This week over at The Fantasy Review Barn Nathan is once again taking us Tough Travelling through the tropes of fantasy and this week we’re in for a jolly old time of it looking at examples of MUSICIANS/BARDS

BARDS often join questing parties and provide entertainment around the campfire.  Sometimes their music even holds a little bit of magic.  Or a clue to an ancient mystery.  Or…

Allan a Dale is a minstrel in Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men.

Hoid from the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson.  Bit of a court jester with a sharp tongue, a keen eye and he also has the ability to jump between Sanderson’s books.

Ann McCaffrey’s Pern books – now I’ve only read the first one – but, I’m pretty sure that I’ve got another one about a Dragon singer?  That’s perhaps a bit of a cheat but….

The Painted Man by Peter Brett – Rojer – plays a mean fiddle – in spite of losing a couple of his fingers during an attack.

Kvothe, Name of the Wind and Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss – his parents belonged to a troupe themselves and Kvothe is a talented musician who earned his own set of pipes.

Mike Allen’s Black Fire Concerto – the two leading ladies (Erzelle and Olyssa) utilise their music to perform magic.

Honorary mention:

The Hobbits – I had to go there.  But, come on, they’re always singing songs and telling poems.  And actually the dwarves can wax a bit lyrical as well!

Shakespeare himself – something of a poet after all:

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind”