What were the Bards or Scops?

Bards or Scops were the Old English poets. Their job was
to travel and tell the tale of the great heroes, and so it is becaue of these traveling
performers epics like Beowulf were preserved in an oral tradition until they were
finally written down.  These positions were respected in the Anglo-Saxon society, for
the only way to gain fame in the Anglo-Saxon time was to perform a duty worthy enough to
be remembered and told by the scops.  The rhythm and rhyme of the epics were often
crafted in such a way to assist the scop in remembering the
details.