Featuring David Wiseman
All personal pictures (and main) are from a gathering to hear his renderings on Sunday–St. Valentine’s.
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where does Sam end…..
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and Jamie begin?
The bard who would prosper must carry a book, Do his thinking in prose and wear A crimson cravat, a far-away look And a head of hexameter hair. Be thin in your thought and your body’ll be fat; If you wear your hair long you needn’t your hat.” Ambrose Bierce
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This weekend I gathered for an adventure in music and camaraderie in a condo recreation room by a pool. But what we participated in was an adventure in song that has traditions that go far back in our history not to mention our psyche. Despite the fact that we were surrounded by the refinements of the 21st century we stepped back in time and seated ourselves along with our ancient ancestors in an enjoyment of a troubadour, a man who while he sells his music on CD’s has more in common with our past than many musicians can claim today.
“Oh! blame not the bard.” Thomas More
His name is David Wiseman
https://www.facebook.com/DavidAWisemanda6d/
and he is a minstrel, a poet, perhaps a Bard though a modern one which costs him the status of the ancient ones.
In the Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Ellis): “A bard was a class of poets known throughout the ancient Celtic world. Bards, poets, and minstrels held a high position in Celtic society and were closely associated with the Druids. ….’They sing sometime to the accompaniment of instruments resembling lyres, sometimes a eulogy and sometimes a satire.’ ” It goes on to say that the bards “were highly trained and professional group…the repositories of…history, legend, chieftains and kings…under the patronage of chieftains and kings…Bardic schools flourished in historical Ireland…suppressed in the 17th c.”
The bards sublime, / Whose distant footsteps echo / Through the corridors of Time.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
He comes from a long line of poets and musicians that left their mark through their recorded efforts
In THE DISCOVERY OF KING ARTHUR (ASHE) Bards are described as “prominent figures–entertainers certainly, but a great deal more than that, inheriting some of the Druids’ functions…the authorities on customs, precedents, pedigrees. Their poems, sung to music, extolled their royal patrons and had what would today be called public relations value…”
Two bards, “two poets of lasting fame Taliesin and Aneirin…work survives today..claimed as the oldest poetry in any living language of Europe,,, though their Welsh is not modern….”
I had never gone to one of these small sessions and enjoyed it immensely —there was food and a brass container to put your own generosity.
And the generosity is all part of the tradition which Allen tells us about in LORDS OF BATTLE: THE WORLD OF THE CELTIC WARRIOR: “Also in attendance at the feast were bards and poets who would demonstrate their own craft and learning. They recounted the lineage, bravery and wealth of the host and his ancestors as well as the deeds of legendary heroes. Their songs, however, could either praise or satirize, and fear of losing face in front of the guests encouraged the host to even greater acts of generosity.”
Marion Zimmer Bradley
SO since I’m basically Celtic then and since I’m basically a dreamer, a writer and a historian I sat there and realized the long connection in my soul–the tradition that probably few besides me realized.
“The Bards are singers and poets…artisians…it took years of practice in composition to become….(and having) the power…of satire and magic.” DRUIDS PREACHERS OF IMMORTALITY (Ross)
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| Stories ought not to be just little bits of fantasy that are used to wile away an idle hour; from the beginning of the human race stories have been used – by priests, by bards, by medicine men – as magic instruments of healing, of teaching, as a means of helping people come to terms with the fact that they continually have to face insoluble problems and unbearable realities. |
Joan Delano Aiken
So I hope that Mr. Wiseman is aware of the linage he is a current representative of—a small yet important link in an ancient chain that makes up the underpinnings of our society.
“The Bards…had magic in their voices and utterances, and the poets of later medieval Ireland saw them successors of the Druids and poets of early legends.” Green’s THE WORLD OF THE DRUIDS
“Luck is a woman. She’s drawn to those that least deserve her.” ― Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings
From ancient time to medieval their spirits spread across time…coming to outposts where almost in isolation lived the occupants and with their entertainment preserving, education connection with not only the present world but a much more ancient one. So through into our day and age we are connected everywhere, and though as a whole we seem to have lost our sense of ancestors and past–the connection of what has gone before…yet the bard, the singer, the man who entertains in these small places maintains that and keeps us whole.
In the ancient times, bards went around singing the epics, which were storehouses of philosophy.
GRAIL-LESS/STONE-FREE QUEST UPDATE
Day 5 is a tour from York
Breakfast at B&B
Meet the tour at Dean Court Hotel in Duncombe Place
near the York Minster
We see the White Horse of Kellhern (the most northern of the UK’s hill figures.)
Then on to Helmsley on the York Moors with its medieval castle and quaint shops.
Then over the Moors seeing
the Hole of Horcum
and then the RAF Flyingdales Pyramid on Snod Hill
Then on for a couple of hours in Whitby (see picture) where Bram Stoker wrote Dracula (and the town is the model for the port town that Dracula’s unmanned ship bearing only he in his coffin arrives in and in which he wreaks havoc.
Then on the way back to York a stop at Goathland —who’s railway station was used for the Hogworth station in Harry Potter.
then on to York and home…we’ll get dinner somewhere in town depending on how tired we are etc.
There sit the sainted sage, the bard divine,
The few, whom genius gave to shine
Through every unborn age, and undiscovered clime.
–Thomas Gray
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The poet is trusted as the potential savior of the tribe, for he has acquired traditional wisdom and can be expected to utter his potent judgments whenever he is called upon to do so.
–Charles Dunn, The Role of the Poet in Early Societies.
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