Bardic Freedom (was RE: Hail Poetry!)

[Mike Baker]

Having retrieved a copy of my paper from the depths of a car not unloaded 
since Memorial Day weekend....Quoting from my own work:

"An ancient British law held three classes of employment ('professions') to 
be free from slavery: smiths, scholars of languages, and bards.  'When once 
the smith had entered a smithy, the scholar had been polled [?], or the bard 
had composed a song, they could never more be deprived of their freedom.'" 
<directly quotation here taken from W. Winwood Reade, _The Veil of Isis, or 
Mysteries of the Druids_, Newcastle Publishing reprint [original pub. info. 
not given in reprint], 1992, pg. 83>

I find that I do not have my original notes on this section of the paper at 
hand, but certainly suspect (A) that the supporting sources I referenced may 
indeed have (mis?)quoted the Hywel Dda-era law _or_ (B) I relied primarily 
upon the single source in combination with oral & general tradition to 
provide corroboration.  In this particular case, I would especially cite the 
generally accepted bard-right of "free passage".

In examining the differences between sources here, "scholar" and "clerk" 
appear to have been transposed by time and culture.  Prior to the impact of 
the Christian structure, I will suggest that the "polling" of a scholar may 
be the equivalent of oral examination for a thesis; taking of vows in the 
Christian ecclesiastical system becomes the analogue of the (presumably) 
earlier practice.  Alternatively, and I certainly admit to a degree of 
guesswork here, could "polling" infer acceptance of the tonsure?

I grieve the more that I will not be able to attend 3YC and so will miss 
your scheduled talk.  Will you perhaps be in attendance at Westercon this 
year?  (First occasion that springs to mind where our physical paths might 
cross . . .)

Being only recently arrived in this forum, and since you've mentioned it 
twice now in recent traffic, allow me to ask (with only a slight amount of 
humour implied) "Journal? There is an English-language *journal* on these, 
or at least related, matters?"  How would I perhaps obtain order information 
for same?

Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard)  s.k.a. Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri 
al-Amra
     currently residing in Barony of the Steppes, Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mike C. Baker                      mbaker at rapp.com
Any opinions expressed are obviously my own unless explicitly stated 
otherwise!