, even as the priests of other religions recite the scriptures. (Rees, 17)

The caste system was in place in both India and in Celtic Europe. One difference, though, was that the Celts were able to improve their station in life by education, by good works, by accomplishments on the field of battle. Although most of the Druids, including bards, were recruited when children from the warriors and aristocratic families, if a laborer’s child showed promise, that child was taken into apprenticeship also. It was a privilege not accorded to lower caste members elsewhere. In India, one must have been born a Brahmin to be given the education necessary become a poet. But the other similarities were evident:
In medieval Ireland and Wales, poets… were members of a privileged order within the learned class. Though, in Ireland, their profession was largely hereditary, their apprenticeship was both long and arduous, and an essential part of it consisted in learning hundreds of tales, ‘to narrate them to kings and lords and gentlemen.’ The learned class, comprising druids and poets, was comparable in many ways with the Brahmin caste in India, and an account of the art, status, and conduct of Irish and Welsh court poets was described by an eminent orientalist as ‘almost a chapter in the history of India under another name.’ (Rees, 16)

Here was a reference to the “largely hereditary” apprenticeships, similar to the Native American tradition practiced by Uqualla, whose Havasupai grandfather taught him his stories. Uqualla translated them into English and travels all over the world telling these tales, which include not only the words but also the movement, the voice, the costume, flute and drum, and the storyteller being a bridge between the people and the spiritual world.

Of the various Pacific island groups, styles varied somewhat but many were highly developed. “The Samoans were famous for their ‘talking chiefs’ who were skilled in composing and reciting traditions, genealogies, myths and legends.” (Pellowski, 98) Maori mothers recited the tribe’s histories to their children while they were still babies, so that they would have a proper understanding of where they came from. In Hawaii, the tradition was passed on by whoever who wished to repeat the stories and learn the descriptive dances. Aptitude was thus the main criteria, but any member of a family group was expected to know the stories, as written by Caren Loebel-Fried, an author and illustrator of Hawaiian folklore:
Early Hawaiian people were great storytellers. They did not record their history in books but had an oral tradition, and all the great stories were passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation, through legends, myths, prayers, and chants. Legends were the keepers of history, preserving the Hawaiian culture and traditions. The legends also taught by example how the ancestors lived in their world and how future generations should live in theirs, and this storytelling tradition is still alive and well in Hawai'i. (Loebel-Fried)

But not all Pacific cultures maintained that tradition into modern times. When I was a teenager we lived on Guam, where there were still some stories being told by old people, and I was privileged to listen. These ranged from the Chamorro days before the Spanish colonization in the sixteenth century, to the more recent memories of life (and death) while occupied by the Japanese during World War Two. I listened to tales about the First Man, the Tau-Tau Mona, said to be twelve feet tall. The teller’s voice dropped to a whisper when she spoke of this ancient race. I watched my neighbor break out in tears as she could not quite tell about her uncle, picked up by the occupiers and never heard from again, who had helped hide the lone Marine who didn’t surrender with the rest of the battalion in December of 1941. Although some stories had been written down by anthropologists about the old days, some things simply were not remembered. Artifacts that proved a pre-history could not be identified. The stories had been lost when the Spanish colonized the island and killed off most of the Chamorro people, and the generations-long chain of oral tradition was broken.

The Bards as Druids
The development of specific educational methods and peer organizing for maintaining a tradition is, to me, the signifier of the “profession” of a Bard. “Keeping a tradition” is the passing on of a complete cultural expression from the old to the young. And the Celtic bards were originally Druids, which meant that their words were important on many levels; they didn’t simply entertain, but were intrinsic to the practice of religion. Three basic divisions were the “poet, priest, and prophet.” (O’Driscoll, 248)

Of these, the poet was the bard, the storyteller. “Story” in this sense indicates a sacred trust, poetry and songs and stories as expressive oral forms passed on for memorization to the young student from the old bard. Some was set to music when the student showed aptitude and had undergone training as a musician as well. It included genealogy, tales of special events to be remembered, exhortations to do good works and honor one’s name and ancestors.

Julius Caesar wrote of his encounters with the Druids when he fought in Gaul (modern day France) and Britain, before becoming the first Emperor of Rome. He reported that “in the schools… the druids… learn by heart a great number of verses, and therefore some persons remain 20 years under training. For ‘druids’ in this extract, read ‘bards,’ for the two roles were at various times virtually interchangeable. In fact it was more like twelve years that the bards spent learning their skills.” (Matthews, 12)

The bardic school in Britain was “the finest training available” before the days of the Romans, and Celts from mainland Europe were known to travel there for their schooling. (O’Driscoll, 79) The education was rigorous, especially considering that the apprentices started as children: “A bardic student was expected to learn, by heart, at least 150 ogams [a form of writing used on sacred sites and objects], 580 tales, approximately 240 poems in various metres and forms, as well as grammar, history, land lore, orations, the arts of seership, bardic law and the [Brehon] Law of Privileges.” (Matthews, 13)

The Greeks had commerce with the European Celts, as referred to in the historical writings of early Romans. “Diogenes Laertius perpetuates remarks of Aristotle and Sotion which make it quite clear that Druidism was already an ancient institution amongst the Celts by 200 B.C.” (Ross, 53) The writer goes on to connect the Bards as part of the Druids: “Apart from the Druids and bards (poets) Strabo speaks of the vates, interpreters of sacrifices and natural philosophers.” She also confirms that some Romans wrote about the Druids in a defamatory mode, more as propaganda than as true study of a culture. This was when Julius Caesar was intent on occupying the Celtic territory of Gaul and that of the Celts’ traditional Germanic enemies as well. His writings picture the Druids in general as tree-worshippers and practitioners of bloody human sacrifices. They did use numerous ancient oak groves as sacred locations for rituals and ceremonies, and were animistic with many gods, spirits, and religious duties involving the changes of the moon and seasons.

The Celts had many names for various gods and goddesses, but not an overlord God. Each had specific duties. For example, a youthful god was part of the Beltain celebration, in particular that the crops, livestock, and the people themselves would be fertile. Ross wrote that the Celtic god Maponus, the “divine youth”, was associated both with poetry and with the harp. Written about by the Romans as associated with the Northern Gallic Celts, some archeological evidence has been associated showing his worship in the British Borderlands as well. “The dedications suggest that Maponus was especially concerned with the skills of poetry and music. On an altar found at Hexham he is equated with Apollo Cithareodus, the Harper.” (Ross, 369) Was Maponus one the Bards in particular venerated?

The Druids had high holy days when the people would gather together and particular songs were sung. Among these were the sacred ceremonies of Samhain (November 1st ) and Beltaine (May 1st), when special poems and stories were told. There were specific rules governing the telling of stories:
In an Irish story, the language of which shows it to have been written in the eighth century, the learned poet Forgoll recites a story to Mongán, an Ulster king, every night throughout a whole winter, ‘from Samhain to Beltain’—a phrase still to be heard in connection with storytelling. The custom of telling stories at night, and during the winter, is not to be dismissed as merely a matter of convenience. Reports concerning peoples from parts of Native America, Europe, Africa, and Asia show them to be almost unanimous in prohibiting the telling of sacred stories in summer or in daylight, except on certain special occasions. (Rees, 15)

Our modern Halloween is derived from the Druidic Samhain, when according to the Irish tradition, “all the fairy hills were thrown open.” (Joyce, 112) The fairy tale remains of this tradition in many more countries than simply Ireland, as written here, but the fairies were considered the inhabitants displaced by the arrival of the Celts. That they still inhabit their land in various forms is part of the oral tradition of Ireland discussed at length by W. B. Yeats and others:
When the Milesians landed in Ireland, they were encountered by mysterious sights and sounds wherever they went, through the subtle sounds of the Dedannans. As they climbed over the mountains of Kerry, half-formed specters flitted dimly before their eyes: for Banba, the queen of one of the three Dedannan princes who ruled the land, sent a swarm of meisi [misha], or ‘phantoms,’ which froze the blood of the invaders with terror: and the mountain range of Sleive Mish, near Tralee, still retains the name of those apparitions. (Joyce, 117)

Between the fourth and fifth century B. C. E. the Milesians had come from Spain, probably fleeing the Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula just after the defeat of Hannibal. Arriving by boat, their bard Amergin composed poetry which told the history so that their people would remember. This migration is the subject of the historical novel Bard, the Odyssey of the Irish by Morgan Llywelyn, who has written many novels covering the history of Ireland from the dim past to the most recent uprisings. Her sources include many of the old books I’ve cited here, plus more; in a personal email to me, she suggested many of the books. She regularly wins awards for her books; this one earned both the Poetry in Prose Award from the Galician Society, University of Santiago de Campostela, and the Award of Merit from the Celtic League. (Clark, 1) Llywelyn also described the Druidic responsibilities of bards in great detail.

Taliesin: King Arthur’s Bard
Perhaps the best-known Bard is Taliesin, from the Arthurian legend. The legend itself is well supported by the archeological work of Steve Blake and Scott Lloyd, in their book The Keys to Avalon. King Arthur was a historical figure, they maintain, that was developed into a legend with the passing of centuries. They called Taliesin “the greatest of Welsh poets” and wrote that the name meant “radiant or shining brow.” Wales was the last stronghold of the Druids and Celts on the isle of Britannia, and these authors’ research identifies the Arthurian legends’ place-names here. The River Dee’s boundaries included not only Avalon, but also the locations named in stories about “Ceridwen, the birth of Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur’s fostering and Arthur’s last voyage, to name but a few.” (Blake & Lloyd, 154)

Ceridwin was a noblewoman “skilled in the magical arts,” and the tale is long about how she created the Cauldron, then bore Taliesin and “placed him in a leather bag and set him adrift in a coracle in the sea” instead of killing the child as planned. Gwyddno Garanhir was a nobleman in the kingdom of the Lord Maelgwn Gwynedd, who had a weir on the River Conway, to catch salmon as they left the sea. His son Elffin was an unlucky youth; his father told him he could have everything he found in the weir in a particular year. On May Eve, when Elffin and his servants arrived at the weir there were no fish at all. When Elffin lamented his constant bad luck, a servant pointed out that there was a coracle nearby, containing a leather bag. Bringing the small hide boat to shore, Elffin cut the leather bag with his knife and revealed the child. First he saw a bright forehead and cried aloud, “Behold, a radiant brow” (tal iesin). And the child in the bag replied, “Taliesin shall I be called!”

Taking the child home behind him on the saddle, Elffin was amazed when Taliesin made his first poem, “The Consolation of Elffin.” When he asked the child in wonderment how “he could compose poetry being so young, Taliesin replied with another poem, ‘The Life of Taliesin’ that told how he had been present at many of the greatest events in the history of the world. For he had been born of [Ceridwen’s] Cauldron of Inspiration and Wisdom, he knew all things that were, and are, and shall be.”

When Elffin returned home, his father thought that the ill luck was shown by the lack of salmon; Elffid, however, told him he’d “taken something of far greater value”:
“And what is that?” demanded Gwyddno.
“A Bard,” replied his son.
When Gwyddno asked how that would profit him, Taliesin himself replied, “He will get more profit from me than the weir ever gave to you.”
“Are you able to speak, and you so little?” demanded Gwyddno.
And Taleisin replied, “I am better able to speak than you are to question me.” (Matthews, 120)

This is a fine example of the bard speaking Truth to Power. Elffin took the child home for his wife to raise, and his bad luck was forever changed. Taliesin grew up to become the bard to King Arthur.

The Suppression of the Druids and Adaptation of Bards
The Druidic heritage of the bards was altered first with the coming of the Romans. That Julius Caesar knew of the Druidic schools suggests to me that he also knew that he was propagandizing in his writing that the Druids were uncivilized savages. In the geographical areas colonized by the Romans, the Druids were wiped out or forced toward the west. It is therefore through the Irish, Scots and Welsh that we find the most accurate portrayals of the Celtic traditions. Many of their stories and epic hero-poems were transcribed by the earliest of Christian monks. Although there were some inevitable changes because of the source, many tales remained complete:
The old oral learning of the Celtic world found its earliest written form in the language of seventh-century Ireland, under the aegis of the Celtic church. The great body of Law Tracts, reflecting the social structure of an essentially pagan society, and the hero-tales, known as the Ulster Cycle, the linguistic forms of which are suggestive of a written origin at least as early as the eighth century A.D., are repositories of the ancient tradition, but have never been examined critically in the light of modern archeological knowledge… The Christian church modified the old pagan legends, and opposed the existing priesthood, but otherwise used the old traditional learning as the basis of the new, thus preserving into the Middle Ages traditions and modes of expression stemming direct from a barbarian milieu. (Ross, 17)

In order for the bards to survive first the Romans and then Christianity, many seem to have dropped their Druidic connections and became more secular. Though they still told the tales of the old heroes, they no longer helped to officiate at pagan ceremonies, which were disappearing. Still the companions of kings (but not of Druids), their schooling was maintained amongst themselves. Some bards became minstrels and storytellers of the people, performing in fairs and other gatherings. By the thirteenth century, the early beginnings of organized theater began to appear, and the minstrels became known as specialists with musical performances. (Brockett, 143)

Irish tales of heroes and champions, fairies and inhabitants before the English, were handed down orally through generations into recent times, to be written down by William Butler Yeats in the 1880’s, and other folklorists and scholars. There were also manuscripts of tales transcribed by early Irish monks, many of whom had been Druids before embracing the new religion of Christianity. Later scholars were amazed at the accuracy of the oral transmission of many tales also found as written manuscripts, when comparisons were made.
The arrival of Christianity created great change in Ireland; the bards either joined the church or became secularized. At first, the new religion didn’t alter much from the old one maintained by the Druids. Joseph Campbell spoke at length of this in a paper read in Toronto, 1978, to a gathering of scholars of Celtic history: “The Christianized Celts of the early period tended to place no less emphasis on the inward, mystical, than on the outward historical aspect and implications of the gospel legend, and prepared the way for a later recognition of analogies in the mystical tradition of India.” (O’Driscoll, 11)

Campbell, in the introductory address, quoted “a Coptic translation from the Greek of the long-lost Gospel According to Thomas… ‘The kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth and men do not see it.’” This intersects with the Irish version of the fairy world, which is here but unseen. Campbell told of Bran, who hearing the fairy-music of the Sidhe, fell asleep because the music was so sweet.
When he awoke he saw beside him a branch of silver with white blossoms, which he carried in his hand to his royal house. And when his company had assembled, a woman in strange raiment appeared who sang in fifty quatrains of the land of apples [Avalon], without grief, without sorrow, sickness, or any debility. And when Bran with his company of three times nine were sailing to that land, they saw a godlike man coming toward them over the waters in a chariot, and Bran with his company were amazed. The charioteer was Manannan, the Hospitable Host of the Land Under the Waves, and he sang to them thirty quatrains. “Bran thinks this is a marvelous sea,” he sang. “For me it is a flowery plain. Speckled salmon leap from the womb of your sea; they are calves and colored lambs.” Again, a Celtic counterpart of the image of the Kingdom already here: the interface of the two worlds, of Eternity and Time. (O’Driscoll, 10)

The first of the missionaries arrived in Ireland in the fifth century, long after Europe and Britain had been Christianized. The Brehon law was studied by the king of Ireland and nine learned persons, including himself and St. Patrick, starting in 438 A.D. After three years, the new code was introduced “from which everything that clashed with the Christian doctrine had been carefully excluded.” (Joyce, 73) St. Patrick was given credit for absorbing the current belief system, and especially the use of the oral tradition that he found upon his arrival in Ireland, into the new religion he brought:
At the end of the tale called ‘the Fosterage of the Houses of the Two Methers’ it is said that St. Patrick ordered ‘that there should not be sleep or conversation during this story, and not to tell it except to a few good people so that it might be the better listened to, and Patrick ordained many other virtues for it…’
I shall leave these virtues
For the story of Ethne from the siar Maigue,
Success in children, success in foster-sister or –brother,
To those it may find sleeping with fair women.

If you tell of this fosterage
Before going on a ship or vessel,
You will come home safe and prosperous
Without danger from waves and billows.

To tell the story of Ethne
When bringing home a stately wife,
Good the step you have decided on,
It will be a success of spouse and children.

If you tell this story
To the captives of Ireland,
It will be the same as if were opened
Their locks and their bonds. (Rees, 18)

Thus was the power of the oral bardic tradition recognized by St. Patrick.
Among those who followed St. Patrick were some who had been Druids. “There is a good deal of evidence to suggest that many of the earliest Irish monks had been Druids and fili, or bards, before their conversion, and that they carried on in their Christianity something of the momentum of their earlier sense of a common spiritual ground to be recognized, in silent wonder, in themselves and in the natural world, all about,” said Campbell. (O’Driscoll, 8) Perhaps it was these men who wrote down the Ulster cycle and other manuscripts which long lay untranslated in the Archives of the university at Dublin and other places.
“Traditional tales… were once a fundamental part of the culture of the aristocracy of the Celtic lands, and in Irish and Welsh tales from medieval manuscripts there are references to the recitation of tales by poets of high rank.”(Rees, 15) Some manuscripts were kept in the Archives at various universities during the Middle Ages, not to be found for many centuries; others were in private ownership. Many “copies of copies” were made, of manuscripts “long lost. Successive copies were made from time to time, with commentaries and explanations appended, till the manuscripts we now possess were produced.” (Joyce, 73) This spoke of the writings of St. Patrick and others in the early days of the Celtic Christian Church.

These types of poets were not confined to the British Isles, either. “The Song of Roland” commemorated an incident in the year 778 A.D., when the King of the Franks, Charles the Great, was retreating from Spain, after fighting the Saracens:

“On the 15th of August, while his army was marching through the passes of the Pyrenees, his rear-guard was attacked and annihilated by the Basque inhabitants of the mountains, in the valley of Roncesvaux. About this disaster many popular songs, it is supposed, soon sprang up; and the chief hero whom they celebrated was Hrodland, Count of the Marches of Brittany.” These “popular songs” were invented and spread by the still-Celtic inhabitants of the Count’s home territories, and one version is considered the earliest-recorded Western literature when finally written down. (Halsall)

Great Britain’s oral bardic tradition has its evidence in various written manuscripts, in Latin, Middle English, and other languages that tell the old stories. The earliest literature has oral tradition as its source and inspiration, such as Chaucer, who was a storyteller and a poet of renown in his day: “In 1374, King Edward granted Chaucer a gallon of wine per day for life—no one knows why, but scholars speculate that it might have been a reward for a poem.” (Drout, 12) It was traditional for a generous gift to be given for a spectacular composition. Competitions between bards were well known long before Chaucer and his daily gallon, and the organization of bards into guilds, like other medieval skills, was written about:
The eisteddfod [was first recorded] having been held at Cardigan by the Lord Rhys (one of the last princes of South Wales) in 1176. The word means simply a ‘session’, and it described a set of musical and poetic competitions, of which notice had been given a year beforehand, and at which adjudications and prizes were given. An eisteddfod would also be the occasion in the Middle Ages for the bards (organized in an order or guild) to set their house in order, to examine and license the reputable performers, and to cut out the bad. Just as Welsh lawyers claimed that their native law codes went back to the ancient (but genuine) King Hywel the Good, so the Welsh bards claimed their meetings were held according to ‘The Statute of Gruffydd ap Cynan’, who was supposed to have brought the bardic order into its state of good government about 1100… [By the 1590’s] the bardic order was soon at death’s door, for a variety of reasons, but primarily because the bards were tied up with an ancient way of life which was itself disappearing. (Hobsbawm and Ranger, 57)

Perhaps it was because of the printing press and the spreading of literacy, because it wasn’t long after this that people started reading stories instead of listening to them. But that wasn’t the only reason; the arrival of the English in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland changed everything. Foremost in their agenda seems to have been the suppression of the local histories; the bards lost their positions in noble houses as the aristocrats were killed or impoverished. It was necessary to change in order to survive, becoming poets, actors, or minstrels, performers of musical entertainment for the common people at fairs and in traveling troupes, as well as in passion plays supported by the Church. For and by the non-literate, however, the traditional stories continued to be told and re-told in cottages and in pubs, where no Englishmen were present.

The Resurrection of the Bardic Tradition
In Ireland, once the English invaded and conquered, the Bardic tradition became suppressed, as it had in Wales and Scotland, and in Britain like Gaul before, with the coming of the Romans. However, manuscripts had been preserved of the epic poems of heroes and predecessors. Tales of Irish heroes and the fairy folk had been transcribed by many scholars; “Giraldus Cambrensis was born in 1146 and wrote a celebrated account of Ireland,” was a footnote to the tale ascribed to him, The Phantom Isle, in William Butler Yeats’ collection of stories he first published in 1888. (Yeats, 191) This was during the so-called Irish Renaissance, when old manuscripts were being translated and many Irish people were learning for the first time that they’d had a glorious past. However, the strength of the oral tales had not been diminished by the suppression of the aristocratic class. Stories continued to be told and passed down orally for many generations among the peasants. With the resurrection of transcribed works, a revolution among the people of Ireland began, based on the rebirth of the heroes of the past and bringing the lessons to be learned from the old Bards into contemporary thought, word, and deed. At first, beginning in 1760, James Macpherson, a Scot, published some hero tales of Ossian and “tried to convince the guardians of neoclassical taste that epic poems had been written in Scotland in the third century.” He gained some influential readers, such as Goethe, who translated some poems which the German thought “bore a closer ancestral relation to the Germans than did the famous works of the Greeks and Romans.” (Thompson, 5) This helped to create a desire to study the Celtic history of Europe and Ireland. Reliques of Irish Poetry was published in 1789 by Charlotte Brooke. “This volume was indeed a milestone, for here was a bilingual edition of the poems concerning the figures that were about to become legend again: Cuchulain, and Dierdre, and Finn.” (Thompson, 7)

Slowly gaining momentum, and not without the English overlords trying to hold back the awareness of Ireland’s history, more and more old manuscripts were published and the folklore was collected that proved the oral tradition did indeed tell the same stories as had the bards. “William Carleton (1794-1869) was by no means a scientific collector of folklore. Such stories as he retold were part of his heritage; he grew up with them.” (Yeats, xv) This new awareness was not without its problems, however; in The Imagination of an Insurrection, Thompson wrote about the poets who were among those executed for the Irish rebellion of 1916. They had taken the hero tales to heart.

The Bardic Tradition Today
Of what use is a bard in today’s society? Do we still need to hear the stories of heroes and villains, of how to act toward one another, of repercussions for bad behavior? And who will be the bard? Who still speaks Truth to Power? Has the hero story become outdated?

There are impressionable children who need to be exposed to a storyteller who can help them create pictures in their minds, as opposed to ready-made visuals in movies and on television. Adults, too, need to revisit their youth and retell the stories of their own families that they heard from their grandparents; an interest in genealogy is a sign that family stories will not be lost forever.
The Eisteddfod was restored for a time during the early 1800’s when a renewed interest in Welsh poetic and bardic traditions was exercised. (Hobsbawm and Ranger, 54) But public interest comes and goes. Recently, there has been a growing interest in bardry, perhaps with the establishment of Renaissance Faires as entertainment and marketing to the public of both Great Britain and the United States. My oldest brother, Jim Croft, a traditional bookbinder, participated in one of the first Faires in the Portland, Oregon region in the early 1970’s, so I attended. It was my first glimpse at a bard, a local entertainer in costume with a lute and many songs in the style of the Elizabethan period. This is popular now, with traveling troupes and regular routes. During February and March, a large Faire is held east of Phoenix; run very much like a circus, this particular group moves north with the warm weather.

I believe that protest singers are still speaking Truth to Power. This modern bardic style has been evidenced throughout several centuries, in satire and straightforward lyrics both. During the late sixties, when I was starting to play guitar, many of my songs were learned directly from others, in the oral bardic tradition.

There are still many who pass on the hero tales in other forms, and not always in a person-to-person format. For example, look at the classic hero tale told in the Star Wars movies: good against evil, the hero saves the universe with The Force. The characters are clear and easily recognizable, such as Luke Skywalker, Obi-wan Kenobi and Darth Vader. To me, this says that people still love a good story, and there is still room in people’s lives for the old tales as well as modern versions of them.

There are bards in many forms of modern music, from Ricky Skaggs writing and singing his family history in songs such as “The Box”, to radical young slam poets (a form of competitive, extemporaneous and quick rhyming) and other protest singers speaking Truth to Power. Bardic Chairs and eisteddfod competition have been re-established in such cities as Bath, England. Scholars are examining existing forms of the oral tradition from South India to east Tennessee. There are people taking up the practice of the Druidic form of bardry, and reading how-to manuals such as Arthur Rowan’s The Lore of the Bard. Although Rowan is writing for the modern-day bard, he is basing his work on historical scholarship:
The power of the word is not in the sound, but in the thoughts behind it, their nature, their solidity, and their beauty—and who better to handle this eldritch art than the bard, master of the craft of words? It was only appropriate that the Celts held their bards in such high esteem. A bard was literally memory and vision, heart and soul and passion expressed by the power of the spoken word and music. A bard was as magical a being as a druid. Indeed, there was a time when druidry and bardry were one… (Rowan, 56)

Many trained bards of history were advisors to kings and emperors. Their words carried weight; they were confident and had deep understanding of their responsibility. This is still true today, I believe. With talent, whether for words, music, or that of giving wise advice, also comes responsibility, writes Barbara Flaherty, a poet and teacher of shamanic and Bardic traditions, living in Alaska. “Those with the gift of words have been given that gift with its responsibilities: to heal and rebalance, to give voice to the powerless and the mute, to speak truth to power.” (Flaherty, 1)

From the mists of the past into the uncertain future, bards are still entertaining, informing, and provoking us all to examine where we came from and to ponder the meaning of our lives.


(c) 2006 by MaryK Croft All Rights Reserved








Works Cited

Beye, Charles Rowan. Ancient Epic Poetry. Wauconda: Bolchazy-Carducci. 2006.

Brockett, Oscar G. History of the Theater. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1968.

Blake, Steve and Lloyd, Scott. The Keys to Avalon: The compelling journey to the real Kingdom of Arthur. London: Random House. 2000.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press.1949.

Clark, Tony. The official Morgan Llywelyn website. 2000. Collected 5/27/06 from http://home.columbus.rr.com/tony777/

Drout, Michael D. C., Professor. Bard of the Middle Ages: the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Recorded Books. 2005.

Flaherty, Barbara. Power and word: Shamanic roots of the Bardic tradition. (n.d.) With permission. Collected 5/17/06 from http://home.gci.net/~barbaraflahertypoetry/id22.htm

Halsall, Paul. Medieval Sourcebook: The Song of Roland. Collected 5/23/06 from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roland-ohag.html

Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terence. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: University Press. 1983.

Joyce, P. W. A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd. 1908.

Llywelyn, Morgan. Bard, the odyssey of the Irish. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1984. Also personal email, 11/27/06.

Loebel-Fried, Karen. The gift of KÜ. Collected 5/15/06 from http://www.spiritoftrees.org/folktales/loebel_fried/gift_of_ku.html

King, Wellington. Heinrich Schliemann: Heroes and Mythos. Collected 5/23/06 from http://www.utexas.edu/courses/wilson/ant304/biography/arybios97/kingbio.html

Matthews, John. The Bardic Source Book: Inspirational legacy and teachings of the ancient Celts. London: Blandford. 1998.

Pellowski, Anne. The World of Storytelling. Bronx: H.W. Wilson. 1990.

Rees, Alwyn and Brinley. Celtic Heritage. London: Thames and Hudson. 1961.
Ross, Anne. Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconography and Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press. 1967.

Rowan, Arthur. The Lore of the Bard. St. Paul: Llewellyn. 2003.

Thompson, William Irwin. The Imagination of an Insurrection. New York: Harper & Row. 1967.

Uqualla. Performance 11/20/05, and personal conversations at various times.

O’Driscoll, Robert. The Celtic Consciousness. Papers first presented at a symposium in Toronto, 1978, by Celtic Arts of Canada. New York: Braziller. 1981.

Yeats, William Butler. 1973. Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland. New York: Collier.

THIS IS A NONPARTISAN JOKE THAT CAN BE ENJOYED BY BOTH PARTIES!
NOT ONLY THAT?
It is POLITICALLY CORRECT!!

While walking down the street one day a US Senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," says the man.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity."

"Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the senator.

"I'm sorry, but we have our rules."

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down,down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him. Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne. Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go. Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises.....

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.

"Now it's time to visit heaven."

So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity."

The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: "Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I thinkI would be better off in hell."

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above. The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.

"I don't understand," stammers the senator. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning......Today you voted."

Welcome to my world!

Questions, comments, discussion openers appreciated.

Only thing I request is to refrain from profanity. It's demanding, I know, using the rest of one's vocabulary, but in the long run it makes us all better communicators. Besides, when a Bad Word slips out of my mouth, my long-since-passed-over grandmother shows up in my dream, washing my mouth out with soap. Sometimes, I can still taste it when I wake up. It's not worth having to go through that, simply by being lazy with my word choices.

Ready? Discuss! --MaryK