Robert the Bruce

I cannot recommend 'The Bruce', John Barbour annotated by A.A.M. Duncan, highly enough. Archie Duncan was professor of Scottish history at Glasgow University from 1962 to 1993.

Aside from modernisation of some letter styles this is an unadulterated transcription of the 'E' (Edinburgh) m.s. the nearest to original among extant m.s. His commentary is both rational and logically coherent. It also has the merit of being by a Scot on Scottish history, somewhat of a rarity.

Publisher Canongate Classics, Canongate books, Edinburgh ISBN 0 86241 681 7 http://www.canongate.net/

The Scottish Text Society published a very nice 3 volume version called Barbour's Bruce, edited by Matthew P. McDiarmid (1985). That has over 60 pages of a very useful glossary in Volume I. There is a paperback book: The Bruce by John Barbour edited by A.A.M. Duncan, Canongate Books, Edinburgh, (1997) for about 10 pounds which has extensive notes that point out factual errors, redundancies, etc.

See also [11.11]

The Bruce Film

The Bruce was made in 1996 and mainly funded by private investors buying debentures that gave them certain benefits, e.g. place in the credits as Associate Producer and right to be in the film as an extra.

The company had previously made a film called Chasing the Deer about the 1745 uprising and also produced Macbeth (with Jason Connery and Helen Baxendale). Before that they made factual videos of many wars/battles including a life of William Wallace.

See here for more information
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004UEYG/scottishmusiccom the film is now available on video

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