Bard's Songs, Tales and Jokes Compendium - a Bard's Guild Publication

A bard is often admired in Rohsk (one of the Four Regions of Adhonaglamar) for his extensive knowledge of history, tales and legends. What many of those admirers don't know however, is that many bards don't need to rely on an excellent memory. All they need to be able to do to impress their audience with new tales, is read. And many of known how (bards are one of the few types of civilian in Rohsk that generally can read and write).

Not everyone has a natural talent to recount epic battles from the past in magnificent detail. Nor does every bard have a vivid imagination. To mitigate this and to advance their profession, the Bard's Guild of Rohsk has created a compendium, the "Bard's Songs, Tales and Jokes Compendium".

Purpose

The Compendium allows a bard to keep telling new tales or to share new jokes with his audience every time he performs. Bards mostly travel around and don't stay in one place for long. But if it so happens that he lingers in an area longer, he needs to be able to extend his repertoire if he wants to keep entertaining the locals.

Document Structure

Clauses

The Compendium is composed of four major sections:

Historical events

Myths and legends

Songs

Jokes

Each section is reviewed and updated by one of the Guild's staff member specialising in that respective field.

Publication Status

The document is copied and updated by the Guild itself; it is considered a trade secret. As such, it is very hard to find any copy that doesn't belong to a bard.
First published in 1042, the Compendium is currently up to its 13^th version.

Historical Details

Public Reaction

Amongst the bards of the Guild, there are differing opinions about the Compendium.

A group of experienced, older bards is opposed to writing down their tales and songs. To them, the quality of a bard is determined by the quality of his memory and his ability to create new tales and songs. They are of the opinion that the Compendium 'cheapens' their trade, by allowing ever more mediocre bards to pick up the proffesion and make a name for themselves, on borrowed content.
On the opposing end are the younger bards. Their generation believes that a bard's quality is measured by how captivating he can tell a story, or how good his musical and vocal skills are. They see no problem in 'borrowing' content that isn't memorized by rote learning or hasn't sprouted from their own imagination.

The Guild, not blind to these differing opinions, has consistently decided to publish the Compendium and update it, in order to retain enough members. They are equally concerned about the quality of those permitted to the trade, but dwindling numbers have forced them to aid mediocre candidates wherever possible.

Medium

Paper

Authoring Date

The first version was written in 1042