Dear people 

One of the reasons we used the term Bard in the beginning is that we 
had some evidence that the word had been used in a general sort of 
way. The master bard of Ireland and even the journey man were part of 
the establish colleges, but there were independent performers who 
wandered around. The book I found this info in called them bards. The 
term was used in a looser format than the official terms of the 
colleges. When the colleges died their terms disappeared but the term 
bard stayed. Unfortunately the books I found this information are 
long gone and they were in English. This makes me wonder what the 
term was in the original language. 

I know I once found a reference that if a individual could convince 
people he was a "bard" for a year a serf or slave was declared free. 
The term "bard" was used to self trained person not a college trained 
person. 

We choose to use the term "bard" because it was used to describe self 
trained people. 

But I agree that using the term to describe oneself does imply an 
attempt to do some of the duties. That is why I think people who are 
following a different pathway might want to look into the terms that 
reflect their culture. 

I can't spell her name. Sway shawn shawn?? wants to be a Chinese 
Fool. There is no European word that means the same thing. European 
Fools sometimes did similar jobs but the Chinese Fool is just 
different. 

I also think by describing ourselves with all the different terms and 
then so of explaining what is the differences we will educate people 
in all the different ways of looking at performers. I think this will 
open windows for lots of us. 

I see no problem is using the general word Bard and Bardic. I just 
think it might be nice for us to expand individually into all the 
nook and corners of the cultures we are studying. I think it would be 
great if we used the terms that best suited our personas.
Willow
 

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