Dumfries and Galloway Standard, November 13, 1996
Scotland’s Quality Literary Magazine, September 10, 1997
Books in Scotland, Autumn 1996
Product Description
From the Inside Flap
Robert the Bruce himself was famed for his courage, chivalry and humane treatment of those defeated. His military exploits are unmatched in Scottish history, but he was motivated not by personal ambition but by an inextinguishable love for freedom. He was accompanied in his great feats of arms by his faithful lieutenant, Sir James Douglas, ‘the Black Douglas’. Their friendship went beyond death. After the death of The Bruce, the Black Douglas carried his king’s heart into battle against the Saracens.
Barbour wrote The Bruce during the second half of the fourteenth century, and it is one of the great achievements of Scots writing. The narrative, full of colourful personalities, carries the reader along from castle and court into the thick of battle. Ringing through it all is the theme of the importance of individual and national liberty. For too long this seminal work of Scottish literature has been available only to scholars able to read medieval Scots. This translation by Eyre-Todd into modern English prose (first published in 1907) fully captures the vigour and verve of the original. It is a vital book for everyone who cares about Scotland.
Excerpted from The Bruce (Mercat Classics S.) by John Barbour, George Eyre-Todd. Copyright © 1996. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Book I
The English Tyranny
Stories are delightful to read, even if they be nought but fable. Therefore should stories that are true, if well told, have double pleasure for the hearer. The first pleasure is in the tale as a tale, and the second in the truth of it, that shews the happening right as it was. Thus truths wholesome for man’s mind are made pleasant to his ear. Fain would I, therefore set my will, if my wit suffice, to put in writing a true tale, that it endure henceforth in memory, that no length of time destroy it, nor cause it to be wholly forgotten. For stories of old time, as men read, picture to them the deeds of the stout folk that lived of yore right as if done before their eyes. And surely praise is fairly due to those who in their time were wise and strong, who spent their lives in great labours, and often, in hard stress of battle, won right great prize of chivalry and acquitted themselves of cowardice.
Such was King Robert of Scotland, brave of hand and heart, and good Sir James of Douglas, so stout a knight in his time that his achievement and nobleness were renowned in far lands. Of them I purpose to make this book. God grant that I may so treat the matter, and bring it to an end, that it say nought but truth. ...
