- Essays on Lingua Lincoln -

- The King's Bards - Telling the Tale -

by Lincoln Sayger

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The Wayfarer holds an interesting position in the King's court. Many Wayfarers have become enamored with a combat role in the realm, singing about how they are soldiers in the King's army.

Wayfarers are not the King's soldiers. Wayfarers are instructed in the King's edicts to take up armor and arms and be ready to stand in the day of battle. But the King's edicts do not command Wayfarers to fight, rather only to stand firm and withstand the enemy's onslaught. Many of the King's servants have written of their gratitude for the King's help when fighting, but fighting is not the job of a Wayfarer. The battle does not belong to us but to the King and his Son.

Wayfarers are more like fili, or bards, or minstrels, in the sense that a Wayfarer's job is to be a repository of knowledge and stories and facts about the King, the King's amnesty, the King's conquest of the enemies of this realm, and the King's words.

Nor are Wayfarers mere storytellers and entertainment-singing minstrels. Instead, Wayfarers are more like the bardic loremasters and official-witness type of minstrel seen in some of the fables of the realm. Wayfarers are to be observers in this realm, witnessing the actions of the King in the world and telling those around us what the King has done in our own lives and the lives of those around us.

Because of this, it is vitally important for Wayfarers to cultivate and maintain a reputation for honesty and just discernment, discriminating on the basis of truth, not prejudice or self-interest. As Wayfarers, we should tell the truth, look for ways to use the truth to build people up rather than tearing them down, and pay attention so that we aren't rooked into making mistakes about what really happens around us. We need to keep things in perspective to see root causes rather than excuses or convenient correlations. We need to be known for being filled with the truth. That is our role as Wayfarers.

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