John Barbour (poet)

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John Barbour (* after 1316 ; † March 13, 1395 in Aberdeen ) is Scotland's oldest national poet .

Life

John Barbour was Archdeacon of Aberdeen and received in 1357 from the English King Edward III. the assurance of safe conduct to study at Oxford . In the same year he took part in the negotiations for the payment of the ransom for the English captive King David II of Scotland . 1364 and 1368 he went to France to study. After the death of David II (1371) he was employed as an official in the household of the Scottish King Robert II . From 1378 he received a lifelong pension of 20 shillings .

Around 1375 Barbour wrote the poem The Bruce, which later became the Scottish national epic and was first printed in 1571 . In it the author glorifies the Scottish War of Independence against England led by the national hero King Robert the Bruce , in particular the battle of Bannockburn in 1314 in great detail . The poem, which consists of around 13,500 eight-syllables rhyming in pairs, is not only one of the oldest works in the Scottish dialect of linguistic significance, but also important as a historical source. Barbour rhymes popularly, reveals skill in the narrative as well as in the characteristics and portrayal of nature and takes particular pleasure in lively scenes. His role model is Statius , from whose Thebais he inserts short episodes.

Barbour is also credited with an epic from the Trojan War ( Legend of Troy ) and the Legends of the Saints ; In any case, these two works are translations by the Italian writer Guido delle Colonne .

expenditure

  • Archibald A. Duncan (Ed.): The Bruce . Canongate Books, Edinburgh 1999, ISBN 0-86241-681-7 (Canongate Classics; 78).

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Barbour, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish archdeacon, poet
DATE OF BIRTH after 1316
PLACE OF BIRTH Scotland
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1395
Place of death Aberdeen