Editing Bard (section)

===Wales===
{{Further|Medieval Welsh literature}}
A number of bards in [[Welsh mythology]] have been preserved in [[medieval Welsh literature]] such as the [[Red Book of Hergest]], the [[White Book of Rhydderch]], the [[Book of Aneirin]] and the [[Book of Taliesin]]. The bards [[Aneirin]] and [[Taliesin]] may be legendary reflections of historical bards active in the 6th and 7th centuries. Very little historical information about [[Dark Age Wales|Dark Age Welsh]] court tradition survives, but the Middle Welsh material came to be the nucleus of the [[Matter of Britain]] and [[Arthurian legend]] as they developed from the 13th century. The (Welsh) Laws of Hywel Dda, originally compiled around 900, identify a bard as a member of a king's household. His duties, when the bodyguard were sharing out [[Looting|booty]], included the singing of the [[sovereignty]] of Britain—possibly why the genealogies of the British high kings survived into the written historical record.

A large number of Welsh bards were [[blind people]].<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Schama |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Schama |title=A History of Britain 1: 3000 BC-AD 1603 At the Edge of the World? |title-link=A History of Britain (TV series)#DVDs and books |publisher=[[BBC Worldwide]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-563-48714-2 |edition=Paperback 2003 |location=London |pages=170}}</ref>

The royal form of bardic tradition ceased in the 13th century, when the 1282 [[Conquest of Wales by Edward I|Edwardian conquest]] permanently ended the rule of the Welsh princes. The legendary suicide of ''The Last Bard'' (c. 1283), was commemorated in the poem ''[[The Bards of Wales]]'' by the [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungarian]] poet [[János Arany]] in 1857, as a way of encoded resistance to the suppressive politics of his own time. However, the poetic and musical traditions were continued throughout the Middle Ages, e.g., by noted 14th-century poets [[Dafydd ap Gwilym]] and [[Iolo Goch]]. Also the tradition of regularly assembling bards at an [[eisteddfod]] never lapsed and was strengthened by formation of the [[Gorsedd]] by [[Iolo Morganwg]] in 1792.

Wales in the twentieth century is a leading Celtic upholder of the bardic tradition. The annual [[National Eisteddfod of Wales]] ({{Lang|cy|Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru}}) (which was first held in 1880) is held in which bards are chaired (see [[:Category:Chaired bards]]) and crowned (see [[:Category:Crowned bards]]). The [[Urdd National Eisteddfod]] is also held annually. And many schools hold their own annual ''eisteddfodau'' which emulate bardic traditions.<ref>An example is the ''eisteddfod'' that was held at St Julian's School, Newport on 19 March 2013. See

{{Cite web |url=http://stjulians.realsmartcloud.com/our-eisteddfod/ |title=Archived copy |access-date=20 June 2013 |archive-date=10 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110001934/http://stjulians.realsmartcloud.com/our-eisteddfod/ |url-status=bot: unknown }}. Accessed 20 June 2013</ref>

Several published research studies into the Welsh bardic tradition have been published. They include Williams (1850),<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=John |title=Druid stones |journal=Archæologia Cambrensis |date=1850 |volume=New Series 1 |issue=1 |pages=1–9}}</ref> Parry-Williams (1947),<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Parry-Williams |first1=T.H. |title=The Bardic Tradition |journal=The Welsh Review |date=1947 |volume=iv |issue=4}}</ref> Morgan (1983)<ref>{{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Prys |editor1-last=Hobsbawm |editor1-first=Eric |editor2-last=Ranger |editor2-first=Terence |title=The invention of tradition |date=1983 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |chapter=From a death to a view::The hunt for the Welsh past in the Romantic period}}</ref> and Jones (1986).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Bedwyr L |editor1-last=Evans |editor1-first=Ellis D. |editor2-last=Griffith |editor2-first=John G. |title=Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Celtic Studies |date=1986 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |chapter=The Welsh Bardic Tradition}}</ref> Doubtless research studies have also been published in the current century.