the brus by barbour

John Barbour c. 1320 - 1395

Copyright © 2003 Scottish Literary Tour Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Contents:

Biography.................................................................................................................................................................The Brus - Preface ...................................................................................................................................Pages 2 - 5Freedom Speech.......................................................................................................................................Pages 5 - 7Bruce’s Address to his Troops .......................................................................................................... Page 7 - 10Further 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 OriginallThe 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



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 suppos that thai be nocht bot fabill than suld storys that suthfast wer and thai war said on gud manerhave doubill plesance in heryng the fi rst plesance is the carpyng and the tother the suthfastnes that schawys the thing rycht as it wes and suth thyngis that ar likand till mannys heryng ar plesand 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 na ger it haly be foryet for auld storys that men redys representis to thaim the dedys Of stalwart folk that lyvyt ar rycht as thai than in presence war and certis thai suld weill have prys that in thar tyme war wycht and wys 2

Reading stories is delightfuleven if they are just fables.So hearing stories that are truthfulAnd told wellShould give double the pleasure.The fi rst pleasure is in telling themAnd the other in the truthfulnessThat shows the thing exactly as it was.And true things that are enjoyed To man’s hearing are pleasant.Therefore I would happily set my will,If my wits will last until the end,To write a truthful storyThat will be remembered for a long timeand in time won’t fade awayNor be completely forgotten.Because these old stories that men readTell us of the deedsOf solid, worthy people who can seem As alive now as they were then.And it is certain that we would prizeThose who in their day were strong and wise,



and led thar lyff in gret travaill and oft in hard stour off bataill wan 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 bountein 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

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 na ger it haly be foryet 3

Who led their life through great troubles,Often in the hard struggles of battle,And won the great prize of chivalryAnd never knew what it was to be cowardly.Such was King Robert of ScotlandWho was strong of heart and hand,And good Sir James Douglas,A worthy man in his time,Who for his esteem and his generosityWas famous in far off lands.I make this book with them in mind.Now God give me the grace that I mayWrite it well and bring it to the endTelling you nothing but the truth.



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.

The Declaration does more than try to placate the Pope, however. It describes in no uncertain terms what the Scots have suffered under English rule:

Thus our nation . . . lived in freedom and peace up to the time when that mighty prince the King of the English, Edward, the father of the one who reigns today, when our kingdom had no head and our people harboured no malice or treachery and were then unused to wars or invasions, came in the guise of a friend and ally to harass them as an enemy. The deeds of cruelty, massacre, violence, pillage, arson, imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries, robbing and killing monks and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which he committed against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor rank, no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own eyes.

And in these famous lines The Declaration make clear that the Scots are unwilling to suffer this again:

for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fi ghting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

Fundamentally the Declaration of Arbroath sets forth Scotland’s ambitions for independent nationhood. More generally, it is seen as the fi rst document which outlines a new kind of political landscape: i.e. one in which the greater good of the people is seen as 4



of greater imperative than the will of the king. In other words, democracy.

Over 400 years later, in 1776, Thomas Jefferson and a number of others would use the Declaration of Arbroath as a model for their own manifesto when the United States declared its independence from Great Britain.

Written by Colin Clark

Freedom Speech

A! Fredome is a noble thing fredome mays man to haiff likingfredome all solace to man giffi s he levys at es that frely levys a noble hart may haiff nane esna ellys nocht that may him ples gyff fredome failyhe, for fre liking is yharnyt our all other thingNa he that ay has levyt fre May nocht knaw weill the propyrte The angyr na the wrechyt dome That is couplyt to foule thyrldome Bot gyff he had assayit itThan all perquer he suld it wyt And suld think fredome mar to prys Than all the gold in warld that is

These words appear from lines 225 – 240 of the poem, so we’re still really only in the introduction. It is verses like this which set The Brus up more as literature than a work of reportage. Basically, Barbour is letting us know what kind of life we would be subject to (“foul thyrldome”) if not for the heroic deeds of Bruce and his companions-in-arms. Having assured us in the opening lines that he will deliver nothing but the truth, he still manages to digress from the story and provide the reader with sections like these: in this case a meditation on freedom.

It isn’t until line 445 when Barbour writes . . .

Lordingis, quha likis for till her, The romanys now begynnys her

Lords, who would like to hearThe romance now begins here.5

Freedom is a noble thing.Freedom gives Man choice.Freedom gives all men comfort.He who lives at ease lives freely.A noble heart may have no ease,Nor anything else that pleases himIf he doesn’t have his freedom, for happinessIs desired over everything else.Only he that he always lived freelyMay never know well what it’s like,The anger or the wretched conditionThat comes with foul enslavement.But if he ever experienced itThen he would know it perfectly,And should prize freedom more highlyThan all the gold in the world.



. . . that we get down to the story proper. Interestingly he calls it a “romanys.” This has nothing to do with Mills and Boon, of course. The romance is a form of story-telling that we traditionally associate with spirited tales of adventure surrounding fi gures like King Arthur and the knights of the round table: swashbuckling heroes, fair damsels in distress, and a strong magical element – dragons, spells and curses, etc.

Our modern use of the word as a love affair retains some of that association, although a romantic deed these days would be to present a bouquet of roses to your loved one rather than the still beating heart of a monster.

Romances were a form of literature imported into the British Isles from France, which gives us a clue about the literary tradition Barbour was working in: clearly The Brus is identifying with a particular genre. It might have been enough to present the facts simply and directly as they happened, but like all good stories, “the plesance is the carpyng” – the pleasure’s in the telling. It wouldn’t hurt the story too much and he would probably get a few more readers if he promised them a bit of drama, a bit of blood and guts. A story, in fact . . .

Off men that war in gret distres And assayit full gret hardynes

Of men that were in great distress And fully experienced great hardship

. . . but . . .

throu thar gret valour Come till gret hycht and till honour

through their great valour Achieved great standing and honour

And the substance of The Brus is not far removed from the world of chivalry and adventure of the romances. It is a lively tale told in a galloping tetrameter with rhyming couplets all the way, full of ands and buts and thens that drag us forward with the narrative at a brisk clip. There are lengthy descriptions of battle – hand-to-hand as well as full scale military combat – there are subplots and betrayals, risks taken against unfavourable odds, heroic deeds accomplished. Not that The Brus gives a one-sided glorifi cation of Bruce – Barbour details his character very well giving us moments where we witness the compassionate side of Bruce, as well as moments that reveal his ruthlessness, or his indecision

What makes this story unusual for a romance is that Bruce and Douglas and company were all real people who had lived and died and committed these incredible deeds within 6



living memory. In his poem Barbour lifts Bruce from the annals of history and raises him to something like a folk legend, a true romantic hero who fought for the freedom of his country.


Bruce’s Address to his Troopsand quhen it cummys to the fycht ilk man set hart will and mycht to stynt our fayis mekill prid on hors thai will arayit rid and cum on you in full gret hy, mete thaim with speris hardely and think than on the mekill ill that thai and tharis has done us till, and ar in will yeit for to do giff thai haf mycht to cum thar-to and certis me think weill that we for-out abasyng aucht to be worthy and of gret vasselagis for we haff thre gret avantagis the fyrst is that we haf the rycht and for the rycht ay God will fycht the tother is that thai cummyn ar forlyppynyng off thar gret powar to sek us in our awne landand has brocht her rycht till our hand ryches into sa gret quantité that the pourest of you sall be bath rych and mychty tharwithall giff that we wyne, as weill may fall the thrid is that we for our lyvis and for our childer and for our wyyis and for our fredome and for our land ar strenyeit in bataill for to standand thai for thar mycht anerly and for thai let of us heychtly and for thai wad distroy us all mais thaim to fycht, bot yeit may fall that thai sall rew thar barganyng and certis I warne you off a thing that happyn thaim, as God forbed till fynd fantis intill our deid that thai wyn us opynly thai sall off us haf na mercy and sen we knaw thar felone will 7

And when it comes to the fi ghtEvery man set his heart, will and mightTo weaken our foes’ great pride.They will come on horsebackAnd be upon you with great speed -Meet them with sturdy spearsAnd think of the great wrongThat they and those like them have done to usThat they are determined to continue to doIf they have the strength to defeat us.I am certain that we,Without giving in, ought to be Worthy and very brave For we have three great advantages: The fi rst is, that right is on our side – And God will always fi ght for those in the right; The second is that they have come here Completely convinced of their own great power To seek us out in our own land And they have brought here, right into our hands Riches in such great quantityThat the poorest of you shall be Both rich and powerful– If we win, as well we may. The third is that we - for our lives And for our children and our wives And for our freedom and for our land -Are bound to stand in battle. They are here just because they are powerful, Because they look down on us,And because they want to destroy us all. That’s what makes them fi ght; but it may yet happen That they will regret their decision. And truly, I warn you of one thing That if they, God forbid, Find us so faint-hearted That they defeat us easilyThey will have no mercy on us. And since we know their wicked intentions



me think it suld accord to skill to set stoutnes agayne felony and mak sa-gat a juperty quharfor I you requer and pray that with all your mycht that ye may that ye pres you at the begynnyng but cowardys or abaysing to mete thaim at sall fyrst assemble sa stoutly that the henmaist trymble and menys of your gret manheid our worschip and your douchti deid and off the joy that we abid giff that us fall, as well may tid hap to vencus this gret bataillin your handys without faile ye ber honour price and riches fredome welsh and blythnes giff you contene you manlely, and the contrar all halily sall fall giff ye lat cowardys and wykytnes your hertis suppris ye mycht have lyvyt into thryldome bot for ye yarnyt till have fredome ye ar assemblyt her with metharfor is nedfull that ye be worthy and wycht but abaysing ... ... giff ye will wyrk apon this wis ye sall haff victour sekyrly.

In the extract above Barbour speaks with the voice of King Robert the Bruce and delivers a rousing speech to his assembled army as it is ready to do battle with the enemy English army under King Edward’s command. His army were a bit shaky – the English army outnumbered them considerably and they were better armed: they had horses, the medieval equivalent of the latest military hardware. The Scots had little going for them in that sense, and it could have been a messy rout. In fact, at one point Bruce even decided not to go ahead with the battle, but was informed by a defector from the English camp that Edward’s army had a very low morale and were in a weak spot strategically.

In the end Bruce decided to go ahead with the battle, but before he did – like any good manager before his team takes to the pitch – he gave them a bit of a pep talk. The bottom line was this: if you fail in your desire to win the battle you will lose your freedom and face eternal serfdome (“thryldome”) under English rule.

The poem reminds modern readers here of Robert Burns who would have been familiar with this work and composed his anthem Scots Wha Hae with reference to it. It makes for a useful comparison:8

I think it would suit our abilitiesTo set our bravery against their cruelty And fi ght like that. Therefore I ask and beseech you That with all the strength that you can musterWhen the battle starts prepare yourselvesWithout cowardice or holding back To meet those that reach you fi rst So stoutly that those at the back tremble. And think of your great valour, Your courage, and your brave deeds And of the joy that waits for us If it happens, as well it might, That we are victorious in this great battle. In your hands, without fail, You bear honour, reputation and riches, Freedom, wealth and happiness, If you carry yourselves like men; And exactly the opposite Will befall if you let cowardice And wickedness take over your hearts. You could have lived under their thumb, But, because you yearned to have freedom You are gathered here with me; So it is necessary that you be Strong and bold and without fear … … If you will behave in this way You will surely have victory.



Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled,Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,Welcome to your gory bed Or to victorie!Now’s the day, and now’s the hour:See the front o’ battle lour,See approach proud Edward’s power – Chains and slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave?Wha can fi ll a coward’s grave?Wha sae base as be a slave? – Let him turn, and fl ee!Wha for Scotland’s King and LawFreedom’s sword will strongly draw,Freeman stand, or Freeman fa’, Let him follow me!By Oppression’s woes and pains,By your sons in servile chains,We will drain your dearest veins, But they shall be free!Lay the proud usurpers low!Tyrants fall in every foe!Liberty’s in every blow! – Let us do, or die!

The comparison stands more in Burns’s favour here. He packs into his three stanzas the passion and conviction of Bruce, but does it with such an economy of words and a lightness of touch that leaves poor old Barbour’s Bruce sounding rather longwinded. We imagine the army would rather the King just gave them the nod for them to get on with it. Bruce’s army was unlikely to have been made up entirely of professional soldiers, and would have included many dispirited tradesmen, farmers and fi shermen fearful of imminent slaughter. In a square-go my money would be on the army that hears the speech Burns wrote.

Burns’s verses are punchier and we grasp the sense more immediately than in Barbour, not just because we feel more at home with his more modern language, but also because of his variation of meter and rhyme. Burns also punctuates each of his stanzas – in the middle and at the end – with dramatic interjections or questions – rhetorical devices that have worked for speech-makers for millennia. Barbour more or less sticks to the same rhyming couplet scheme throughout the 13,500 or so lines of The Brus and his metrical pattern is similarly unvaried, though it suits this kind of epic narrative. In other words, Burns wants us to get the full impact of every line so he keeps halting the momentum, Barbour wants us to keep reading, a bit like a modern novelist, so he pushes us onward.9



Scots Wha Hae reads like modern English and Scots. It is interesting to note that the opening stanza makes judicious use of Scots (wha, wham, aften, lour etc.) while the fi nal stanza is written completely in English (“We will drain your dearest veins”, “Tyrants fall in every foe!”, etc) as if the message here – from Bruce and from Burns is being directed specifi cally at English ears.

We are comfortable with the way Burns’s lines either contain complete sentences, or add on subordinate clauses before reaching the main verb (e.g. “By Oppression’s woes and pains/ By your sons in servile chains/ We will drain your dearest veins . . .”). Reading Barbour in the 21st century is especially tricky because his grammar is quite alien to us – frequently we need to read a couple of lines before we can grasp the full meaning of a sentence. Assuming we can spot the verb, that is. But ultimately we must judge the poem on its own merits and as a literary and historical testament to the bravery and heroism of the Scots and their leaders in the face of aggressive occupation and possible annihilation it stands alone in Scottish and European literature.


Further Reading

Websites

The Earliest Scottish LiteratureIn-depth discussion of Barbour, from an on-line encyclopaedia.http://www.bartleby.com/212/0502.html

Barbour and “The Brus”the historical background of John Barbour and the subject of his long poem.http://www.stmachar.com/history/brus.htm

Why read “The Brus”?interesting discussion about the poem and its author.http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/SESLL/STELLA/STARN/poetry/BRUS/intro.htm

The following websites will be of general interest to the student of Scottish literature:

Scottish Literary Tour TrustFeaturing an extensive section on the Makars’ Literary Tourhttp://www.scot-lit-tour.co.uk

National Library of Scotlandhttp://www.nls.uk/10



Scottish Poetry LibraryA very attractively laid out website with information on some of the major poets of the 20th century along with detailed readings of their best-known works.http://www.spl.org.uk/index.html

SLAINTEThe name stands for Scottish Librarians Across the Internet. This excellent site features brief, well-written biographies of many of the great Scottish writers.http://www.slainte.org.uk/Scotauth/scauhome.htm

Scots OnlineFrom essays to an online dictionary this is a web-based resource with everything you could possibly need to know about the Scots language and how it is used.http://www.scots-online.org/

Shudder at the Nifferhttp://www.fl eimin.demon.co.uk/Bletherskite/Shudder_At_The_Niffer.htm

Gaelic & Scottish ConnectionsA resource on Gaelic language and culture, featuring poetry and essays and an online dictionary.http://www.gaelicscottish.com/

Electric ScotlandElectric Scotland is a real mixed bag of Scottish paraphernalia with nationalist overtones. This page in particular allows you to hear and read complete Scots poems, from MacDiarmid to Dunbar.http://www.electricscotland.com/si/features/scots/complete.htm

Literature linksAn encyclopaedic web of links to Scots magazines, monuments, libraries and languages.http://www.burryman.com/scotland.html - lit

Project GutenbergThis is a web-based publisher of copyright expired books. http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/cgi-bin/sdb/t9.cgi/

Poetry ArchiveA good, user-friendly site, sponsored by a bookseller, which features examples from some of the best poets in the world. http://www.poetry-archive.com/

Poem IndexAlmost 900 poems in the English language from 13th to 19th centuries.http://tcsu.trin.cam.ac.uk/~john/pgbev/html-interface/full-index.html11



Representative Poetry On-lineAn enormous and easy to use resource based at the University of Toronto featuring alphabetical and chronological lists of 450 poets with substantial selections of their work.http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet42.html

Scottish PENThe name stands for Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists and exists to promote the friendly co-operation between writers in the interests of freedom of expression throughout the world.http://www.scottishpen.org/

Writers’ PortraitsPhotographic and biographical pen portraits of some of Scotland’s greatest contemporary writers.http://www.nls.uk/writestuff/

Anthologies

The Book of Prefacesedited and glossed by Alasdair GrayBloomsbury (2000)Every home should have one. Dust jacket contains this advice: “Warning to Parents, Teachers, Librarians, Booksellers. Do not let smart children handle this book. It will help them pass examinations without reading anything else.”

The Faber Book of Twentieth Century Scottish PoetryEdited by Douglas DunnFaber & Faber (1992)A detailed account of the dramatic transformations the Scottish verse underwent in the previous century, with an enlightening introduction by Dunn.

The New Penguin Book of Scottish Verseedited by Robert Crawford and Mick ImlahPenguin (2000)A beautifully presented chronology of some of the greatest Scottish poetry, from the 6th

century to the present.

The Penguin Book of Scottish Verseedited by Tom ScottPenguin (1970)Earlier incarnation of above, edited by Scott – a recent inductee to Makars’ Court. Contains the infamous and controversial rude verse attributed to Burns. Makes for an interesting comparison with Crawford & Imlah’s anthology.12



An Anthology of Scottish Women PoetsEdited by Catherine KerriganEdinburgh University Press (1991)Covers folksong, ballad, Scots and Anglo-Scots, from the middle ages to contemporary poets.

Studies and Criticism

Scottish Literatureeds Douglas Gifford, et alEdinburgh University Press (2002)This is all just about all you need to know about Scottish literature. A comprehensive, and very readable book. Excellent.

The Mainstream Companion to Scottish LiteratureTrevor RoyleMainstream (1993)Alphabetically arranged standard reference on Scottish literature.

Modern Scottish LiteratureAlan BoldLongman (1983)Learned, erudite discussion of the major writers and texts of Scottish literature in the 20th

century. Brilliant study material for Higher English.

Imagine a City: Glasgow In FictionMoira BurgessArgyll (1998)The defi nitive work on Glasgow’s place in Scottish literature, written by the author of the Makars Court Tour script.

A History of Scottish Women’s Writingedited by Douglas Gifford and Dorothy McMillanEdinburgh University Press (1997)This is the best book around for Scottish women’s writing at the moment. Tone can be a bit academic in places.

13

John Barbour 1320 - 1395


Contacts

For further information about this project contact:

Morris PatonScottish Literary Tour Trust. Suite 297b West Bow Edinburgh EH1 2JP

E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.scot-lit-tour.co.uk

14

the brus by barbour

Education

king robert of scotland

wes king robert

thai war

edward bruce

john barbourc

facts of robert

brus preface

epic poem