History Main / TheBard

OlderThanFeudalism, the bard is a typically a character within a [[TheMiddleAges medieval]] or [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance Renaissance]]-era story who acts as a poet, WanderingMinstrel, performer, and storyteller, for the people around them. The bard helps to spread news around the country, gets people to laugh or cry with their songs and stories, and boosts peoples' morale, all in return for a few coins and a place to stay.

* Homer of ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' has been portrayed as a blind bard. The classical era certainly had an extensive oral poetic tradition.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Despite being a Durlan and on the side of a group that could use her shapeshifting to infiltrate their opponents Nol Lapp instead focuses on creating poetry about rising up against the Sangtee Empire, poetry which helps other slaves revolt and gains the revolution support in the Empire.

In medieval Gaelic and Brythonic culture (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Brittany and Cornwall) a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a [[BlueBlood monarch or nobleman]], to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own accomplishments. The word itself is loaned from Scottish Gaelic, deriving from the Proto-Celtic ''bardos'', ultimately from Proto-Indo-European, which roughly translates as "''to raise the voice; praise''." Similar societal roles could be observed throughout numerous Indo-European cultures, with the Norse Skalds and Indian Bhāts as prime examples.

* Bards feature in Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series, though much less prominently than the Heralds.

* ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'' has [[HeroAntagonist Almorava of Symra]], [[BewareTheSillyOnes The Wandering Bard]]. An Ashuran hero who joins The Lone Swordsman's party before the rebellion begins in southern Callow. Ridiculously dressed, constantly throwing back enough alcohol to kill a herd of livestock and a less-than-competent musician and singer, The Bard at first appears to be little more than comic relief. The jury's still out on how much of her silliness is an act, but there's certainly more to Almorava of Symra than meets the eye. She has the [[GenreSavvy Genre Savvy]] that is the hallmark of her profession, with an understanding of the workings of fate rivaled only by the [[BlackKnight Black]] [[MagnificentBastard Knight]]. She has a tendency to appear (literally) whenever anything particularly plot-relevant is going on; no matter how much violence is directed her way she always manages to escape just in time; she seems to know intimate details of events she should be far too young to have witnessed and if nothing else, her liver must be superhuman. [[spoiler: The epilogue of Book 2 reveals that The Wandering Bard is actually some kind of body-hopping immortal entity that has lived since long before elves arrived on Calernia. The precise nature of this entity is still mysterious but it seems to always exist as a storytelling-based Name and although it switches bodies and identities it retains all of its memories. It's also apparently scary enough to bully the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Forever King]]. At the conclusion of Book 2 Almorava of Symra dies (apparently of alcohol poisoning) and the name passes on to a new host named Aoede of Nicae.]]

OlderThanFeudalism, the bard is a typically a character within a medieval or Renaissance-era story who acts as a poet, WanderingMinstrel, performer, and storyteller, for the people around them. The bard helps to spread news around the country, gets people to laugh or cry with their songs and stories, and boosts peoples' morale, all in return for a few coins and a place to stay.

While a king's royal bard gets respect as a member of the court, a traveling bard is seen as disreputable, as they live in grungy inns, drink copious amounts of ale, and travel the roads. They have a reputation as a HornyBard, as they tend to get romantic with every fair maiden or [[TheOldestProfession prostitute]] they meet during their travels on the roads. The bard may supplement their singing income by doing light thievery and other chicanery. As well, being a traveling bard is good cover for being a spy.

While a king's royal bard gets respect as a member of the court, a traveling bard is seen as disreputable, as they live in grungy inns, drink copious amounts of ale, and travel the roads. They have a reputation as a HornyBard, as they tend to get romantic with every fair maiden or [[TheOldestProfession prostitute]] they meet during their travels on the roads. The bard may supplement their singing income by doing light thievery and other chicanery. As well, bring a traveling bard is good cover for being a spy.

OlderThanFeudalism, the bard is a character within a medieval or Renaissance era story who acts as a poet, WanderingMinstrel, performer, and storyteller, for the people around them. The bard helps to spread news around the country, gets people to laugh or cry with their songs and stories, and boosts peoples' morale

In medieval Gaelic and Brythonic culture (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Brittany and Cornwall) a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a [[BlueBlood monarch or nobleman]], to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own accomplishments. The word itself is loaned from Scottish Gaelic, deriving from the Proto-Celtic ''bardos'', ultimately from Proto-Indo-European, which roughly translates as "''to raise the voice; praise''." Similar societal roles could be observed throughout numerous Indo-European cultures, with the Norse Skalds and Indian Bhāts as prime examples.

While a king's royal bard gets respect as a member of the court, a traveling bard is seen as disreputable, as they live in grungy inns, drink copious amounts of ale, and travel the roads. They have a reputation as a HornyBard, as they tend to get romantic with every fair maiden or [[TheOldestProfession prostitute]] they meet during their travels on the roads.

While a king's royal bard gets respect as a member of the court, a traveling bard is seen as disreputable, as they live in grungy inns and travel the roads. They have a reputation as a HornyBard, as they tend to get romantic with every fair maiden they meet during their travels on the roads.

OlderThanFeudalism, the bard is a character within a story that acts as a poet, WanderingMinstrel, storyteller, and/or source of morale for people around them.

In medieval Gaelic and Brythonic culture (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Brittany and Cornwall) a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities. The word itself is loaned from Scottish Gaelic, deriving from the Proto-Celtic ''bardos'', ultimately from Proto-Indo-European, which roughly translates as "''to raise the voice; praise''." Similar societal roles could be observed throughout numerous Indo-European cultures, with the Norse Skalds and Indian Bhāts as prime examples.

TheStoryteller is a supertrope. See also WanderingMinstrel.

* In ''WebAnimation/{{Lackadaisy}}'' Rocky is Lackadaisy Speakeasy's house band violinist turned [[VenturousSmuggler booze runner]], prone to bouts of string-accompanied expository poetry. He blithely avoids the hard labor done by his younger NewMeat assistants via invoking his "spaghetti arms" and insisting he "provide[s] the ambience." When push comes to shove, however, he's disturbingly good at managing and directing his CaperCrew's "performances" on the fly, from HiredGun Freckle's marksmanship and GetawayDriver Ivy's maneuvering in a CarChaseShootout to his own showstopping ConstructionVehicleRampage to rescue them both from rival gangmembers, flinging dynamite from atop the bucket of a steam shovel while maniacally howling rhyming couplets.

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* The Jester from ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' fulfills this role in the FantasyCharacterClasses line-up, being a MagicMusic user who buffs and stress heals his allies with his lute. While he i

* The Jester from ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' fulfills this role in the FantasyCharacterClasses line-up, being a MagicMusic user who buffs and stress heals his allies with his lute. While he isn't a storyteller or very poetic, he also stress heals his teammates with a few good jokes and laughs. Unless he crossed the DespairEventHorizon, of course.
* Leliana from the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series used to be a traveling Bard (or rather, a spy/assassin who disguised herself as a traveling Bard -Apparently that's pretty common in Orlais). She comes with the Bard specialization and will teach it to other Rogues if her approval rating is high enough. Additionally, much of her dialogue includes stories and songs she learned during her time as a Bard. [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition The Inquisitor]] can ask, and Leliana will offer, to give training on being a bard: it basically amounts to DoNotAttempt because of how dirty and conniving bard work is.
** Varric serves this role in the second and third games, with his storytelling serving as the framing device for the second and his book sales being a recurring topic in the third.
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': Bards can visit your fortress, play music (and create their own songs), dance (and choreograph their own dance forms), tell poems (and write new ones), and you can even play as one in Adventure Mode (and do everything the fort mode bards can do). In DF there is also a different skill for every style of song, every single style of dancing, every single type of poem, and every single instrument, and every single style of music as well.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** In the first four games in the series (''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]''), Bard is one of the default classes available. Falling under the "Stealth" specialization, Bards combine skills from all three of the FighterMageThief trio in roughly equal portions.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' does away with classes, but includes a joinable Bard's College. While you can join it and train your speechcraft, you unfortunately cannot learn how to play musical instruments whatsoever. The game also includes NPC bards, frequently found in taverns and at the aforementioned Bard's College, who will sing and play instruments as ambient actions.
* Long before ''Bravely Default'', the Bard (or Songstress in some games) is a [[Characters/FinalFantasyRecurringJobs recurring job]] in Franchise/FinalFantasy's vast JobSystem. Various characters in the universe have this job, and are often very useful as a SupportPartyMember.
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has an unconventional, but spiritually appropriate take on the archetype through a character ''named'' [[ShapedLikeItself Bard]], titled "The Wandering Caretaker." Bard is a celestial being who observes the universe as a series of cosmic noises, [[WanderingMinstrel so he roams its entirety in search of material to compose with and make into masterful songs]]. [[HumansAreSpecial He finds fascination with Runeterra]] since it's home to some of the most interesting and chaotic sounds, and he functions as a quirky in-game champion who incorporates [[MagicMusic cosmic music]] into his support-based gameplay.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has Kass, a Rito who wanders the world with his accordion and will recite poems to Link, which are hints on how to reveal hidden shrines in the area. [[spoiler: His reason for doing so was due to his teacher's final request, who wanted to aid Link in the future when he woke up from his resurrection years later.]]
* The Bard from ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' will play any song from the game's soundtrack for you if you get him the music sheets. He'll also pay you 500 gold for each music sheet you bring him, which is another incentive to collect them.
* Jimmy from ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'' is a bard who uses MagicMusic.
* ''VideoGame/SunsetOverdrive'' has them as part of one of the quests. Yeah you heard right, quest, as in {{LARP}}.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tangledeep}}'' has a version of this inspired by, of all things, claymore-wielding [[BraveScot Highlanders]]. The Edge Thane is a woad-painted, cloaked, {{BFS}} wielding warrior woman who fights by hitting things with two-handed weapons while [[BadassBoast singing at the top of her lungs about how great she is.]] The fact that one of the Job's passives is called [[WarIsGlorious Glorious Battler]] really emphasizes the upfront melee nature of this particular take on the Bard archetype.
* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Wandersong}}'' is a bard, who's MagicMusic is required to solve puzzles and get through various areas of the game.
* Dandelion from ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' series is a bard famous for his songs and storytelling ability, and a close friend of [[TheProtagonist Geralt of Rivia]]. In the [[VideoGame/TheWitcher2 second]] and [[VideoGame/TheWitcher3 third]] games he serves as the {{narrator}}, and the character entries in Geralt's [[EncyclopediaExposita journal]] were written by him.
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': The storyteller is a traveling bard who is both part of the framing story (he's telling the tale) and has multiple random encounters with the protagonists throughout their journey. He's one of [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Ognian]]'s descendants and has memorized a great number of tales in addition to spinning his own.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Susan plays a game that includes a NPC bard that [[https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/parable-044 looks like Ellen]].
* In ''Webcomic/FarOut'', [[http://kimiq.com/farout/en/2013/02/13/farout-page-24/ Chapter 1 ends with one singing about the events in it.]]
* In ''Webcomic/FeyWinds'', when Prince Sidney Theodorus Cassian Merriweather Findain VIII... Just call him Sid, reveals to the main characters whose group he just joined that he's trained as a bard, they ''smash'' his lute and shove a sword into his hands.
* ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'':
** ''Webcomic/BardQuest'': The main character is a minstrel that managed to impress the king enough to become the head dragon slayer.
** In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Sburb/Sgrub has 12 different classes for players that set their character arc, one of them being the Bard, a counterpart to the prince class that serves to passively destroy or corrupt, while a prince actively destroys. What a bard destroys depends on its aspect, such as [[EruditeStoner Gamzee]] [[AxCrazy Makara]], a Bard of Rage.
* Elan from ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', as seen in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0004.html this scene from early in the comic.]]
* In ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'', the job of skald had been revived and is considered an academic job, which consists of being a keeper of knowledge alongside being a keeper of stories. In the Keuruu military base in Finland, the desk jobs are shown to be held by skalds, while Torbjörn Västerström's job as one consisted of copying old books.
* ''WebComic/OiTalesOfBardicFury'': The protagonist Bryan is a bard who has recently graduated from the Academy of Tara and has been sent to the sleepy village of Oi to finish his training-- although his personality and mannerisms are more like a modern rock star than anything.

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[[folder:Web Video]]
* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': A number of player characters are bards, by the rules of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
** ''WebVideo/CriticalRoleCampaignOne:'' Scanlan Shorthalt is a typical horny gnome bard who narrates the tales of Vox Machina. He plays multiple instruments. [[spoiler: His unknown daughter, Kaylie, took after him in this regard.]]
** ''WebVideo/CriticalRoleExandriaUnlimited'':
*** In the main mini-series, Dorian Storm is an Air Genasi bard who left his well-off, secluded home to travel, joining up with the Crowns Keepers and later Bells' Hells in ''WebVideo/CriticalRoleCampaignThree''. He plays a lute.
*** In ''Calamity'', Loquatius Seelie and Nydas Okiro are both dual-class bards (Loquatius is a Changeling Warlock/Bard while Nydas is a Human Sorcerer/Bard). Loquatius uses this talent as a broadcaster in ancient Avalir while Nydas, who is College of Swords, leans more on his battle skills.
** In ''The Darrington Brigade'' one shot, Hazel Copperpot is a OneManBand dwarf bard seeking to create Exandria's first audiobooks of Taryon's adventures.
** In ''Liam's Quest: Full Circle'', a de-aged player character version of Creator/MatthewMercer (usually the Dungeon Master) is given bard abilities, able to mock villains, inspire his friends, and cast Healing Word and Thunder Wave at 1st level. DM Liam implies these powers come from [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower the purity of Matt's soul]].
* ''WebVideo/HeadlessASleepyHollowStory'': Diedrich Knickerbocker appears as the AllKnowingSingingNarrator, but also as a troubadour in town following main character Ichabod Crane around.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* Numerous Greek and Roman poets and writers were portrayed this way, especially as they were romanticized in the early modern era. True to the page quote, the tales they told fed into later high culture, art, music, occultism, pop culture, fantasy, and sci-fi, coloring the opinion of later peoples because of how the something was portrayed by classic writers. For a (simplified) example, Ba'al and Beelzebub started as terms for a Punic deity, but Rome won the war and now Ba'al almost certainly represents something wicked when used in fiction.
* Homer of ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' has been portrayed as a blind bard. The classical era certainly had an extensive oral poetic tradition.
* Skalds were poetic members of a group associated with Viking tradition, and were highly revered for their stories, since individual vikings desired their glory to be remembered through tale and song.
** Griots provided a similar role in western Africa, with the Epic of Sundiata being one story preserved virtually entirely by oral tradition.
* Historically, Creator/WilliamShakespeare was known for his title as "The Bard of Avon."
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In game cultures such as ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', the Bard is a versatile character able to both fight strategically and cast magic [[MagicMusic through the power of their songs]], suggesting them to be magicians who use the power of emotion and creativity to conjure miracles into the world.

In game cultures such as ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', the Bard is a versatile character able to both fight strategically and cast magic [[MagicMusic through the power of their songs]], suggesting them to be magicians who use the power of emotion and creativity to conjure miracles into the world. Might have the reputation of a HornyBard if they use their charisma to seduce nearly everybody in sight.

In game cultures such as ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', the Bard is a versatile character able to both fight strategically and cast magic [[MagicMusic through the power of their songs]], suggesting them to be magicians who use the power of emotion and creativity to conjure miracles into the world.

** In ''Liam's Quest: Full Circle'', a de-aged player character version of Creator/MatthewMercer (usually the Dungeon Master) is given bard abilities, able to use Vicious Mockery, Healing Word, and Thunder Wave at 1st level. DM Liam implies these powers come from [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower the purity of Matt's soul]].