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Barbour File John Barbour c. 1320 - 1395 Contents: Biography.................................................................................................................................................................Page 1 The Brus - Preface...................................................................................................................................Pages 2 - 5 Freedom Speech.......................................................................................................................................Pages 5 - 7 Bruce’s Address to his Troops ..........................................................................................................Page 7 - 10 Further Reading / Contacts.......................................................................................................... Pages 10 - 14 Biography: John Barbour (c. 1320 - 1395) : Poet, churchman and scholar. Probably born in Aberdeen, where he spent most his life and held the position of Archdeacon. He was granted passage to study at Oxford and Paris. Several poems have been attributed to Barbour, one of which, The Stewartis Originall, relates the fi ctitious pedigree of the Stewarts back to Banquo and his son Fleance. His long patriotic poem The Brus, awarded a prize of 10 pounds by the king, is his most famous work. It supplies some facts of Robert the Bruce, many of which are told in anecdotal style and emphasises Bruce’s exploits in freeing Scotland from English rule. This poem is also where we can fi nd the quotation “A! Fredome is a noble thing!” 1 Copyright © 2003 Scottish Literary Tour Trust. All Rights Reserved. John Barbour c. 1320 - 1395 The Brus - Preface: Barbour’s The Brus (The Bruce) is considered to stand right at the beginning of Scots literature and history, since it is the oldest Scots manuscript still in existence. It is an epic poem which tells the bloody tale of King Robert the Bruce, Sir James of Douglas and Edward Bruce and their fi ght for Scottish independence from a ruthlessly acquisitive Edward I of England who wanted Scotland (along with Wales and France) to become part of his kingdom. The poem includes a graphic depiction of the Battle of Bannockburn, and also relates the skulduggery and intrigue that surrounded Robert the Bruce in his accession to the Scottish throne. The language is essentially that of 14th century Scotland – which by my clock makes it over 600 years old. A lot can happen to a language in 600 years. Reading it now it’s diffi cult to get past the weird spellings, obscure words, twisted sentence structure, etc. But if you read it aloud (not recommended in libraries), or read it into yourself and try to hear the words as they are written, then you have won half the battle. A loose translation is provided to clue you in to the sense of the poem but really the greatest pleasure is reading this stuff as it was written. Just treat it like a word game or a puzzle. It doesn’t take long, and it’s only a short couple of extracts we have presented here. Storys to rede ar delitabill Reading stories is delightful suppos that thai be nocht bot fabill even if they are just fables. than suld storys that suthfast wer So hearing stories that are truthful and thai war said on gud maner And told well have doubill plesance in heryng Should give double the pleasure. the fi rst plesance is the carpyng The fi rst pleasure is in telling them and the tother the suthfastnes And the other in the truthfulness that schawys the thing rycht as it wes That shows the thing exactly as it was. and suth thyngis that ar likand And true things that are enjoyed till mannys heryng ar plesand To man’s hearing are pleasant. tharfor i wald fayne set my will Therefore I would happily set my will, giff my wyt mycht suffi ce thartill If my wits will last until the end, to put in wryt a suthfast story To write a truthful story that it lest ay furth in memory That will be remembered for a long time awa that na tyme of lenth it let and in time won’t fade away na ger it haly be foryet Nor be completely forgotten. for auld storys that men redys Because these old stories that men read representis to thaim the dedys Tell us of the deeds Of stalwart folk that lyvyt ar Of solid, worthy people who can seem rycht as thai than in presence war As alive now as they were then. and certis thai suld weill have prys And it is certain that we would prize 2 that in thar tyme war wycht and wys Those who in their day were strong and wise, Copyright © 2003 Scottish Literary Tour Trust. All Rights Reserved. John Barbour c. 1320 - 1395 and led thar lyff in gret travaill Who led their life through great troubles, and oft in hard stour off bataill Often in the hard struggles of battle, wan gret price off chevalry And won the great prize of chivalry and war voydyt off cowardy And never knew what it was to be cowardly. as wes king robert off scotland Such was King Robert of Scotland that hardy wes off hart and hand Who was strong of heart and hand, and gud schir james off douglas And good Sir James Douglas, that in his tyme sa worthy was A worthy man in his time, that off hys price and hys bounte Who for his esteem and his generosity in ser landis renownyt wes he Was famous in far off lands. off thaim I thynk this buk to ma I make this book with them in mind. now god gyff grace that I may swa Now God give me the grace that I may tret it and bryng till endyng Write it well and bring it to the end that I say nocht bot suthfast thing Telling you nothing but the truth. In these opening lines of his poem (which runs to over 13,500 lines) Barbour is keen to inform us about the truthfulness of his writing. He lets us know right away that even though we may read for pleasure – “Storys to rede ar delitabill” – this is no mere “fabill”, or fi ction, but a “suthfast thing”. In fact he tells us that reading a work of fact, or history, should give us double the pleasure since we can enjoy it simply for how the story is told, for the plot in other words, and we get satisfaction from knowing that it really happened. This is sometimes called positioning the reader. In other words, he’s telling us what to think about the story without us being allowed to make up our own mind. In literature of this time we can generally trust the writer to be telling the truth – but we still have to be on our guard: is The Brus purely a work of historical investigation or reportage, or is it a work of literature as well? If it’s a work of literature then there will be aspects to it that take us away from “suthfastness” into more subjective territory. Not that we shouldn’t believe the accuracy of his facts, just that it’s as well to remember that Barbour is writing a story, fi rst and foremost. And like any story teller, from Blind Harry all the way to Randall Wallace (American screenwriter of Braveheart) the fi rst things to go when they get in the way of a good story are the facts. Certainly, The Brus has provided us with great insights into a major part of our history that would be lost to us without this work. In a way he has an eye to posterity and the lasting importance of his work when he says: tharfor i wald fayne set my will giff my wyt mycht suffi ce thartill to put in wryt a suthfast story that it lest ay furth in memory awa that na tyme of lenth it let 3 na ger it haly be foryet Copyright © 2003 Scottish Literary Tour Trust. All Rights Reserved. John Barbour c. 1320 - 1395 He says that if he is up to the job intellectually (“giff my wyt mycht suffi ce thartill” – literally: if my wit might suffi ce theretill) then he is happy to put into writing a true story that will last beyond the memories of men, so that the essence of it will always remain, and never completely be forgotten. Remember that a great deal of our history and literature has never been written down. Much of it passed through generations by word of mouth – called oral history – and inevitably most of it has been lost. Not until poets like Robert Burns and James Hogg and Walter Scott did Scotland’s vast literary history in the form of ballads begin to be archived in books. Barbour knew what he was up to, knew that he was performing a great service to the nation and we’re glad he did. There is another document which exists from the period of Bruce and Barbour: The Declaration of Arbroath. This is a letter written in Latin and sent in 1320 (55 years before Barbour’s The Brus was published) to the Pope in Avignon, France from a large number of Scottish nobles on behalf of the community of Scotland. Essentially, it sets out the reasons why the Scots are still at war with their English neighbours when all Christian provinces and kingdoms were supposed to have forgotten their differences and united against the Muslims in a kind of medieval coalition of the willing. Islam was perceived even then as a threat to Christian nations, and the Church began a holy war in the Middle East (or Holy Land) called the Crusades. Since the Pope sees the Scots to be causing internal division in the ranks of the Christian world (or Christendom) he excommunicates them from the Church. Again, a Middle Ages and more godly version of modern trade sanctions.
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