John Barbour, the early Scottish poet, died on March 13th 1395.
Barbour was a 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 fictitious pedigree of the Stewarts back to Banquo and his son Fleance, yes they were real characters and not just made up by Shakespeare!
His long patriotic poem The Brus, awarded a prize of 10 pounds by the King Robert II, 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 find the quotation “A! Fredome is a noble thing!”
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 fight for Scottish independence from a ruthless 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 difficult 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.
Here is an excerpt, and translation from The Brus
…and led thar lyff in gret travaill
and oft in hard stour off batail
lwan gret price off chevalry
and war voydyt off cowardy
as wes king robert off scotland
that hardy wes off hart and hand
and gud schir james off douglas
that in his tyme sa worthy was
that off hys price and hys bounte
in ser landis renownyt wes he
off thaim I thynk this buk to ma
now god gyff grace that I may swa
tret it and bryng till endyng
that I say nocht bot suthfast thing
translates roughly to
Who led their life through great troubles,
Often in the hard struggles of battle,
And won the great prize of chivalry
And never knew what it was to be cowardly.
Such was King Robert of Scotland
Who was strong of heart and hand,
And good Sir James Douglas,
A worthy man in his time,
Who for his esteem and his generosity
Was famous in far off lands.
I make this book with them in mind.
Now God give me the grace that I may
Write it well and bring it to the end
Telling you nothing but the truth.
Imagine the world back then, no technology at all, the church was your main, if only, source of news, in the years after The Brus, the country was flushed with victory and to hear the stories of the struggles of their grandfathers, this poem sang the glories of freedom, and pictured the civic and knightly virtues of Bruce and Douglas. It’s largely thanks to this work that we know s much about King Robert and The Good Sir James.
arbour called it a romance, it is regarded as being in essential points a faithful history, and was so received by generations of readers. Walter Scott used it for the basis of several of his books and every book that has been written about this period of Scottish history since, has used The Brus as a basis of their research. Barbour spent much of his later life as a courtier to Robert II, who commisioned The Brus and The Stewartis Originall, although the latter is highly embellished to put the Stewarts in a much better light, Robert II being the first of their line would have been the source for Barbour to write the story. As well as the ten pound he received for writing The Brus, the King also granted Barbour a pension of a pound a year for the rest of his life. He went on to write a number of other poems, though most have been lost and the authorship of others is debated. The 33,000 line poem Legends of the Saints was probably written by him, as was as The Scots Buik of the most noble and vailyzeand Conqueror Alexander the Great. Many view him as the father of Scots language poetry. As well as being in Robert II court, Barbour continued to fulfil his duties at St Machars’ Cathedral until the early 1390s, and he died in Aberdeen in 1395, a plaque in the city remembers him. The pictures include one of the two earliest surviving manuscripts of The Brus, it shows a description of the initial phases of the battle of Bannockburn. This is a copy made by John Ramsay, Prior of the Carthusian monks at Perth, made this copy of the poem in 1489 and is held at The National Library of Scotland. The link takes you to the NLS page with and interesting timeline and links to important documents held in their archives.
https://digital.nls.uk/scotlandspages/1000-1500.html
The second pic is on the walls of The National Portrait gallery, a magnificent frieze of Scottish history, the aforementioned plaque, that can be found at Castle Street, Aberdeen, and finally the slap at the top of the mound fittingly marking the steps up to Makar’s Court in Edinburgh’s Old Town, the full stanza reads
A! Fredome is a noble thing! Fredome mays man to haiff liking. Fredome all solace to man giffis, He levys at es that frely levys! It translates to Freedom is a noble thing! Great happiness does freedom bring. All solace to a man it gives; He lives at ease that freely lives.