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").
Geraint the Blue Bard Geraint the Blue Bard Geraint the Blue Bard () is a reputed 9th century Welsh bard and harpist, although modern scholars are dismissive of his existence. He has been definitively shown by Welsh scholar G. J. Williams to be the invention of Iolo Morganwg, a talented author and antiquarian now infamous for his numerous literary forgeries. Iolo called him Geraint Fardd Glas or Y Bardd Glas o'r Gadair ("the Blue Bard of the (Bardic) Chair") and associated him with his version of the early history of Morgannwg (Glamorgan). Iolo makes the figure of Geraint, otherwise unattested in Welsh manuscript sources