Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Bardic Schools
- Height 13th - 17th C
- Universities of their day
- Eleanor Knott only body of
contemporary Irish
literature
- Allowed students and teachers to gain
privilege and status
- Bardic poet part of the educated class
- The most distinctive aspects of Gaelic Irish society
- tradition - restrict certain professions to certain
families
- Hereditary bardic families ran schools of
history and poetry
- Once trained in their trade, sought the
patronage of powerful clans
- Gaelic society - lineage and status NB for
land and power
- patronage of hereditary bardic families
was NB for ambitious lords
- preserve the memory of great men and
great deeds of the past
- expected to write praise poems about
their patrons
- raise their patron’s to a similarly heroic level
- Patronised by both Gaelic and Anglo Irish lords
(Fitzgerald and Butler)
- Official English documents..."generosus"
- English LD, Sir John Perrot, commissioned Irish bards to
“adorn and beautify the virtue of the English monarch”
- The English poet, Edmund Spencer, commented that the
bardic poems were “of sweet wit and good invention”
- Bardic poet = part of the educated elite
- held in high esteem
- Poems of the bardic schools =
unique - purpose and discipline
- composition and metre
- noted for their skill and intricacy
- highly technical work of the professional learned class
- schools from which they came were of great social and cultural importance
- Celebrated hereditary bardic families
conducted bardic schools for several
generations
- central figure of the bardic school was the
ollamh or professor
- When he moved the school went with him
- Often went on circuits from chieftain to chieftain
- Memoirs of the Marquis of Clanrickard - 18th C
- info on the structure and operation of schools
- Admission confined - those descended from poets
- or who had “the reputation for poetic learning and talent”
- Poets of the bardic schools were both born and made
- qualifications first required were; reading well,
writing the mother-tongue and a strong memory
- Training took place in residential schools
- during the winter months from the
beginning of November until the end
of March
- When the cuckoo’s voice was heard the school
broke and the students returned to their homes.
- Learning process was rigorous
and exacting
- involved years of
intense training
- lasted between 7 and 12 years
- Students tested with examinations, divided
into classes according to their abilities
- Aspiring bards studied history, law, language and literature
- Taught to compose poetry in
various rigid metre
- Committed genealogies and sagas
to memory
- Learned the skills of praising patrons
- Bardic schools were “far out of
the reach of any noise”.
- buildings were snug, low and hot
- Without much furniture except a
table and some seats
- No windows let in the light except from candles
- Ollamh would give the students a topic
- worked on topics alone then committed them to writing
- Ollamh decided...students move on new topic or rework first attempt
- Saturday and eve of festivals students went among the people
- People entertained them and gave them hospitality
- people also provided for schools with provisions
- Completion of intense training and being
considered accomplished
- Bardic poet set about travelling through Ireland
- With their wealth of scholarship and literary sophistication
- Sought out the patronage of chieftains who would support them
- Bardic poetry = highly valued instrument for maintaining family reputations
- Commodities that could be bought and sold
- Important chiefs saw them as fashionable portraits in verse
- conferred status and they could bring quick profits for the poet
- poet’s trade to flatter and his livelihood
depended on the rewards for his efforts
- Patronage system required him to “record in good metre” a record
- marriages, births, deaths, exploits and
achievements of his patron and his family
- Career pinnacle = become the chief poet
of a great lord
- Bard praised patron’s hospitality, bravery
and wisdom
- Bard might receive land, rent free, as a reward for
compositions
- Relationship between poet and patron was strong
- Prime position the poet held during the
inauguration of his chief
- Also acted as a chief’s advisor
- Bards = very powerful...chiefs rewarded them well
- Battle rolls and lists of victories
also recorded
- rarely names of defeated families included
- preserved relations between poet and any other
chief they might one day come to depend
- O’Dálaigh described the function of the
bardic poet with an amount of cynicism
- “In poetry for the English we promise that the Gael shall be
banished from Ireland. While in poetry for the Gaels we promise
the English shall be hunted across the sea”
- lords also feared the poet’s power of satire
- A poet’s disapproval expressed in verse was much feared
- The bard would run some risk for
his satire
- Lord might deprive bard of land
- turn him in to a homeless exile
- not exclusively attached to a
single chief or family
- Tadhg Dall O’hUiginn...land from Cathal O’Conner of Sligo
- Brought him to the attention of more powerful chiefs such
as the O’Donnell and the O’Neill
- Tadgh Dall lived at the high point of the
bardic tradition
- Knott....a better representative of Irish bardic poetry could
not be found
- Verses show a mastery for forms and
style which has rarely been excelled
- Met his end as a result of his satire
- Accused O’Hara’s of abusing his
hospitality in one of his poems
- took offence and cut out his tongue
- When addressing a lord other than his
own he would include a stanza in praise of the latter
- preserved by the family of the chief being
addressed
- not uncommon for the additional stanza
to be omitted by the transcriber
- Every family would keep collections
of the elegies of its members
- Size of lord’s poem book or Dúanaire = indicator
of generosity and prowess
- obituaries...size of the deceased Dúanaire = commented on.
- English officials credited bardic poets with
power for mischief
- Offered advice but also gave
offence and provocation
- commented on arrival of newcomers and the
reception, hospitable or hostile, that they received
- Knott questioned political power...claims it has been over rated
- Changes in bardic poetry offer insight into changes in Gaelic society
- 16th C poetry = proud and
confident
- Anti-poet statute in 1549
- LD, John Perrot decreed “all bards, rhymers and common idle men are to
be spoiled of all their goods and to be put in stocks until they leave that
wicked trade and fall to another occupation”
- Suffered after Flight of the Earls
- Period of plantation many bards went down market
- less attention on strict rules of metre
- Hawked wares to wider audience to survive
- 17th C tone and content changed
- lamented passing of the
great houses and their own influence
- Collapse of the old Gaelic order
- doomed the bardic schools to closure
- Once enjoyed many privileges
- Belonged to the social elite
- Patrons dispossessed
- Became impoverished
- Proud embittered vagabonds