Wallace; or, the Life and Acts of Sir William Wallace, of Ellerslie An Older Scots Epic of Chivalric Resistance and Medieval Scottish Nationhood

Blind Hary's Wallace, or, The Life and Acts of Sir William Wallace of Ellerslie is a monumental late-medieval Scots verse romance recounting the deeds of Scotland's great resistance hero against English domination. Written in vigorous rhyming couplets and the robust vernacular of Older Scots, it fuses chronicle, chivalric epic, and patriotic legend. Less a modern biography than a national mythopoesis, the poem transforms Wallace into an exemplary figure of courage, justice, and providential mission within the turbulent memory of the Wars of Independence. Blind Hary, active in the later fifteenth century, was a professional makar or minstrel associated with the Scottish courtly and popular literary world. Though little is securely known of his life, tradition presents him as blind and dependent on oral performance. His subject matter likely reflects both inherited narratives about Wallace and the political atmosphere of Stewart Scotland, where assertions of national identity and sovereignty remained culturally potent. This work is recommended to readers interested in medieval literature, Scottish history, heroic legend, and the formation of national memory. It rewards those willing to encounter history as poetry: partisan, impassioned, artful, and enduringly influential.