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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7088503" data-attributes="member: 4937">This is one of those questions where the only real response is, "Go read the Kalevala, and then we'll discuss it."Bard is unfortunately really disconnected from the tradition that inspired it.  One of the few mostly well done scenes in Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' - because it was mostly lifted directly from the books - is the Théoden speech before the Rohirrim charge the Pelanor fields.  But there is one aspect of that scene that was not copied, which is, as they charge, they all break out in a battle song - think maybe the theme of Skyrim - and "slew as they sang".   That idea of warriors singing as they slew their foes seems really incongruous and even ridiculous to modern viewers/readers, but it was very much essential to the way Northern Europeans viewed warfare in antiquity and the early dark ages.  Their war gods were also gods of music.  The two went hand and hand.  The battle pipers of Scotland are one of the last remaining legacies of that, though you might consider a modern tankers preference for heavy metal when charging into battle to be the modern equivalent.But step back a bit.  While it's true we no longer associate soldiers with singing as they slay, no one would think of having a massive battle scene without a grand symphonic score.   That's the magic of music that the ancient Bards were tapping into.</blockquote>