A01=John Barbour
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_John Barbour
automatic-update
B01=James A. C. Stevenson
B01=Matthew P. McDiarmid
Bannockburn
Barbour
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJD
Category=NHD
chivalry
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Freedom
heroism
James Douglas
kingship
Language_English
loyalty
nobility
PA=Available
Price_€100 and above
PS=Active
rebellion
Robert Bruce
Scottishness
softlaunch
Thomas Randolph
violence and conflict
Product details
- ISBN 9781897976494
- Weight: 953g
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 28 Mar 2023
- Publisher: Scottish Text Society
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
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.
John Barbour (c. 1330-1395) concluded his career as archdeacon of Aberdeen. He was associated with the royal Stewart affinity, and his works seek to establish both Bruce and Stewart rights to the throne. The Bruce is the earliest surviving text in Scots: it narrates the feats of Robert Bruce and James Douglas during the First War of Independence. Matthew McDiarmid (25 June 1914-12 February 1996) was a Scottish literary scholar, essayist, campaigning academic and poet.
McDiarmid was one of the leading members of a pioneering generation of Scottish academics who laboured and campaigned for a proper place for Scotland's literature in Scottish universities. At the opening of his career, no Scottish university had a dedicated professor of Scottish literature; by the time of his death, there were six. J.A.C. Stevenson was a leading scholar and philologist of his generation, and his edition of the Bruce is still standard.
