Bard are known as "the Bard of Avon" (often simply "the Bard") and "the Bard of Bengal" respectively. The word is a Celtic loan word from Scottish Gaelic "bàrd", Irish "bard", Welsh "bardd". In 16th-century Scotland, it was a derogatory term for an itinerant musician; nonetheless it was later romanticised by Sir Walter Scott. In medieval Gaelic and Welsh society, a "bard" (Scottish and Irish Gaelic) or "bardd" (Welsh) was a professional poet, employed to compose eulogies for his lord (see planxty). If the employer failed to pay the proper amount, the bard would then compose a satire (c.f. "fili", "fáith").
The Profession The Profession The Profession is a 2011 thriller novel by Steven Pressfield. Set in 2032, the novel depicts a highly militarized future where there is severe conflict in the Middle East. A reviewer in the "Los Angeles Times" favorably compared the novel to Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II's "Seven Days in May". "Kirkus Reviews" called the novel "A book that paints an all-too-plausible future in which America outsources its dirtiest jobs." The novel follows the actions of a soldier-mercenary named Gentilhomme from Louisiana who follows the prolific, Caesar-like, General Salter, who himself commands a mercenary army after he