Gowan the Bard was an Anglo-Saxon scop who lived in Tonbridge, Kent during the late 9th century AD. In 875, he drank with King Alfred the Great's emissary Uscfrea Walker at the Tonbridge Inn as Uscfrea rode to Devon, and, not long after, the Viking warrior Eivor came to the inn to investigate Uscfrea's whereabouts. He found out from Bregowine Trumhering that Gowan was passed out under the bridge, and Eivor then picked Gowan up, dumped him in the River Medway, and interrogated the sobered-up Gowan. Gowan's attempt to solicit a bribe was rejected, and he ultimately confessed that Uscfrea had headed to Dover Castle (where the Order of the Ancients trained its paladins); Eivor then thanked him and warned him against too much "beer-bibing".