Some Notes Afore Ye Stert

Brus

John Barbour

Some notes afore ye stert

Readin an understaunin this text will big on what ye hae lairnt areddies aboot Scots. It’s an early text - ower 600 years auld - an afore tacklin it ye shud hae leukit areddiesat some texts frae later on the timeline – sic as the poem The Taill of the Paddok and the Mous.

Backgroond

The title Brus refers tae King Robert I o Scotland, kent as Robert the Bruce, wha died in 1329. The poem is a lang narrative (13,000 lines) an wisscrievit by John Barbour in aboot 1375 – so, quite close in time tae the events it describes.

The extract appears towards the end o the poem, an tells o the death o the King, an hoo in accordance wi his instructions, his hert wis removed so that it cud be taen tae the Holy Land. Lord James Douglas taen the hert, an wore it roon his neck in a braw enamellit siller case. He stops in Spain on his wey tae the Holy Land.

Some hints tae help ye read the text

Quh-

The spelling quh- is yaised whaur in modren English ye wud hae wh- . So, quhen means ‘when’ an quhill means ‘while’ or ‘until’.

The letter <y>

Ye’ll notice that the letter <y> appears a lot. This is cause therr waes an aulder symbol <þ> (cawed ‘thorn’) that stood for the ‘th’ sound as in modren they or thing, an because o the wey this auld symbol waes scrievit, it waes indistinguishable frae <y> by the time o this manuscript.

The letters <u> and <w>

The ither thing ye’ll see is that the letters <u> an <w> are yaised atween twa vowels whaur we wud hae <v>sic as gouernyt in line 321 or ressawit in line 299. Hoonaver, they were aye pronooncit the same wey that we pronoonce <v>.

Extract from Book XXGlossary

294And quhen yai lang yus sorowit had,

295And he debowaillyt wes clenlydisembowelled

296And bawmytsyne richly,embalmed; then,afterwards

297And ye worthi lord of Douglas

298His hart as it for-spokyn waspreviously agreed

299Has ressawyt in gret dayntereceived, accepted; esteem

300With gret fayr and solemnyte,pomp

301Yai haiff had hym to Dunferlynetook (‘have had’)

302And him solemply erdyt syneburied

303In a fayr tumb in-till ye quer.choir (part of a church)

304Byshappys and prelatis yat yar werthere

305Assoilʒeithim quhen ye serwiceabsolved

306Was done as yai couth best dewiscould; devise

307And syne on ye toyer daythe next day

308Sary and waar went yar way.woeful; went (‘are went’)

309 Quhen yat ye gud king beryit was

310 Ye erle of Mureffschir ThomasMurray; sir, lord

311Tuk all ye land in gouernyng,

312All obeyit till his bidding,

313And ye gud lord of Douglas syne

314Gert mak acas of siluer fynehad made, caused to be made

315Ennamylyt throw sutelte,

316Yarin ye kingis hart did he

317And ay about his hals it baralways; neck; wore (‘bore’)

318And fast him bownytfor to far.got himself ready to travel

319His testament diuisyt he

320And ordanyt how his land suld beshould

321Gouernyt quhill his gayn-cummyngreturn (‘again-coming’)

322Off frendis, and all oyer thingby

323Yat till him pertenyt ony wisin any way

324With sik forsych and sa wyssuch

325Or his furth-passing ordanyt hedeparture

326Yat na thing mycht amendyt be.

327And quhen yat he his leve had tane

328To schip to Berwik is he gane,went

329And with a noble cumpany

330Off knychtis and off squyery

331He put him yar to ye se.put to sea (‘put him there to the sea’)

332A lang way furthwart saylit he,

333For betuix Cornwaill and Bretaynne

334He sayllyt, and left ye Grunʒe of Spainʒethe north-western point of Spain

(‘Grunʒe’ means a pig’s snout)

335On northalff him, and held yar waythe north of

336Quhill to Sabill ye Graunt com yai,Seville the Great

337Bot gretly war his men and he

338Trawaillyt with tempestis of ye se,beset, assailed

339Bot yocht yai gretly trawaillit warthough, despite the fact that

340Hale and ferar yai cummyn yar.healthy; sound, well (‘fair’)

‘ar cummyn’ - came

McDiarmid, Matthew P and James A C Stevenson (eds.) 1981. Barbour’s Bruce (Vol III). The Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh.

Some questions tae think aboot

Remember what ye hae lairnit areddies aboot aulder Scots language, an think aboot the follaein questions:

Spellin: hoo wirds leuk in scrievin

Leuk at yai an yus, baith in line 294. What wirds dae they relate tae in modren English an Scots?
Whit ither wirds in the rest o the text are spelt the same sort o wey?
Leuk at the wird ye, that appears mony times in the text. What daes it mean? What daes that tell ye aboot a sign that says “Ye Olde Tea Shoppe”?
Are therr ither wirds in the text whaur this soon is spelt differently?
Whit aboot the yaises o the letters <y> an <i> in lines 294 an 297? Dae ye think the endins o thae wirds were pronoonced differently dependin on hoo they were spelt, or do ye think that the different spellins makkit nae difference? See if ye can fin evidence in the rest o the text tae support yer answer.
Whit daes this tell ye aboot the state of spellin at the time?
Considerin awthin ye’ve lairnit areddies, think aboot modren Scots an hoo it’s scrievit doon. Compare this present-day situation wi the spellin situation at the time o this text. Dae they hae onythin in common?

Phonology: hoo words soon in speech

Whit dae ye notice aboot plural nouns – whit endin is addit tae the singular tae mak it plural?
Can you think on examples in modren Scots whaur plural nouns are pronounced as if they were spelt this wey? Hoo is this different frae modren English?
Think aboot the link atween aulder Scots an Modren Scots. Are therr ony wirds in the extract that are mair lik modren Scots than modren English?

Neist steps – the soon o aulder Scots

If ye want tae hear an example o hoo auld Scots micht hae bin spoken, ye can listen tae extracts frae the Brus on the CD John Barbour, in the Scotsoun Makars series, (SSCD041), or there’s How to Pronounce Older Scots anaw, (SSCD122), baith available frae The Scots Language Society.

Grammar: hoo wirds gae thegither in sentences

Whit dae ye notice aboot past tense verbs like the anes in lines 294-6 – Hoo is the endin different frae modren English? Can ye thinkon ony modren Scots wirds that hae this kin o Scots endin?
Leuk at the past tense verb in line 328: is he gane. Whit dae ye notice aboot it? Hoo is this different frae modren English or Scots?
Noo leuk at a similar verb in line 308: ar went. It yaises ar instead of have anaw. But the past participle, went, is different frae modren English. Compare modren English an modren Scots – whit dae ye think?

Context

Leuk at whaur the text is on the timeline - what dae ye ken aboot the history o this period? Whit type o text is it, an hoo is that connectedwi the history of the time?
Hoo daes this context help ye to get mair oot o readin the text? Frae readin the extract, whit kin of attitude dae ye think that the writer haed towards the characters, sicas the deid king, an the lairds Douglas an Murray? Hoo dae ye ken?
Compare this piece wi ony ither Scots text ye’ve read. Is it the same genre, an if no, whit are the differences?

Translation

Here’s a fairly close translation o the last 9 lines (lines 332 – 340). Yaisin the glossary, see if ye can translate anither pairt o the text. Notice the differences in word-order atween aulder and modren Scots.

332 / A lang way furthwart saylit he, / He sailed a long way,
333 / For betuix Cornwaill and Bretaynne / For he sailed between Cornwall and Brittany
334 / He sayllyt, and left ye Grunʒe of Spainʒe / and left the point of Spain
335 / On northalff him, and held yar way / To his north, and held their course
336 / Quhill to Sabill ye Graunt com yai, / Until they came to the great city of Seville.
337 / Bot gretly war his men and he / He and his men were much
338 / Trawaillyt with tempestis of ye se, / Set upon by sea storms,
339 / Bot yocht yai gretly trawaillit war / But although they suffered great hardship
340 / Hale and fer ar yai cummyn yar. / They arrived there healthy and well.

Neist Steps

Ye cud read mair o the poem to find oot whit happened neist, or whit had alwreddies – for example, the story o the Battle of Bannockburn is earlier in the poem, including the famous speech by the Robert theBruce “Freedom is a noble thing”.
Hae a leuk at some o the ither texts on the timeline, and compare their language, style and subject-matter to this one.
Research the history o the Scottish Wars o Independence sae that ye unnerstaun the wider context o the piece.