Nesses casos, geralmente é melhor deixar o autor original falar por si. Felizmente, Doug Schwegman faz isso no começo de seu artigo, onde ele os apresenta a D & D.
. . . I believe it is a logical addition to the D & D scene and the one I have composed is a hodgepodge of at least three different kinds, the norse ‘skald’, the celtic ‘bard’, and the southern european ‘minstrel’. The skalds were often old warriors who were a kind of self appointed historian whose duty was to record the ancient battles, blood feuds, and deeds of exceptional prowess by setting them to verse much like the ancient Greek poets did. Tolkien, a great Nordic scholar, copied this style several times in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (for example Bilbo’s chant of Earendil the Mariner). The Celts, especially in Britain, had a much more organized structure in which the post of Barbs as official historians fell somewhere between the Gwelfili or public recorders and the Druids who were the judges as well as spiritual leaders. In the Celtic system Bards were trained by the Druids for a period of almost twenty years before they assumed their duties, among which was to follow the heroes into battle to provide an accurate account of their deeds, as well as to act as trusted intermediaries to settle hostilities among opposing tribes. By far the most common conception of a Bard is as a minstrel who entertained to courts of princes and kings in France, Italy and parts of Germany in the latter middle ages. Such a character was not as trust worthy as the Celtic or Nordic Bards and could be compared to a combination Thief-Illusionist. These characters were called Jongleurs by the French, from which the corrupt term juggler and court jester are remembered today . . .
I wanted to put the Bard into perspective so that his multitudinous abilities in Dungeons and Drageons can be explained. I have fashioned the character more after the Celtic and Norse types than anything else, thus he is a character who resembles a fighter more than anything else, but who knows something about the mysterious forces of magic and is well adept with his hands, etc.
(Schwegman, Doug. Statistics Regarding Classes: (Additions) — BARDS. Strategic Review Vol 2, No. 1, February 1976, p. 11.)
Para recapitular com clareza - uma mistura de:
- Norse Skald
- Celta Bardo
- Souther European Minstrel & Jongleur
- historiador tolkieniano
Sr. Schwegman não dá nenhuma lista de referências além disso. Os incríveis pré-requisitos (lutador de nível médio e ladrão de nível médio) do estilo Gygax de Bard me lembram strongmente dos 20 anos de treinamento dos Bardos Celtas; uma alteração feita por E. Gary Gygax na versão do AD & D Player's Handbook.
Editar: como uma nota lateral, a apresentação inicial foi como uma classe autônoma; Feitiços e habilidades de ladrão eram aqueles de um membro daquelas classes de metade do nível do bardo. Em AD & D, Gygax os revisou, e isso foi mudado, e os pré-requisitos de Fighter 5-8 level then ladrão de 4-6º nível e finalmente bard foram adicionados, e deram mais de uma sensação celta.