John Barbour
John Barbour - A Famous Scottish Poet - Father of Scottish poetry and history
John Barbour (c. 1320 - 1395) was the author in 1375 of Brus, a long historical romance on the subject of Robert the Bruce and the battle of Bannockburn. It was written with great spirit throughout, in spite of its extreme length of over 13,000 octosyllabic lines. Barbour was Archdeacon of the diocese of Aberdeen from 1357 until his death,
Barbour studied at Oxford and in France, and received from the crown one of the earliest known 'pensions' for his literary work. His famous epic The Brus (c.1375), tells of the deeds of Robert I, the Bruce, whose romantic legends are shared in the verses with another hero Sir James Douglas (c.1286–1330), history's 'Good Sir James'. The Brus is based on eyewitness accounts of Robert I's activities, with a climax at the battle of Bannockburn, and the pace is kept swift. The work is set in the English dialect that replaced French as the tongue of the Lowland gentry. Here is how Barbour describes King Robert's slaying of the English knight Sir Henry de Bohun:
And quhen the King wist at thai weir
In haill battale cummand so neir,
his battale Bert he weill aray.
be raid apon ane gray palfray
Eittill and joly, arayande his battall,
with ane ax in hande :
And on his basnet bye he bar fine hat off quyrbolle ay=quhar,
find thar=upon, in=to taknyng,
line bye croune, that he wes ane King.
quyrbolle - tough leather; ay-quhar- always
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