Bardic name
Encyclopedia
A bardic name is a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

, used in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 and Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

, by poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

s and other artists, especially those involved in the eisteddfod movement.

The Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 term bardd ("poet", which is the source of the English word bard
Bard
In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...

) originally referred to the Welsh poets of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, who might be itinerant or attached to a noble household. Some of these medieval poets were known by a pseudonym, for example Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr
Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr
Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr , in English also known as Kendall, was the court poet of Madog ap Maredudd, Owain Gwynedd , and Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, and one of the most prominent Welsh poets of the 12th century.Cynddelw began his career as court poet to Madog ap Maredudd, Prince of Powys...

 ("Cynddelw the Master Poet",fl.1155 - 1200) and Iolo Goch
Iolo Goch
Iolo Goch , , was a medieval Welsh poet or bard who composed poems addressed to Owain Glyndŵr, among others.- Lineage :...

 ("Iolo the Red", c.1320 - c.1398). The practice seems to have very ancient antecedents, witness the names of the presumably 6th century poets Talhaearn Tad Awen
Talhaearn Tad Awen
Talhaearn Tad Awen , was, according to medieval Welsh sources, a celebrated British poet of the sub-Roman period. He ranks as one of the earliest, if not the earliest, named poets to have composed and performed in Welsh...

, Blwchfardd and Culfardd, mentioned by the Welsh historian Nennius
Nennius
Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....

 alongside Taliesin
Taliesin
Taliesin was an early British poet of the post-Roman period whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin...

 and Aneirin
Aneirin
Aneirin or Neirin was a Dark Age Brythonic poet. He is believed to have been a bard or 'court poet' in one of the Cumbric kingdoms of the Old North or Hen Ogledd, probably that of Gododdin at Edinburgh, in modern Scotland...

, the latter referred to as Aneurin Gwenithwawd.

However, the use of so-called bardic names became something of a conceit following the re-invention of medieval tradition by Iolo Morganwg
Iolo Morganwg
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg , was an influential Welsh antiquarian, poet, collector, and literary forger. He was widely considered a leading collector and expert on medieval Welsh literature in his day, but after his death it was revealed that he had forged a...

 in the eighteenth century. The usage has also extended to Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...

 and Cornish
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

 poetry. In Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, some of the pioneers of the Cornish language
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

 movement are generally referred to by their bardic names, e.g. 'Mordon' for Robert Morton Nance
Robert Morton Nance
Robert Morton Nance was a leading authority on the Cornish language, nautical archaeologist, and joint founder of the Old Cornwall Society....

, or 'Talek' for E.G. Retallack Hooper
E.G. Retallack Hooper
Ernest George Retallack Hooper was a Cornish writer and journalist from St Agnes, Cornwall who became the third Grand Bard of the Gorseth Kernow in 1959 to 1964...

.

Bardic names are also useful in differentiating between individuals of the same name (a problem which is much more common in Wales than most other countries). For example, John Jones (Talhaiarn)
John Jones (Talhaiarn)
John Jones , known by his bardic name of Talhaiarn, was a Welsh poet and architect.He was born at the Harp Inn in Llanfair Talhaearn, Denbighshire. Apprenticed to an architect, he served with ecclesiastical architects in London, and was employed by Sir Joseph Paxton to oversee the building of the...

 took his bardic name from his place of origin, to distinguish him from contemporaries with the name John Jones
John Jones
-Authors, artists, poets, and writers:*John Jones of Gellilyfdy , Welsh calligrapher, manuscript collector and antiquary*John Jones , Welsh writer*John Jones , Welsh poet...

. The minister Joseph Harris (Gomer)
Joseph Harris (Gomer)
Joseph Harris was a Welsh Baptist minister, author, and journal editor. A Welsh language poet, he took the Biblical name of Gomer as his bardic name. On 1 January 1814 he launched the first Welsh-language weekly Seren Gomer in Swansea.Gomer was born on a farm in Wolf's Castle, Pembrokeshire...

 selected his bardic name from the Bible. Others, such as Hedd Wyn
Hedd Wyn
Hedd Wyn was a Welsh language poet who was killed during the Battle of Passchendaele in World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod...

, used poetic inventions.

See also

  • Gorseth Kernow
    Gorseth Kernow
    Gorseth Kernow is a non-political Cornish organisation, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.-History:...

  • List of Welsh language poets (6th century to c.1600)
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