[Elfsea] FWD: [Bards] So, what's a Goliard, really?
an angel in black ink
angelinblackink at yahoo.com
Sun Jun 8 02:14:43 PDT 2008
((Xue: I didn't use the wikipedia definition, I used our SCA version's definition. Please forgive me for any confusion. Oh and thank you for the links, i had only a few of them and am still perusing them to be sure I didn't miss anything in my studies. ^_^))
"From: an angel in black ink <angelinblackink at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Bards] War & Goliards
>I would first like to state that the Goliards were European performers and
>writers who, were dissatisfied with the Church. They performed and wrote
>Latin satire to goad the individuals they targeted into rethinking their
>motives and actions and scorned the incorrect actions that the target had
>committed. "
Mneh, among many other things, they did some of that, I suppose, yeah...Oh!
I see you've used the Wikipedia definition. DAN-GER, WILL RO-BIN-SON!
Wikipedia is notoriously unreliable due to its open structure: anyon can
edit an entry, whether they know anything about the subject or not. Though
I see this definition "incorporates text" from the Encyclopedia Britannica,
I'd say it's rather restrictive and oddly biased in favor of the clerical
aspect of Goliardism. Technically many of the Goliards *were* clergy,
because in many cases University students were "sworn in" as lay brothers.
Why, I'm not sure: something bureaucratic I suppose. But that doesn't mean
they were reformist priests, as the definition implies.
>This is a documented movement
Yeah but...they weren't a troupe of dedicated satirists sworn to improve
society.
Which, if that's the way you want to interpret them in the SCA, is great: go
for it! Ansteorra's College of Bards was nothing like the Welsh Bardic
College (either of today or of the period). But it was fun anyway.
Here's some info that I found online--which you should take with a grain of
salt, because I found it online. Still, I think you'll find these entries
converge on a meaning of "goliard" somewhat different from what Wikipedia
puts forward:
Merriam-Webster online
": a wandering student of the 12th or 13th century given to the writing of
satiric Latin verse and to convivial living and minstrelsy"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/goliards
Dictionary-Die.net
"a wandering scholar in medieval Europe; famed for intemperance and riotous
behavior and the composition of satirical and ribald Latin songs."
http://dictionary.die.net/goliard
A pretty good overview from About.com...hmm, check Melissa Snell's "About"
page. I wonder: is their Medieval authority an Ansteorran?
http://historymedren.about.com/od/music/p/goliards.htm
Look here's an SCA College of St. Golias, in the Outlands apparently:
http://infohost.nmt.edu/~golias/goliard.html
(Lotsa good link in the above)
Anyway...good luck with your endeavor: I hope the above links give you some
ideas about where to go with it.
--Cadfan
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