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,
Bard the Bowman Bard was voiced by John Stephenson. Stephenson also voiced the Dwarf Dori and The Great Goblin. In the 1985 Russian television film, Bard (or "Berd") was played by Boris Sokolov. In Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" film series, Welsh actor Luke Evans portrays Bard, appearing in the latter two films of the trilogy, "" (2013) and "" (2014). Evans was cast in June 2011. Bob Strauss of "Los Angeles Daily News" felt that Evans' portrayal managed to expand on the character, while Erik Kain of "Forbes" felt that his portrayal was "solid", but was "never given quite enough breathing room". In