Bards
[Ansteorran Bardic Guild Website
History:
The Bardic arts have always been strong in Ansteorra.
The Queen's College of Bards was founded by Queen Willow I, who was a poet and storyteller and a strong patron of the bardic arts. Queen Seglinde I, herself a skilled performer, actively encouraged bardic activities.
A Blue Scarf was worn by members of the Queen's College of Bards to identify themselves as performers. The scarf was sky blue with gold tassels, and usually worn balric-style. The annual publication of the College was also titled "The Blue Scarf."
In the mid-1980's there was a short-lived attempt at creating a competition-based ranking system, denoted by stripes of colored rickrack on the scarves. These became derisively known as "bardic bragging sashes" and the system was abandoned sometime after 1990.
At the Twenty-Year and Twenty-Five Year celebrations of the Society's founding (both hosted by Ansteorra), bardic arts were featured prominently. Grand Court at TYC featured the song, "Come Share the Dream" written and performed by Duchess Seiglinde (with contributions by Iolo Fitzowen and Brendan O Corraidhe) that is still performed twenty years later.
Projects:
- Voices of the Star - a compilation of Ansteorran songs, created by Alden Drake in 2004. In 2009, an effort was made to create a Volume II.
Well Known Bards of the 1980s:
- Duchess Willow de Wisp
- Duchess Seglinde Syr
- Master Cadfan ap Morgan
- Master Ragnar Mjorkwulf
- Master Iolo Fitzowen
- Mistress Aerin ni Heurin
- Mistress Sula von Pferdenthal
- THL Brendan O Corraidhe
- Ld Stephen of Durham
Kingdom Bards of Ansteorra
- 03/27/1982 Jonathan DeLaufyson Macebearer
- 08/07/1983 Harald Bodvarson
- 09/29/1984 Einar of Langfjord
- 06/22/1985 Sieglinde Syr
- 08/09/1986 Roselynde d'Angleterre
- 01/30/1988 Catrin ferch Gwilym o Gonway
- 01/14/1989 Robin of Gilwell
- 02/17/1990 Cadfan ap Morgan Godrudd
- 01/12/1991 Hossein Ali Qomi
- 12/21/1991 Karina des Pensees
- 03/27/1993 Margery de Bray
- 06/18/1994 Cedric Fithelere
- 11/04/1995 Finnacan Dub
- 12/14/1996 Robin of Gilwell
- 11/15/1997 Galen of Bristol
- 11/07/1998 Willow de Wisp
- 12/11/1999 Ulf Gunnarsson
- 01/06/2001 Eleanor Fairchild
- 01/05/2002 Antigonus Bearbait
- 01/04/2003 Pendaran Glamorgan
- 01/03/2004 Antonia Bianca Santiago da Lagos
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
- 2010
- 2011
