Bard

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For other meanings of the word, see Bard (disambiguation).

A bard is a poet or singer, in religious or feudal contexts.

1 Etymology
2 Uses
3 See also
4 External links

Etymology

The word is a loanword from Proto-Celtic *bardos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *g^werh₂: "to raise the voice; praise". The word entered the West Germanic languages twice. The first recorded example is in 1449 from the Scottish Gaelic language into the Scots Language, denoting an itinerant musician, usually with a contemptuous connotation. A Scots ordnance of ca. 1500 orders that "All vagabundis, fulis, bardis, scudlaris, and siclike idill pepill, sall be brint on the cheek". The word subsequently entered the English language via Scottish English.

Secondly, in medieval Welsh and Irish society, a bard (Irish bard, Welsh bardd) was a professional poet, employed to compose eulogies for his lord (see planxty). If the employer failed to pay the proper amount, the bard would then compose a satire. (c. f. fili, fáith). In other European societies, the same function was fulfilled by skalds, rhapsodes, minstrels, etc. During the era of Romanticism, when knowledge of Celtic culture was overlaid by legends and fictions, the word was reintroduced into the West Germanic languages, this time directly into the English language, in the sense of "lyric poet", idealised by writers such as the Scottish romantic novelist Sir Walter Scott. The word was taken from Latin bardus, Greek bardos, in turn loanwords from the Gaulish language, describing a class of Celtic priest (c. f. druid, vates). From this romantic use came the epitheton The Bard applied to William Shakespeare and Robert Burns.

In medieval Ireland it was common for there to exist "Bardic" schools. Though the primary function of these schools was Gaelic education, they also helped preserve the Gaelic tradition of learning by default until well into the 17th century before Ireland finally adapted to the notion of university scholarship.<references /> The Making of Modern Ireland, J. C. Beckett.

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Uses

In modern Wales the Gorsedd of Bards is a society whose honorary membership is those who have done great things for Wales.

In the 20th Century, the word lost much of its original connotation of Celtic revivalism or Romanticism, and could refer to any professional poet or singer, sometimes in a mildly ironic tone. In the Soviet Union, singers who were outside the establishment were called bards from the 1960s.

Bards make up one of the three grades of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, a Neo-Druidic order based in England.

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