minstrel: Bards (was Cecily's ideas) - longish

[hrjones at socrates.berkeley.edu]

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998 yarrowp at mscd.edu wrote:
> >From Tangwystyl:
> (Vivien):>> Actually, no.  The Welsh triads mention "harp bards" as
well as 
> the
> >> poet variety.
> 
> >I'm not familiar with the use of this phrase in period Welsh works on
> >bards and the performing arts, although goodness knows, I haven't read
> >_all_ the primary sources on the topic.  
<snippage>
> Well, I didn't find the specific quote I was recalling, which suggests I 
> may have another source lurking in the shadowy depths of the bookcase, but 
> here's the relevant material from Jones*:

Here I'm going to snip and rearrange the original comments slightly:

> translations are a tad cute.  Jones appears to have drawn his "Bardic 
> Triads" from multiple sources; some are numbered; some are specifically 
> mentioned as "extracted from a copy of _The Ancient British Triads fo the 
> Island of Britain_; some are simply tagged "literally translated from an 
> ancient Welsh Manuscript_.  There are footnotes that refer to such 
> documents as ap Huw and the Myrvyrian Archeology.  Apologies for any typos; 

The ap Huw manuscript dates to around the end of period -- it includes a
copy of the earlier "Statute of Gruffudd ap Cynan" (which, despite its
name, dates to nowhere _near_ the 12th century reign of Gruffudd ap Cynan)
which includes a good chunk of the same sort of triad material included in
the bardic grammars.

The Myvyrian Archaeology is considerably more problematic. While the
collection was one of the earliest printed (and thus widely-disseminated)
anthologies of medieval Welsh poetry, the editor also included a large
body of work by the notorious 18th century antiquarian-forger Edward
Williams (Iolo Morgannwg). This can make it difficult to determine whether
any particular item in it is genuinely ancient or a contemporary forgery.
(Mind you, this is "forgery" only in the sense that the material was being
passed off as medieval -- by rights, Williams ought to be remembered today
as a talented poet, rather than as the man who single-handedly muddied the
waters of Welsh literary history.)

> Tri Amherodraidd Delynorion Ynys Prydain:
> Arthur; Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr; a
> Chrella, Bardd Telyn Gruffydd ab Cynan
> 
> (Jones translates: The Three Imperial performers on the harp, of the Island 
> of Britain:  King Arther; Glewlwyd Gavaelvawr, and Crella, Bard of the Harp 
> to Prince Griffith ab Cynan)

Interesting -- "Crella" would appear to the identified with the "Gellan
telynor pencerdd" (i.e., harper, song-chief) mentioned in the 13th century
biography of Gruffudd ap Cynan. The other two are, of course, figures from
older Arthurian literature. A brief glance through the Statute of Gruffudd
ap Cynan doesn't turn up this particular triad, but the connection could
explain the rather odd insertion of Crella into a context of this sort.

> Tri Barnwyr Gwlad:
> Bardd Telyn y Brenin;
> Bardd Tad y Brenin; ac
> Arwyddfardd y Llys
> 
> (The three judges of a country:
> The harp-bard of the king;
> The king's father's bard; and
> The herald of the palace)

I have to wonder a little at the translation of "Bardd Tad y Brenin" as
"the king's father's bard". While it could literally be interpreted that
way, it doesn't fit with the usual distribution of attributes (see next).

> Tri Bardd Caw y fydd:
> Telynfardd; Cywyddfardd; ac Arwyddfardd.
> 
> (The three privileged bards, or Family Recorders:
> The Harp Bard; the Poetic Bard; and the Genealogical, or Heraldic Bard.)

"Bardd Caw" is understood in earlier sources as simply "skilled bard" --
there's nothing in the original that corresponds to the translator's
"Family Recorders". The earliest surviving example (as given in the Univ. 
of Wales Dictionary) of the word "arwyddfardd" (lit. 'armory-bard') is
from a manuscript ca. 1566 with a triad somewhat parallel to this one:
"Tri bardd y sydd: prifardd, posvardd arwyddvardd", that is, "there are
three bards: chief-bard, ?-bard, and herald-bard". (I'm not certain enough
of "posvardd" to suggest an interpretation.)

The association of bards with genealogy is fairly ancient, and their
interest in heraldry, when that became popular among the native Welsh
nobility, is not at all surprising. But the rise of the "herald-bard"
belongs to the mid-16th century (see, for example, Michael Powell Siddons'
"The Development of Welsh Heraldry") and so post-dates the period when
there was still any significant connection with the earlier social
functions of bards as a class. That is, as the "bard as household poet"
bell out of fashion in favor of the "amateur gentlemen bards", other
functions such as genealogy and heraldry gained more prominence in the
common understanding of what the term covered.

Given that, the above triad appears to belong (at earliest) to the period
when the term "bard" (in Welsh) was losing its traditional associations
with the composition and performance of verse, and was spreading to cover
a number of functions not previously associated with it. Given this, I
think my original assessment (now snipped) that the Welsh "bardd" was
normally understood as verse-related still stands pretty solidly. Despite
the appearance of compounds such as "arwyddfardd", one would not consider
heraldry to be a usual part of the understanding of the basic term
"bardd", but rather an added function that some bards might indulge in.
And I think the same can be applied to "telynfardd".

> In a footnote, Jones adds:  "In another copy I find it thus:  'There are 
> three privileged persons who frequent palaces:  The Ensign, or Genealogical 
> Bard; The Bard of the Harp; and the Bard of the Crwth.'"  He does not give 
> the Welsh for this.

Interestingly, here the basic function of "bard as composer of verse" is
omitted entirely. But the inclusion of the herald-bard places this
strongly in the second half of the 16th century or later. The reference to
"frequenting palaces" is either an inflation of the houses of the Welsh
gentry to "palaces" or an anachronistic projection of the function of
herald-bard to a much earlier era.

> *Unfortunately, I do not have access to Jones' original.  Quoted in  _The 
> Bardic Museum, or Primitive British Literature; and Other Admirable 
> Rarities; Froming the Second Volume of the Musical, Poetical, and 
> Historical Relicks of the Welsh Bards and Druids:  Drawn from Authentic 
> Documents of Remote Antiquity; (with Great Pains Now Rescued from Oblivion,
> ) and Never Before Published:  Containing, The Bardic Triads; Historic 

Ah you've gotta love the faith of those antiquarians in the "remote
antiquity" of their sources! While the Pre-Raphaelites and Victorian
Romantics are one of the most fascinating _English_ sources to study for
the emotional roots of the SCA, for _Welsh_ sources, you want to look at
the late 18th century with the rise of the Honourable Society of
Cymmrodorion, and the whole-cloth "re-invention" of the Eisteddfod and
Gorsedd of Bards by Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams) which, with its
neo-druidical symbolism probably shouldn't be discounted as an emotional
precursor to modern neo-paganism as well.

But people in the late 18th century who spoke of "documents of remote
antiquity" might easily be speaking of nothing much earlier than the
products on late 16th century antiquarians in turn. And while he may have
believed sincerely in the great antiquity of the tunes he collected, it's
pretty clear that this was the antiquity of "I collected this from an old
harper in a backwoods village who said he'd learned it from _his_
grandfather". Many of the tunes in Jones's collection are demonstrably
nothing more than the popular compositions of the 17th century.

Some day, I'd love to do an 18th century re-creation event just so that
all those wonderful early collections of Welsh harp music can be presented
in their _proper_ setting!

Tangwystyl

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WAS <hrjones at uclink.berkeley.edu>
NOW IS <hrjones at socrates.berkeley.edu>
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