Wallace

Wallace; or, the Life and Acts of Sir William Wallace, of Ellerslie is a long 'romantic biographical' poem by the fifteenth-century Scottish Minstrel, Blind Harry, probably in the decade before 1488. It celebrates and applauds the life and acts of the Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace who lived a century and a half earlier. For almost hundred years after its publication, The Wallace was the second most popular book in Scotland after the Bible. It is a long narrative work composed in decasyllabic rhyming couplets. It contains the life events from the life of William Wallace from his childhood, through his profession as a Scots patriot in the First War of Independence until his execution in London in 1305. The factual elements of the poem are combined with many fictional elements. Wallace is presented as an ideal hero in the tradition of chivalric romance. He is described as being consistently brave, patriotic, pious and knightly.