BARD. 



281 



isard. over a H his other officers, and employed tlicm in ne- 

 """> gociation3 of the greatest importance. Haco, earl 



of Norway, in i celebrated engagement against the 

 warriors of Tomsburg, was attended by five bards, 

 each of whom animated the courage of the soldiers, 

 when about to engage, by a war song. Mention is 

 made by Saxo-Grammaticus, in his description of a 

 battle between Waldemar and Sueno, of a scald or 

 bard belonging to the former, who advanced to the 

 front of the army, and, in a pathetic strain of poetry, 

 reproached Sueno for the unnatural murder of his 

 father. Regnar, king of Denmark, was no less dis- 

 tinguished in poetry than in war; and Harald, the 

 valiant, who flourished in the eleventh century, has 

 immortalised himself by a beautiful poem, in which 

 he complains, that, notwithstanding hie numerous at- 

 chievements, he is unable to subdue the scorn of a 

 beauteous Russian princess. 



Among the Celtic nations, the bards enjoyed equal, 

 or still higher honours, and formed a branch of the 

 religious establishment and administration of the 

 state. In the ancient British kingdoms, they enjoy- 

 ed, by law or custom, many honourable distinctions, 

 and valuable privileges. They, as well as the Druids, 

 were exempted from tti>:es and military services, even 

 in times of the greatest danger. Their persons were 

 held sacred and inviolable ; and the most cruel and 

 bloody tyrants dared not to offer them any injury. 

 When they attended their patrons into the field, to 

 record and celebrate their great actions, they had a 

 guard assigned them for their protection ; and at all 

 festivals and public assemblies, they were seated near 

 the king or chieftain, and sometimes even above 

 the greatest nobdity and chief officers of the court. 

 Nor was the profession of the bard less lucrative 

 than it was honourable. For, besides the valuable 

 presents which they occasionally received from their 

 patrons, they had estates in land allotted for their 

 support. Such was the respect in which the bards 

 were held, that, by a law of Howel Dha, it was 

 enacted, that whoever struck any one of this order, 

 must compound for his offence, by paying to the 

 party aggrieved one-fourth more than was necessary 

 to be paid to any other person of the same degree. 



The chronicles of the ancient British states con- 

 tain a store of curious information concerning the 

 original constitution, functions, and privileges of this 

 highly respected order. They seem to have been di- 

 vided into two classes: The first, comprehending the 

 sacred or religious poets, whose office it was to com- 

 pose and sing hymns in honour of the gods ; and to 

 celebrate their peculiar and mysterious religious rites. 

 These were called by the Greeks Eubates, by the Ro- 

 mans Vales, and in their own language Faicls. The 

 second class comprehended the secular poets, who were 

 more peculiarly called bards, and celebrated in song 

 the battles of heroes, and the romantic atchievement3 

 preserved by tradition. The number of these ap- 

 pears to have been very great. In the poems of Os- 

 sian we read of 100 bards belonging to one prince, 

 singing and playing in concert for his entertainment. 

 Every chief bard, who was called Allah Redan, or 

 doctor in poetry, was allowed to have 30 bards of 

 inferior note constantly about his person ; and every 



VOL. in. PART II. 



bard of the second rank was- allowed a retinue of 15 

 poetical disciples. 



It appears that in Wales there was an annual con- 

 gress of the bards, usually held at the royal resi- 

 dence, the sovereign himself presiding in the assem- 

 bly. Here each was assigned a precedence and emo- 

 lument suitable to his merit; but the bard most high- 

 ly distinguished for his talents was solemnly chaired, 

 and honoured with the badge of a silver chain. The 

 bards, properly so called, were distinguished from 

 the Druids, and from the Eubates, or Ovates, by 

 the colour of their dress : they were clad in sky-blue 

 garments, whilst the Druids wore white, and the 

 Ovates green. Their disciples were arrayed in varie- 

 gated garments, consisting of these three colours 

 blended. There were four principal meetings of the 

 bards held in the course of the year; viz. at the two 

 solstices and two equinoxes. The first was at the 

 winter solstice, which was the beginning of their 

 year, and was called Alban Arthan ; the second at 

 the vernal equinox, called Alban Eilir ; the summer 

 solstice, or Alban Hevin ; and the autumnal equinox, 

 or Alban Elvid, following next in order. They as- 

 sembled in circles of unwrought stones, placed so as 

 to be indexes of the seasons, in the open air, and al- 

 ways when the sun was above the horizon ; or, as 

 they expressed it, in the face of the sun, and in the 

 eye of the light. 



From these particulars it is plain, that the institu- 

 tion of bards among the Celtic nations, had some- 

 thing farther in view, than the celebration of heroic 

 atchievements by music and song ; they were the de- 

 positaries of the various kinds of knowledge then 

 prevalent in their tribe, and of the authenticated re- 

 cords of the nation. When writing was unknown, 

 oral tradition was the only method of preserving the 

 memory of what was important ; and the bards were 

 an order of men trained on purpose to accomplish 

 this end, and to deliver knowledge down to posterity 

 in a form calculated at once to arrest the attention, 

 and assist the recollection. In order that nothing 

 should become current without due consideration, 

 whatever was intended to be thus permanently re- 

 corded, was always laid before the grand meetings. 

 It was there discussed with the most scrutinizing se- 

 verity ; if then admitted, it was reconsidered at a se- 

 cond meeting ; and it was not, till it had received the 

 approbation of three successive meetings, or of the 

 triennial supreme convention, that its admission was 

 finally confirmed. At this great assembly, all that 

 had been confirmed at the provincial meetings was 

 recited, for the use of the disciples who were to com- 

 mit it to memory ; and what was thus solemnly rati- 

 fied, was to be recited for ever afterwards ; once at 

 least in every year, in addition to the former bardic 

 traditions. 



Such was the well-organised system for preserving 

 traditionary knowledge, by the institution of the 

 bards, an important branch of the system of Druid- 

 ism, but which seems to have long survived that sys- 

 tem, on account of its extraordinary means and pre- 

 cautions for self-preservation. It has been advanced, 

 and with some appearance of probability, that bard- 

 ism was the parent of free masonry ; a character 

 2n 



Bard. 



