bard

bard [Ir. and ScG bard; W bardd; Bret. barzh; cf. L bardus; Gk. bārdos]. The current standard English definition of this Celtic word, denoting a poet of exalted status, i.e. the voice of a nation or people, dates from Thomas Gray's use of it in his poem ‘The Bard’ (1757). Although Gray's borrowing of the word seems to owe most to Welsh tradition, the role and status of the bard varied from one Celtic nation to another. Among the ancient Continental Celts, according to Roman commentators, the bards were singers and poets who occupied a lower status than the vates (interpreters of sacrifice) or the druids, who commanded the highest esteem. In Ireland the bard held a lower rank in the seven orders of fili [poet], of which the highest was the ollam; the bard had not mastered the 350 stories and twelve years of study required to become an ollam. In Wales the power and high position of the bard preceded and outlasted that of hereditary princes. The earliest bards, dating from the 6th century, included Aneirin, Taliesin, Blwchbardd, Cian, and Talhearn Tad Awen; they were known as the cynfeirdd [W, early or original poets], and their poetry as hengerdd. In following centuries, only the pencerdd [W, chief poet or musician], whose training lasted nine years, was allowed to teach a bard in Wales. In time Welsh bards formed the Bardic Order or Bardd Teulu [W, household poet, poet of retinue], serving kings and princes for more than 1,000 years, forming a distinct segment of society with its own privileges. A bard might have assumed the role of the cyfarwydd [W, storyteller], although this is not certain. Great assemblies of bards began as early as 1176; the assembly later became known as eisteddfod. A great flowering of Welsh bardic poetry came in the 12th and 13th centuries, concurrent with the zenith of native political power before the Anglo-Norman conquest. Bards of this time were known as gogynfeirdd [W, rather early poets]. Elements of Welsh bardic philosophy were mixed with Christian belief by Llywelyn Siôn in Barddas (late 16th cent.); see COSMOGONY. The 18th-century Iolo Morganwg placed the seat of bardism in Glamorganshire in south Wales. In Gaelic Scotland a bard was a highly trained poet in the service of an hereditary chief. Bards were generally men of considerable status and authority in Celtic literature, although impoverished bardic scholars appear in a number of Irish narratives.

More than 1,000 bards are cited in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh literatures, and there are numerous claimants to the titles of ‘Bard of Ireland’ and ‘Bard of Wales’. Perhaps Amairgin and Dallán Forgaill were denoted by ‘Bard of Ireland’ more often than others. The title ‘Last of the Bards’ has been given posthumously to several poets, notably Fearflatha Ó Gnímh (c.1540–c.1640), bard of the O'Neills of Clandeboye, and Dòmhnall Mac Mhuirich (d. c.1745), the last with classical rather than vernacular training.