Once upon a time there was a child born to a wealthy couple in England in the 9th century. The child cried all the time, and once she could talk she complained of ear pain almost constantly, no matter what the doctors tried. Herbal remedies didn't help, massages didn't help, nothing would work. She took one doctor's medicine for a week, and another doctor claimed it was what caused the pain. Eventually, the family asked the king to let them travel to Ireland to seek the help of the druids. The kind king said they should go, with all haste, and so they left, taking only what they needed to survive and some guards. The rest was left in control of a cousin who claimed to know business. They hired a ship, and once they got to the island, they sought out the druids and begged for their help. The daughter's pain had become so unbearable that she could hardly move, and it took almost a year to reach the druids. The druids deliberated and argued, holding off the decision for a month. One family welcomed them with open arms, and taught them to sing and speak the Irish language Gaelic.
The child, Lheabonne, had the most beautiful voice in the glen. Once she learned this, hardly a day went by without her soft yet reaching voice heard at all hours. Miraculously, the druids found her cured when they sought out the family at the end of their consideration. The father told them that once she started singing, the pain went away over a week or so. Lheabonne eventually married and had many children, all of whom had wondrous voices but not a speck of the crippling pain in their skulls that had so plagued their mother. But the island never forgot, and when a great-great grandchild was born who complained of earaches, he was told this story and began to travel throughout Ireland, England, France, Scotland, Spain, and wherever else the wind took him, singing and playing instruments. His children soon popped up around the discovered world, singing and dancing and playing like their father. And that was how Bards came to be. Oh, to be sure, every now and then one pops up unrelated to Lheabonne. But they are rare people, and typically not as good singers.