| has gloss | eng: The Brus is a long narrative poem by John Barbour with a purpose partly historical, partly patriotic. It celebrates the praises of Robert the Bruce and Sir James Douglas, the flowers of Scottish chivalry, opening with a description of the state of Scotland at the death of Alexander III (1286) and concluding with the death of Douglas and the burial of the Bruce's heart (1332). The central episode is the Battle of Bannockburn. Patriotic as the sentiment is, it is in more general terms than is found in later Scottish literature. The king is a hero of the chivalric type common in contemporary romance; freedom is a "noble thing" to be sought and won at all costs; the opponents of such freedom are shown in the dark colours which history and poetic propriety require; but there is none of the complacency of the merely provincial habit of mind. The lines do not lack vigour; and there are passages of high merit, notably the oft-quoted section beginning "A! fredome is a noble thing". |
