Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts - Rodney Castleden - Страница 44

A class of poets, like the minstrels of the Middle Ages, specializing in popular and non-religious subjects. They were distinct from ovates or vates, a class of priest with a focus on composing and performing prophetic poetry. Bards had a particular and recognized place in society.

Posidonius describes an incident involving a bard:

When at length he fixed a day for the ending of the feast, one of their barbarian poets arrived too late. The poet met Luernius [or Luernios, King of the Arverni] and composed a song magnifying his greatness and deploring his own late arrival. Luernius was delighted and asked for a bag of gold and threw it to the poet who ran beside his chariot. The poet picked it up and sang another song saying that the very tracks made by his chariot on the ground gave gold and blessings to mankind.

The bards also had a public role in disseminating myths and genealogies amongst the ordinary people. There were different grades of bard, the lowest of which was the novice, or Mabinog.