This week, The Wallace by Blind Harry, or Henry the Minstrel, was finally posted to Project Gutenberg. It took just under two years for it to work its way through the Distributed Proofreaders site, which is actually pretty good, given the content: I’m also near finishing a collection of 16th century Scottish poetry, and Douglas’ 1000-page version of The Æneid, both of which started their journeys in 2004.
Several months of those two years were taken up with my very slow final check of the book, which is when I actually read the thing for the first time. I probably should have read it before The Bruce, to understand the chronology better.
It’s a bit of a slog at times — lots of spattered brains — and not the most nuanced portrait, but it’s certainly energetic: Wallace liberates Scotland three times, defeats pirates twice, and slays just the one lion. I’m glad I finally got round to this one, so here’s to William and Harry.
Well done – good piece of work. I’m uncomfortably aware that I have never actually read The Wallace – just somehow assumed I knew what was in it. I should do something about this.