But if to Chaucer belongs the title of “Father of English Poetry,” to Barbour belongs that of “Father of Scottish Poetry and Scottish History.”  He, indeed, calls the language he wrote in “Inglis,” but it is a different English from that of Chaucer.  They were both founded on Anglo-Saxon, but instead of growing into modern English, Barbour’s tongue grew into what was known later as “braid Scots.”  All the quotations that I am going to give you from the poem I have turned into modern English, for, although they lose a great deal in beauty, it makes them easier for every one to understand.  For even to the Scots boys and girls who read this book there are many words in the original that would need translating, although they are words still used by every one who speaks Scots to this day.  In one page of twenty-seven lines taken at random we find sixteen such words.  They are, micht, nicht, lickt, weel, gane, ane, nane, stane, rowit, mirk, nocht, brocht, mair, sperit at, sair, hert.  For those who are Scots it is interesting to know how little the language of the people has changed in five hundred years.

As of many another of our early poets, we know little of Barbour’s life.  He was Archdeacon of Aberdeen, as already said, and in 1357 he received a safe-conduct from Edward III to allow him to travel to Oxford with three companions.  In those days there was not as yet any university in Scotland.  The monasteries still held their place as centers of learning.  But already the fame of Oxford had reached the northern kingdom, and Barbour was anxious to share in the treasures of learning to be found there.  At the moment there was peace between the two countries, but hate was not dead, it only slumbered.  So a safe-conduct or passport was necessary for any Scotsman who would travel through England in safety.  “Edward the King unto his lieges greeting,” it ran.  “Know ye that we have taken under our protection (at the request of David de Bruce) John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, with the scholars in his company, in coming into our kingdom of England, in order to study in the university of Oxford, and perform his scholastic exercises, and in remaining there and in returning to his own country of Scotland.  And we hereby grant him our safe-conduct, which is to continue in force for one year.”

Barbour was given two other safe-conducts, one to allow him again to visit Oxford, and another to allow him to pass through England on his way to France.  Besides this, we know that Barbour received a pension from the King of Scotland, and that he held his archdeaconry until his death; and that is almost all that we know certainly of his life.

The Bruce is the great national poem, Robert the Bruce the great national hero of Scotland.  But although The Bruce concerns Scotland in the first place, it is of interest to every one, for it is full of thrilling stories of knightly deeds, many of which are true.  “The fine poem deserves to be better known,” says one of its editors.* “It is a proud thing for a country to have given a subject for such an Odyssey, and to have had so early in its literature a poet worthy to celebrate it.”  And it is little wonder that Barbour wrote so stirringly of his hero, for he lived not many years after the events took place, and when he was a schoolboy Robert the Bruce was still reigning over Scotland.