The Bards were the keepers of tradition, of the memory of the tribe - they were the custodians of the sacredness of the Word. Although they represented the first level of training for an apprentice Druid, we should not make the mistake of thinking that a Bard was somehow in a lowly or inferior position. There were many levels of accomplishment, but the most skilled of Bards were held in high esteem and partook of many of the functions of both the Ovate and the Druid.

The training of a Bard was intense and lasted for many years. There were variations in the curricula between Scotland, Ireland and Wales. In Ireland it is recorded that the training lasted twelve years, with students undergoing the following rigorous curriculum:

In the first year, the student progressed from Principle Beginner [Ollaire] to Poet's Attendant [Tamhan] to Apprentice Satirisist [Drisac]. During this time they had to learn the basics of the bardic arts: grammar, twenty stories and the Ogham tree-alphabet .

Over the next four years, they learnt a further ten stories each year, a hundred ogham combinations, a dozen philosophy lessons, and an unspecified number of poems. They also studied dipthongal combinations, the Law of Privileges and the uses of grammar.

By his sixth year the student, if he had stayed the course, was called a Pillar [Cli] and would study a further forty-eight poems and twenty more stories.

Over the following three years, he was termed a Noble Stream [Anruth] because 'a stream of pleasing praise issues from him, and a stream of wealth to him'1. During this time he learnt a further 95 tales, bringing his repertoire up to 175 stories. He studied prosody, glosses, prophetic invocation, the styles of poetic composition, specific poetic forms, and the place-name stories of Ireland.

The final three years of his training entitled him to become an Ollamh, or Doctor of Poetry, passing through the grades of Man of Learning [Eces] and Poet [Fili]. In his tenth year the student had studied further poetic forms and composition, in his eleventh year 100 poems, and in his twelfth year 120 orations and the four arts of poetry. He or she was now the Master or Mistress of 350 stories in all.

As Ollamh, Doctor of Poetry, he was entitled to receive a gold branch. As Anruth, Noble Stream, he had carried a silver branch, and before that - throughout his training - he had carried a bronze branch. These branches had bells attached to them, so that as the poet strode into the hall to recite a poem or tell a tale, he would be accompanied by the sound of bells - warning the audience to become silent, and summoning the help of the inner realms to ensoul his poem or story.

In Wales and Scotland the training of a bard was similarly rigorous, although with different grades and a different curriculum.