The Way of the Bard

By Brian Cook
The Welsh have a proverb, *Cas athro heb amenydd*, "Hateful is a teacher with no
patience". Certainly this would have been applicable to the bards of their
Celtic ancestors, whose training lasted a solid twelve years.
The bard was primarily a poet and story-teller, but, as literacy was virtually n
il among ancient Celts, he also took over the duties of scribe, historian, and g
enealogist. As such, with so influential a position in Celtic society, bards wer
e painstakingly trained, as this Irish example will illustrate:
The student passed from Ollaire [principle-beginner] to Tamhan [poet's tea boy]
to Drisac [apprentice satirist] in his first year of training. He also learnt th
e basics of bardic knowledge: grammar, the Ogham alphabet, and twenty short stor
ies. The next four years were spent learning another forty stories, twelve philo
sophy courses, innumerable poems, various laws, and some grammar. Next the stude
nt graduated to the level of Cli [pillar], learning 48 poems and another twenty
stories. For the next three years the Cli was also an Anruth [noble stream], lea
rning 95 stories, prosody, glosses, auguries, and poetic meters. In his final th
ree years the Cli became an Ollamh [doctor of poetry], learning 100 poems, 120 o
rations, and four poetic arts.
The bardic schools were conducted by the Chief Poet and his attendants; and all
of those 350 stories and 150-odd poems had to be learnt by rote. (Some things ne
ver change, it seems.) Accommodation was spartan, and lessons were often conduct
ed in darkness. Incidentally, modern psychologists have found that darkness may
in fact be conducive to memorization.
The way of the bard was not an easy one, but once he achieved his
tatus he was one of the most respected members of Celtic society.
Wales the common folk respect the poet far more than one of mere
litical influence: to win the chair at the National Eisteddfod is
atest honour in the country.

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