Of our ancestors, brave true ancient Scots,
 Whose glorious scutcheons knew no bars or blots;
 But blood untainted circled ev'ry vein,
 And ev'ry thing ignoble did disdain;
 Of such illustrious patriots and bold,
 Who stoutly did maintain our rights of old,
 Who their malicious, invet'rate foes,
 With sword in hand, did gallantly oppose:
 And in their own, and nation's just defence,
 Did briskly check the frequent insolence
 Of haughty neighbours, enemies profest,
 Picts, Danes, and Saxons, Scotland's very pest;
 Of such, I say, I'll brag and vaunt so long
 As I have power to use my pen or tongue;
 And sound their praises in such modern strain
 As suiteth best a Scot's poetic vein,
 First, here I honour, in particular,
 Sir William Wallace, much renown'd in war,
 Whose bold progenitors have long time stood,
 Of honourable and true Scottish blood.

Carrying on with the theme, a guest poem sent in by Anustup Datta

(15th c., trans. William of Gilbertfield, 1722)

Note: Variously titled - everything from “Wallace” to “The Life and Heroic Actions of the Renoun’d Sir William Wallace, General and Governor of Scotland”

Then there is the “The Life of Sir William Wallace”, which, if I’m not mistaken was used in “Braveheart”. (Today’s extract is the opening lines of the poem.) The book became the most popular volume in Scotland after the Bible. It inspired Burns to write “Scots Wha Hae” and Randall Wallace also read them prior to his involvement in creating the film “Braveheart.” A modern edition of this epic poem was published in 1998.

— Anustup

Martin adds

I was surprised I’d never heard of this; anyway, I enjoyed reading bits and pieces of it (no, I was not about to sit and read the whole thing through :)), and exploring some of the background behind the poem and Blind Harry (who, if you believe all the critics, was neither).

And as an aside, it always gives me a pleasant little frisson to see, among all the 18th century English, a startlingly modern-looking phrase like

So much for the brave Wallace’s father’s side

- it’s like an interesting little linguistic tidepool hidden among the rocks.

Links

The whole book can be found at http://skell.org/SKELL/blharry1.htm

An excellent discussion of ‘Braveheart’ and the poem:

http://www.unf.edu/classes/medieval/film/halsall-krossa-braveheart.htm

A biography of Blind Harry:
http://www.bartleby.com/65/bl/BlindHar.html

And a discourse on “The Wallace” and its place in the canon:
http://www.bartleby.com/212/0503.html

— Martin