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Hary's Wallace is a late fifteenth-century poem in twelve books,
recounting the deeds of William Wallace, a leader of the Scots in
the First War of Independence. It is an extraordinary and
sophisticated piece of work which creates scenes of immense sensual
and symbolic intensity to underpin a narrative of Wallace's heroism
in the face of struggle, disloyalty and betrayal. Hary draws on
other Scottish material, particularly John Barbour's Bruce and
Walter Bower's Scotichronicon, to structure his hero's activities,
and he uses Chaucerian forms, including the five-stress couplet, to
enrich his account and appeal to his contemporary audience. While
the poem is best known as the ultimate source for the 1995 film
Braveheart, it offers a richer and more complex version of
Wallace's career and his contribution to the First War of
Independence. This edition, by Matthew P. McDiarmid, now reissued
by the Scottish Text Society after several years out of print, is
the standard scholarly edition of the poem, and provides a
comprehensive and accessible introduction, notes and glossary.
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.
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