Bards+of+the+Middle+Ages

=**Bard**=

Bard, according to Webster's New World Dictionary, is an ancient Celtic poet and singer of epic poems.
As early as the 1st century CE, the Latin author [|Lucan] referred to bards as the national poets or minstrels of Gaul (present day France and Belgium) and Britain. In continental Europe, the institution gradually disappeared, whereas in Ireland and Wales it survived. The Irish bard preserved a tradition of poetic eulogy through chanting. In Wales, where the word //bardd// has always been used for poet, the bardic order was codified (formalized) into distinct grades in the 10th century. Despite a decline of the order toward the end of the European Middle Ages, the Welsh tradition has persisted and is celebrated in the annual [|eisteddfod], a national assembly of poets and musicians.

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= = Bards were paid by their lords to write epic songs of praise, but if they weren't paid—or paid enough—they would write and perform scathing satires of the skinflint monarch!