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.

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.