ANST - bards/parasites question
Decker, Terry D.
TerryD at Health.State.OK.US
Tue Feb 9 09:23:24 PST 1999
> maybe the reason the celts called the bards parasites was that not all
> bards served one master. some made their living by going from town to
> town. they were the one's who carried the news about wars and battles,
<snipped>
> km
>
It was clear from the original quotes, that bards were not considered
parasites. Also, it was not the Celts who used the term parasite. It was
Atheneaus, a Greek, who used the term in referring to what he observed of
the Celts.
You are also confusing bards and minstrels. In Irish culture, a travelling
bard was treated as an honored guest. Failing to treat a bard with proper
respect was a sure way to blacken your reputation as the weapons of the bard
were words, which have a longer reach than any spear. A bard would
entertain for the pleasure of his craft, for the delight of people, as a
courtesy, or to teach a lesson, but the entertaining was done by the bard's
will, not the will of the people with whom he sheltered. A minstrel was a
travelling entertainer of no import other than the hospitality due any
traveller and his ability to entertain.
If you wish to learn more of the nature of bards, I would commend to you a
discussion of the subject with HL Fionnagan, a bard whose ransom is 120
cumal.
Bear
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