Bard Bard In medieval Gaelic and British culture, a bard was a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or noble), to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities. Originally a specific, lower class of poet, contrasting with the higher rank known as "fili" in Ireland and Highland Scotland, with the decline of living bardic tradition in the modern period the term "bard" acquired generic meanings of an author or minstrel, especially a famous one. For example, William Shakespeare, and Rabindranath Tagore,
Boyan (bard) Boyan (bard) Boyan is the name of a bard who was mentioned in the Rus' epic "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" as being active at the court of Yaroslav the Wise. He is apostrophized as Volos's grandson in the opening lines of "The Lay" (probably a reference to Veles as the patron of musicians). Historians have been unable to determine whether Boyan was his proper name (as Nikolai Karamzin and Fyodor Buslayev postulated) or all skalds of Rus were called "boyans" (Alexander Vostokov). Although "The Lay" is the only authentic source mentioning Boyan, his name became exceedingly popular with later