Barbour's Bruce

Barbour's Bruce (c. 1375) is the oldest substantial piece of literature in Older Scots. It narrates in four-stress couplets the feats of Robert Bruce and his supporters most notably James Douglas and Thomas Randolph. Their heroic activities including battles against odds and clever out-manoeuvrings as well as open warfare provide opportunities for discussion of good leadership the celebration of freedom and a construction of Scottishness alongside a narrative with enough verifiable historical detail to make it compelling and convincing. Barbour's narrative implicitly locates Bruce and Douglas against European traditions of the Nine Worthies particularly Alexander and shows a sophisticated sense of structure in the central placing of Bannockburn and Bruce's speech on freedom. <p/>This edition by McDiarmid and Stevenson out of print for several years is now reissued by the Scottish Text Society. In addition to the text it provides a full introduction notes and a glossary.