13th & 14th Century Scottish Names
Appendix Concerning William Wallace
by Symon Freser of Lovat (Bryan J. Maloney,
bjm10@cornell.edu)
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Appendix
The name "Wallace" does not appear in the preceding lists
(Vallance is not a version of Wallace). This is because William Wallace is
never mentioned by family name in The Bruce. In fact, the full accord
given to the hero of Mad Max IV: Beyond Haggis-Dome is short enough to
include below:
Thus-gat levyt thai, & in sic thrillage;
Bath pur, and thai of hey parag.
For off the lordis sum thai slew;
And sum thai hangyt, and sum thai drew;
And sum thai put in hard presoune,
For-owtyn cauß or enchesoun.
And amang othri, off dowglaß
Put in presoun schir Wil3am was,
That off dowglas was lord and syr;
Off him thai makyt a martyr.
Fra thai in presoune him sleuch,
Hys landis that war fayr Inewch,
Thai to the lord of clyffurd gave.
The above stanzas are from Book I, verses 275-287. "Schir Wil3am off
dowglaB" was the William Wallace of the recent movie. Lest you still have
an inflated sense of Wallace's importance to the work as a whole, Book I has
630 verses and is only the first of twenty books of around 600-800 verses,
each.
For the modern English-only reader:
Thus they lived in such thrallage,
Both poor and they of high peerage.
For of the lords, some they slew,
And some they hanged, and some they drew.
And some they put in hard prison
Without cause or good reason.
And among others, of Douglas,
Put in prison, Sir William was,
Who of Douglas was lord and sire.
Of him they made a martyr.
For they in prison him slew.
His lands, that were fair enough,
They, to the lord of Clifford gave.
Reference: Barbour, John. 1375. The Bruce; or, The Book of the most
excellent and noble prince, Robert de Broyss, King of Scots. Early English
Text Society. London. 1870 edition edited by Walter W. Skeat.
Introduction
List of Given Names
List of Surnames