This is the first ever comprehensive study of the Scottish medieval romances. The book reinstates the status of the Scottish romances. It offers a new definition of the Scottish romance tradition, bringing together texts which have not generally been considered part of the same corpus. It argues that Barbour’s Bruce (c.1375) established the rhetorical devices and literary traits which were going to be typical of the later Scottish romances. It also examines the extent to which the translation of the four Arthurian and Alexander romances from French originals follows Barbour’s precepts. These texts contributed to the founding both of the vernacular tradition and of the fabrication of national identity through dialogic interchanges between the narratives and the socio-historical circumstances of Scotland.
