Everything about Blind Harry totally explained
Blind Harry (c.
1440 –
1492), also known as
Harry or
Henry the Minstrel, is renowned as the earliest surviving lengthy source for the events of the life of
William Wallace, the
Scottish freedom-fighter. He wrote
The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace around
1477, 172 years after the death of Wallace in
1305. His poem of Wallace's defeat of the English at
Dunnottar Castle is thought to be the earliest work of verse to address that site (J. Reid,
Picturesque Stonehaven,
1899).
Blind Harry's words were made more accessible by a translation written by
William Hamilton of Gilbertfield (ca.
1665-
1751) published in
1722. In this form they met the notice of poets such as
Robert Burns,
Lord Byron,
Robert Southey,
John Keats,
Joanna Baillie, and
William Wordsworth. It was also a prime source for
Randall Wallace in his writing of the screenplay
Braveheart, upon which the Award Winning
Hollywood film was based. Most recently, in 1998,
Elspeth King published Hamilton's text amended for modern readers, as
Blind Harry's Wallace.
Little is known about Blind Harry's life, but a few snippets of information are available. One source is the
Lord High Treasurer's Accounts of 1473-1492, which recorded payments to him for performances at the court of
James IV. He is mentioned by
William Dunbar on line 69 of his
Lament for the Makeris early in the 16th century. Historian
John Major also wrote about Harry in
1518. These sources differed on whether or not he was blind from birth, but Harry almost certainly seems to have had a military background.
Harry's depiction of Wallace has been criticised by Major and others as being fictionalized. Some parts of it are at variance with contemporary sources; the work describes Wallace leading an army to the outskirts of London; adopting the disguises of a monk, an old woman, and a potter while a fugitive; and travelling to
France to enlist support for the Scottish cause, there defeating two French champions as well as a
lion. "Are there any more dogs you'd have slain?" Wallace asks the French king.
The minstrel claimed it was based on a book by Fr. John Blair, Wallace's boyhood friend and personal
chaplain, but this may have been a literary device; the chief sources seem to have been traditional. Most historians nowadays regard it as effectively a
historical novel, written at a time of strong anti-English sentiment in Scotland. At twelve volumes, the work is also doubted to be solely his work. Elspeth King maintained that despite any inaccuracies, Harry's patriotic and nationalistic portrayal was to ensure Wallace's continuing reputation as a hero. Burns acknowledged his debt to Harry, incorporating the following lines from Harry's
Wallace in his own poem
Robert Bruce's Address to his Army at Bannockburn (Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled):
A false usurper sinks in every foe
And liberty returns with every blow
which Burns described as a "a
couplet worthy of
Homer".
Harry is often considered inferior to
Barbour as a poet, and has little of his moral elevation, but he surpasses him in graphic power, vividness of description, and variety of incident. He occasionally shows the influence of
Chaucer, and is said to have known Latin and French.
Mel Gibson's film
Braveheart draws heavily on this source.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Blind Harry'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://blind_harry.totallyexplained.com">Blind Harry Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
