Bards

Transcript

• 00:01

  Here, the bards gather in their traditional robesof white, green, and blue to select and crown the prizewinning poets of the year.For above all, Wales is a land of poetry and song.Prowess in either of these is universally honored.And a Welshman who cannot sing is a contradiction in terms.If you ask a Welsh farmer, for example,

• 00:22

  how many men work for him, don't be surprisedthat the answer is two: a baritone and a tenor.[TRUMPET FANFARE]Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.Land of my Fathers.

• 00:44

  It's not merely a national anthem but alsothe epitome of what Welshmen feel about this land of hillsand mountains which have profoundlyaffected its history.For they have always provided Waleswith a natural defense against attack from outside.The isolation of rugged heights and narrow valleyshas kept the Welsh people, the Welsh culture,

• 01:05

  and the Welsh language alive since the dawnof British history.Through turbulent centuries when might was right.

Bards have been described as family retainers, tradition-bearers, historians, poets, and skilled musicians. Their verses were often eulogic, glorifying the history and military triumphs of their paymasters' families to encourage and inspire their audiences. In preliterate days, bards enjoyed high status as the keepers of such clan or family memories. The history of the bardic role lies in translations and reworkings of texts from the Dark Ages. Some of these texts were in turn sources for early modern writers, not necessarily musicians; it can be difficult to determine precisely what these bards recited and/or played, and translations can vary.

By the late 18th century, bards and minstrels were largely historical figures, but Celtic litterateurs were reluctant to let them sink into obscurity, and the figure of the bard was prominent in Welsh, Irish, and Scottish cultural nationalism, albeit with different emphases. Other European countries—Germany, Finland, and Russia, to name but three—experienced a 19th-century revival of cultural bardism under the influence of James Macpherson's Ossian epics.

Although the figure of the bard perhaps does not enjoy the same widespread popularity as in the long 19th century, it is still of cultural interest today.