The Bards were celebrated like rock-stars, they were rich and famous. True bards knew about 360 poems by heart. How could they learn them? They had to lie on the floor with a rock on their stomach and a blanket on their face and repeat the poems.
The bards told verses in the villages during festivals or ceremonies. They had a metal branch with some bells. The branch was made of brass, of silver or of gold.
Their clothes were quite original, too. They usually wore a mantle with feathers, duck feathers. The most famous poets wore the head of a swan on their shoulders because the swan represented the unity of body and soul.
During Celtic festivals there were also singers called ‘parasites’ (word that means companions in Celtic language). They sang before the assembly.
NOTES:
by heart: a memoria
had to: had to is the past tense of must (dovevano)
lie: stay in a resting position (star sdariati)
blanket: cover, (coperta)
branch: bough, part of a tree (ramo)
bells: sort of carillon (campanellini)
brass: metal (ottone)
feathers: hairs that cover the body of a bird (piume)
duck: anatra
swan: cigno
soul: spirit