The Prosody of the Middle Scots Alliterative Poems (original) (raw)

I am grateful to Florilegium's anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful suggestions. 1 Respectively, and on the simplest face-value showing, these works present an elaborate re-telling of a familiar bird-fable, a comedic story nominally set in the France of Charlemagne, and an Arthurian tale of chivalry and feudal allegiance. For introductions, see Royan, "'Mark your Meroure be Me' ," the excellent historical and critical material in Walsh, ed., The Tale of Ralph the Collier, and Jack, "Arthur's Pilgrimage." Only The Buke of the Howlat has a known author. Linguistic and stylistic considerations suggest, though not conclusively, that the other two, Rauf Coilyear and Golagros and Gawane, are slightly later in date and by different authors. McDiarmid's carefully presented evidence that both are by Blind Hary, author of Wallace, has not been generally accepted; see McDiarmid, ed., Hary's Wallace, 1:cviii-cxxxii. It is specifically challenged by Mackay, "The Alliterative Tradition"; also cf. Riddy, "The Alliterative Revival." brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk