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Welcome to the world of the Talumirage, the bards of Rohan! Whether your character is a bard by profession or merely wishes to dabble in the occasional song, you still play a very important role in Rohan's society. Unlike in the real life world of today, music and song, and the people who crafted and performed them, are an integral part of Rohirric culture. There is so very much more to being a bard than sitting in the local tavern and singing the day away.
Oral Society
To understand the role of the Talumirage, it is helpful to first understand that Rohan is an oral society. In brief, this means that, save for rare exceptions, such as nobility and royalty, the people of Rohan do not read and write: No newspapers, no letters, no history books. For anyone who has fallen asleep reading a dull lesson out of a musty history book, this might seem like a nice idea, but without writing, how does a people learn about their past, or hear the noteworthy events of the present? That is where you, the bard, come in.
What the Bard Does
Bards fulfill many roles in the culture. They are entertainers, teachers, messengers, guardians of Rohan's past. Through song and verse, they weave tales of past deeds, important events, and current deeds and events of note. They sing songs honoring what is important in Rohan's culture. They sing songs to amuse and entertain. They travel throughout the land performing their songs, whether at taverns and inns, at campsites, or at festivals and feasts. Song is a part of everyday life in Rohan, and bards are a very visible, very important element in that.
Tips on Playing a Bard
At this point, playing a bard might seem a rather difficult thing to do. You might not know Brego from Folcwine; you may not be able to rhyme two lines together. Admittedly, it is difficult to play a bard in Rohan without some base knowledge of what the culture is like.
First off, if you haven't read Lord of the Rings, now's the perfect time to do so. Not only the books themselves, but the index as well, provide excellent information on what Rohan is all about, and on Rohan's history. Unfinished Tales also is a wonderful source, especially for information on Eorl and on the military. If you're still stuck for material for songs, try the Rohirrim logs page on www.elendor.net. There are some great songs waiting to be written about those logs.
Of course, just as sperewigends do not spend all their time fighting, and blodmaegdens do not spend all their time healing, talumirages do not spend every minute of every day singing. So, it is not necessary to break into song at every moment. On the other hand, as a bard you may be called upon at any time to sing ICly, so it is always good to have a song or two ready at hand. They do not have to be long songs; indeed if they are too long they can prevent other people from RPing in the scene. A good rule of thumb for length is to not pose more of a poem at once than can fit on a screen; in other words, if things start scrolling madly by, you probably want to break things up. Allow others to react to your poem, even if they might interrupt it then continue with the next stanzas of the poem. Four to five poses of poem is normally sufficient, especially if you are not the only bard performing, though this is only a guideline and not a strict rule.
Writing Poetry
Having to write poetry as part of playing your character may seem like the hardest, and for some people, least attractive part, of playing a bard. However, there are some guidelines available that can make this job much easier.
First off, you already have a good amount of subject material available to you. Songs and poems should tend to be more "old-fashioned" than modern songs; for example, songs of love should be less explicit, and songs and poems about angst or ultra-personal details are not really thematic. If you're not sure if what you want to perform is really "Rohirric," you could always ask an LA. Barring that, if your subject matter draws IC stares or other remarks about its strangeness, it's possible that it isn't in keeping with theme.
The second important thing is the form of the poem/song itself. Poems are generally chanted or sung, with or without musical accompaniment. Poems should have meter and verse, so modern free verse is out of the question. However, Rohirric poetry does not have to rhyme, so if rhyming escapes you, you're in luck. The true Rohirric style of poetry is in Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse, as in the epic "Beowulf".
Alliterative Verse
So, what is alliterative verse anyway? Alliteration, in its simplest form, is the repetition of consonant or vowel sounds in a line.
Seven silver swans swam silently seaward.
The s-sound is repeated (over and over), and that is the basic of alliteration. In verse, alliteration only need keep the same sound in the same line; the next line can have a different sound alliterated. For example:
horse and horseman; hoofbeats afar
sank into silence: so the songs tell us.
If you've never used alliteration before (and don't worry; most people haven't), you may feel more comfortable starting out putting alliteration into the more familiar (in English) rhymed verse. It isn't strictly Rohirric, but it's a good start. For that matter, you may not ever go beyond this point, and that's fine too. Bards take years to learn their craft, so no one's expecting you to pick it up in a couple of days.
Making It Rohirric
Once you're comfortable with alliteration, or if you feel like jumping in right away, the next step is to put your alliteration into Rohirric form. This would be unrhymed verse (though if it ends up rhyming that's okay) that follows a specific meter. First of all, a song can be broken down into verses, though in Rohirric poetry this is not necessary. It may be easier to break it into verses, simply for RP purposes, if it is a long poem, so that you can divide it up into poses. Rohirric poetry does not worry about syllables in a line; it worries about beats, traditionally four. A beat is the stressed syllable of a sung or spoken line. For example:
HORSE and HORSEman; HOOFbeats aFAR
SANK into SIlence: SO the songs TELL us.
The number of syllables in each line is not the same. Each line is broken up into two half-lines, each with two beats. This actually isn't as complicated as it might sound; in the above example, "horse and horseman" is one half-line and "hoofbeats afar" is the other, the same with "sank into silence" and "so the songs tell us."
So, now you have the optional verse, the lines, the half-lines, and the meter. How does alliteration fit into all of this? Well, simply put, the repeated sound should fall on the first beat of the second half-line, and either beat of the first half-line, the first beat being the more common of the two.
MOURN not overmuch, MIGHTy was the fallen.
Commonly one of the other beats also alliterates:
Mourn not overmuch, mighty was the fallen.
This is usually the other beat of the first half-line, as in the example above, but the second beat of the second half-line can be used instead, or alternatively, all four beats in the line.
Glory escaping, gathering gloom
Hearken the hoofbeats, hearken the horn
Often, poems contain all three examples.
Links
This is just a brief overview on the function of a bard in society and the craft of the Rohirric song. For further information, here are some links with more detailed explanations:
Alliterative verse:
http://alliteration.net/fieldgd.htm
http://www.xrefer.com/entry/367586
http://www.talkingabouttolkien.com/e_poetry.html
Bards and their poetry in an oral society:
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2662/bards.html
http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projs991d/scop.html
http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/5/Bruce1.html
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