minstrel: bardic sources?

[Mike Baker]

Hannah asked gently of us:

> Anyway, I was wondering if you all have any suggestions of books or
> articles about what a bard of the Middle Ages or renaissance would
> have been like, or any stories one might have told.
> I'm especially interested in documents actually written during the Middle
> Ages and Renaissance, but also in modern books compiled about it. Although
> I'm not in the SCA,  I'd like to know more about minstrels, and maybe 
learn
> to do some history alive presentations. (I've already done a little
> storytelling with my folk harp, but I'd like to be able to have more
> historical background if I ever came in character as a bard.)

Hannah, I've already seen Tangwystl's and Mikal's replies to your 
question(s).  I'll try not to duplicate too much, and still provide some 
source identifications that I have personally found helpful.

Fiction: Morgan Llewellyn has gifted us with an approachable, readable tale 
in the novel _Bard_.  As long as you keep firmly in mind that this *is* a 
work of modern fiction, this book can provide a basic background that seems 
to be consistent with most of what we know about pre-Christian "Irish" 
(Celtic) bards from "druidic" areas.

Non-Fiction: _The White Goddess_ by Graves is often used as a starting 
point, and should lead the serious student to Frazier's _Golden Bough_ as 
well. I am myself currently revising a semi-scholarly paper on the subject 
of trying to define the nature of bard, and expect the next release to be 
ready before year's end. Another source already available by ftp would be 
the article "On Bards and Bardic Circles", which should be part of The Black 
Book of Locksley. (Apologies, the URL reference I have on hand is out of 
date.)

Material: For songs and poems, try to find a copy of Locksley's Black Book 
(there are traditional and modern materials represented, including many 
items specific to the SCA & Current Middle Ages). Other venerable sources 
include The Mabinogion, The Cattle-Raid of Cooley (Tain bo Cualgne, primary 
source of stories about Cuchuchlainn), the tales of Ossian that give us 
knowledge of the Fenian, the Song of Amergin, the ballads of Robin Hood as 
first set down in collections of "pastoral" poetry, the myths and legends of 
all Europe, and beyond.  Expect to settle for translations and re-tellings 
for the most part. One available compendium is _Mythology of the Celtic 
People_ by Charles Squire, first published as _Celtic Myth & Legend: Poetry 
& Romance_ in the year 1912ce. It is a work that suffers and glories in 
being a survey only, and is reduced to presenting only a bare outline of 
many of the most famous Irish tales (sufficient to build a tale around, 
certainly, but lacking in even the available details that have survived into 
the modern age).

We are told that an Irish Ollav had a minimum of 12 thousand lines of poetry 
committed to memory in order to win such a title at the height of the 
pre-Christian culture that sustained him, and the Ollav was accorded rank 
the equal of a king or queen for doing so. Of his (or her) knowledge in 
less-formal tales, little evidence has survived.  But great stores of myth 
remain!  (A modern "lesser" bard such as the Shanachie, or story-teller, 
typically has at least 300 traditional tales on hand.)

By now, I am certain that Hannah realizes a little better the breadth of the 
question she asked, and the questions behind her relatively simple one. As 
Mistress Tangwystl wisely notes, we have no single definite archetype that 
we can point to and say "This is a bard" *unless* we identify the time and 
place and people associated with the definition.

There is at least one double aspect which still may divide modern bards, 
singers, poets, and the like: how much of the bardic definition depends upon 
functions beyond those of entertainment and historian / genealogist, and 
what other names are equal or closely-equivalent to "bard"? Personally, I 
agree with those who include a mystic, magic, or spiritual component to the 
bard's purview. The closest I have seen to a general definition that applies 
in most of the pre-Christian (and many post-conversion) societies that 
maintained bards, regardless of the actual name used to identify the role, 
is a quote from an Irish grandmother.  (Not mine, but Robert Osman's 
grandmother Jane Evans, by all accounts as fine an example of the people of 
Inniskillin, Ireland as ever crossed over the sea to America; she has been 
in her grave these eighteen years now and I know her words only as preserved 
by her grandson. May the Powers bless her memory.):
 "A Bard works magic with his music and music with his magic."

Others see no magic, and acknowledge none.  At least some few of us in the 
modern world believe otherwise.

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! 

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