Pause: Bards and the Anti-bard

Colorful figures roamed old Ireland and Wales. They appeared at the festivals. They strummed their harps and sang stories of heroes and kings. The people called these singers "bards."

Everyone, high-born and low, listened to their songs and remembered their stories. They revered the best singers and listened to them in rapt attention. Why? Was it just to divert themselves, to find respite in fantasy from their work-a-day world? Certainly, they found the epics entertaining, a clever conceit amused them as haunting melody enchanted. But they were also learning, remembering.

The bards helped everyone recall their origins as a tribe and as a people. They sang of legendary founders, of powerful rulers. In singing their songs they reminded people of those virtues held sacred by their ancestors: courage in warriors, wisdom in rulers, faith in one…

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