Older Than Feudalism, the bard is typically a character within a medieval or Renaissance-era story who acts as a poet, Wandering Minstrel, performer, and storyteller, for the people around them. The bard helps to spread news around the country, gets people to laugh or cry with their songs and stories, and boosts peoples' morale, all in return for a few coins and a place to stay.
While a king's royal bard gets respect as a member of the court, a traveling bard is seen as disreputable, as they live in grungy inns, drink copious amounts of ale, and travel the roads.note They have a reputation as a Horny Bard, as they tend to get romantic with every fair maiden or prostitute they meet during their travels on the roads. The bard may supplement their singing income by doing light thievery and other chicanery. As well, being a traveling bard is good cover for being a spy.
In game cultures such as Dungeons & Dragons, the Bard is a versatile character able to both fight strategically and cast magic through the power of their songs, suggesting them to be magicians who use the power of emotion and creativity to conjure miracles into the world. Might have the reputation of a Horny Bard if they use their charisma to seduce nearly everybody in sight.
In medieval Gaelic and Brythonic culture (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Brittany, and Cornwall) 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 accomplishments. The word itself is loaned from Scottish Gaelic, deriving from the Proto-Celtic bardos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European, which roughly translates as "to raise the voice; praise." Similar societal roles could be observed throughout numerous Indo-European cultures, with the Norse Skalds and Indian Bhāts as prime examples.
"The Bard" is also commonly used to refer to Robert Burns in Scotland, and to William Shakespeare throughout the broader Anglosphere.
The Storyteller is a supertrope. See also Wandering Minstrel. The modern equivalent is Street Performer or Street Musician.
