[Bards] What is a bard?
Jay Rudin
rudin at ev1.net
Mon Jan 7 21:14:14 PST 2008
Master Ulf wrote:
> I think the biggest hindrance here is the word "bard". An historical
> title was given to an action happening in the S.C.A. many years ago and
> we are trying to retro-document the term to apply to the action.
In the SCA? No -- the difference between the modern English word "bard"
and the Celtic word "bardd" has nothing to do with the SCA. We just speak
English, that's all. The word "bard" has a modern meaning in English that
is not the same as the etymologically related word "bardd" in the Celtic
languages. It primarily means a poet, playwright or singer in the
language we are actually speaking in. The linguistic dissonance is coming
from the simple fact that we are speaking a twenty-first century language
in a pre-seventeenth century environment.
Using "bard" in the SCA without its modern meaning would be like saying
that a stately, lordly and impressive king is pompous and boring, or that
anyone who can't speak Greek is barbaric. Yeah, that's what "pompous" and
"boring" and "barbaric" originally meant, but etymology is not definition,
or "digital computing" would meaning counting on your fingers. Any of
these usages in a modern English sentence would be a deliberate attempt to
prevent communication.
> I found the use of the term "Kumquat" hilarious and an appropriate
> illustration of this. About the closest term that works is
> "performer"... well, no. Some bards write poetry for their newsletter
> and never perform it. Hmmm... Okay, I'm a Kumquat. But I cannot think
> of anyway to tell if I'm a third degree banana kumquat or a double
> raspberry kumquat. But I do get asked to perform for several bananas
> and sometimes get a raspberry or two.
And you'll keep on performing, kumquat may.
Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
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