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The Northern Muse

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Fighting for Freedom

Scotland has a literature that goes right back to the 14th century, when the earliest Scots poem The Bruce was written by John Barbour, telling the story of Robert the Bruce, who became King of Scots after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Barbour lived from about 1320-1395, a long life for those days, and he was Archdeacon of Aberdeen, from 1357 and travelled to both England and France as a scholar. The church was the source of learning in the Middle Ages, so churchmen numbered among our earliest writers. Barbour's poem survives in two late 15th century manuscripts, one held in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh and the other in St John's College Cambridge.

The Bruce is not a crude and primitive piece of work but a highly sophisticated epic poem, written in rhyming couplets, each line with four strong beats - octosyllabic verse, this is called - and is the same as that used by Robert Bums for Tam o Shanter, four hundred years later. The concept of freedom that had inspired the Scots under William Wallace to fight for their freedom in the Wars of Independence , was recognised by Barbour, who probably wrote his great poem to help keep the feeling of patriotism alive. He is remembered for his lines beginning :-

A! Fredome is a noble thing
Fredome mays men to haiff liking ;
(This means - Fredome gives people choice)
Fredome all solace to man giffis;
He levys at es that frely levys.

It is difficult for people nowadays to read John Barbour's poetry, for on paper it looks so different from the way we write today, but it isn't as difficult to understand when you hear it read aloud. Of course, in spite of what scholars say, we haven't any real knowledge of how people spoke in those days, since the tape recorder hadn't been invented, but it's sometimes possible to work out from rhymes, how it sounded. For example in the four lines quoted the word "gives" is spelt "giffis" and the word "lives" is spelt "levys", but they are meant to rhyme, so we can say "gives" and :"lives"; approximate to how they sounded. Spelling wasn't standardised in those days, when Scots was just starting to be written down. That means writers were in the same position as present day writers who want to write in Scots. We hear a lot of girning because there isn't a standard laid down and people feel insecure about writing words as they sound, being used to the rules of English spelling. But we should reflect on the fact that it didn't deter the first Scots writers, so it shouldn't deter us. Besides we do now have a Scots dictionary and a Scots Style Sheet to help us.

I'll read a bit of John Barbour's Bruce, stopping to explain bits as I go along, to give you a flavour of it. In these lines, Bruce is outlining a plan of battle for the field of Bannockburn :-

Lordinges, now ye se
That Ynglis men with mekill mycht
Has all disponit thame for the ficht,
For thai yon castell wald reskew.
(The English wanted to recapture Stirling Castle)
Tharfor is gud we ordane now
How we may let thame of purpos,
And swa to thame the wayis clos,
That thai pas nocht but gret lettying.
(Let and lettying here mean hinder and hindering Bruce is proposing that they make a battle plan to cut their enemies approach to the castle)
We haf heir with us at byddyng
Weill thretty thousand men and ma.
Mak we four battalis (four battalions) of all thai
And ordane us in sic maner,
That quhen our fayis cummys neir
We till the New Park hald our way;
For thair behufis thaim pas, perfay,
(They will have to go that way)
Bot gif that they beneth us ga,
And oure the marras pas (cross the marshes); and swa
We sall be at avantage thair.
(We'll be in a better position than they)
For me think that richt speidfull war
To gang on fut to this fechting,
(He thinks they win be more successful fighting on foot)
Armyt bot in-to licht armyng,
For schupe we on hors to ficht
(If we tried to fight on horseback)
Syn our fais ar mar of mycht
And better horsit than ar we
(Since our enemies are stronger and have better horses))
We suld in gret perell be.
An gif we ficht on fut, perfay,
At avantage we sall be ay;
For in the park emang the treis
The hors men alwais cummerit be
(The horsemen are always hampered among trees).
And the sykis alswa thair doune
Sall put thaim to confusioune.
(The trenches down there will confuse them).

We can see that as well as high-flown rhetoric, Barbour is able to write very clear and vivid description of the details of the battlefield, which makes his poem of tremendous interest. Bruce was a good historian and storyteller and wrote in the style of the French courtly romances.

Before Bruce, of course, there was Wallace, described in David Daiches Companion to Scottish Culture as "without question ... the greatest of the heroic warrior leaders of popular nationalism in the Middle Ages." Wallace's achievements were recorded by a minstrel known as Blin Hary who live in the latter half of the 15th century. Hary was more concerned to present Wallace as a hero rather than to observe strict historical accuracy, but he does help us to imagine the man himself. In fact he gives us a detailed description of his appearance :-

Wallace stator off gretnes and off hicht
Was jugyt thus, be discretioun off rycht,
That saw him bath dissembill and in weid:
(This is how his appearance was described by people who saw
him both unclothed and clothed)
Nine quartaris lang he was in lenth indeed
Thrid part lenth in schudrys braid was he.
(An ell was about equivalent to a metre so this that would make him nearly seven feet
tall! It is a known fact that Wallace was exceptionally tall for his own time, when people were
much smaller than they are now)
Richt sembly, strong and lusty for to se;
His lymmis gret, with stalwart paiss and sound;
(Handsome, strong and sturdy, with large well-built limbs)
His browes hard, his armes gret and round,
His handis maid richt lik till a pawmer (a palm tree leaf)
Off manlik mak, with naless gret and cler;
Proportionyt lang and fayr was his visage;
Richt sad off spech and abill in curage;
(sad here means serious)
Braid breyst and heych, with sturdy crag and gret:
(He was broad-chested and strong-necked)
His lyppis round, his noys squar and tret:
Bowand bron haryt,on browis and breis lycht
Cler aspre eyn, like diamonds brycht.
(That is full lips, straight nose, brown hair that waved on his brow, clear keen eyes as bright as
diamonds)
Undyr the chin, on the left syd was seyn
Be hurt a wain;
(under his chin he had a scar from an old wound)
his colour was sangweyn
(his skin had a high colour)
Woundis he had in mony divers place
Bot fair and weill kepyt was his face.

This description is so close-up and clear, down to the scar under his chin, that Hary must have got it from a reliable first-hand source, since he himself had never seen Wallace, whose had been cruelly put to death years before he was born. It's fascinating to be able to picture so vividly this face from a shadowy past. Can you imagine the scar on a military leader's face being read about by people six centuries after his death ? Blin Hary's Wallace is full of amazing stories, some of which are true, others more legendary. The language has changed a lot since Barbour and Blin Hary wrote - for language is a living growing thing - but the sound of it is still recognisably Scottish.