More News

The Bardic Circle sat around a crackling hearth fire, flipping pages of their photocopied songbooks to find the words for "Garryowen," an old Irish drinking song from Limerick.

Their bellies full of corned beef and soda bread and their voices melodic and clear, the men, women and children began the upbeat tune, tapping the 250-year-old floorboards inside Schifferstadt Architectural Museum's kitchen.

Let Bacchus' sons be not dismayed,

But join with me, each jovial blade

Come, drink and sing and lend your aid

To help me with the chorus.

Steaming slices of rosy corned beef, Irish soda bread studded with golden raisins and apricots, butter and white bread were spread out on a table in front of the hearth, where a black pot of cabbage bubbled over a wood-fueled fire.

The Bardic Circle of Highland Foorde, a local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism, met on Saint Patrick's Day for its bimonthly meeting.

The circle gathers at Schifferstadt, an 18th century German home and museum on Rosemont Avenue in Frederick, to share ancient poetry, music and literature in the medieval tradition as "bards" — the people who once kept art, history, music and literature alive in Celtic Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France.

The Society for Creative Anachronism — an educational nonprofit group whose members research and recreate the Middle Ages in present time — includes Frederick, Washington, Allegheny and Garrett counties in the "barony" of Highland Foorde.

Christina Murphy, head gardener at Schifferstadt, said the museum invited the Bardic Circle to use the house's space.

Like many nonprofit groups, Schifferstadt Architectural Museum is also struggling in the economic recession, Murphy said, and is trying to make a tough situation better by partnering and creating more opportunities for community involvement at the museum.

As the evening wore on and more logs were laid on the dying hearth fire, the group of mostly Frederick County residents sang about Molly Malone selling her cockles and mussels ("Alive, alive oh!"), "Lilli Bulero," a 17th century Irish Protestant song, and shared Irish folktales about sea gods and heroes.

Some members paused between songs to play guitar, pennywhistle and drum or to grab swallows of Mead, a honey wine.

Swannoc Beage of Frederick, a member of Highland Foorde, said a bard's job is not just entertainment. "A bard is to try to be something more than that," she noted.

A bard acquires knowledge, teaches and creates peace. They once spread the news of kings' deeds, knew the good and bad guys and kept history alive through memory, Beage said.

As members of Highland Foorde, Ruth Bryant and Ed Mordan also take on and research medieval personas and special areas of interest. Bryant, the group's leader, said she has an interest in sword and board martial arts.

Mordan of Woodsboro, who is known in the group as "Ed the tinker," said he has researched medieval hand arts, such as carving, leather-making and stained glass.

"You do this research and it's really cool," Mordan added.

Some members even go so far as to craft their own armor or raise specific breeds of sheep to weave yarn and create their "garb," or historical clothing.

Mordan pointed to curiosity as the driving force behind the research that Society of Creative Anachronism members do to learn and share these arts and medieval traditions with one another. In general, people are disconnected from their roots, he noted.

"How else do you figure it out unless you do it?" he asked.

E-mail Katherine Mullen at kmullen@gazette.net.