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Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

Scottish poet and novelist, born at College Wynd, Edinburgh, on 15 August 1771. Educated at Edinburgh University. Scott spent his boyhood at his grandfather's house in Kelso where he heard traditional tales and ballads of the Borders from his relatives, in addition to being much stimulated by Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) when he was thirteen. When he was an apprentice to his father, a writer for the Signet, he devoted much of his leisure time to collecting Border tales and ballads. Influenced by German Romantics, Scott translated Gottfried August Bürger's "The Wild Huntsman", and wrote an imitation ballad, "William and Helen" in 1797. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802-03), the fruition of his exploitation of traditional ballads, contains Border ballads, his imitations, and some articles full of his patriotism. Other longer poems are "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" (1805), "Marmion" (1808), and "The Lady of the Lake" (1810). He published over twenty novels, from Waverly (1814) to Castle Dangerous (1831). (H. N.)


  1. Alice Brand

  2. The Battle of Sempach

  3. Bonny Dundee

  4. Cadyow Castle

  5. The Castle of the Seven Shields

  6. Christie’s Will

  7. Elspeth’s Ballad

  8. The Erl-King

  9. The Eve of St. John

  10. The Fire King

  11. Frederick and Alice

  12. Glenfinlas

  13. Jock of Hazeldean

  14. The Noble Moringer

  15. The Orphan Maid

  16. Proud Maisie

  17. The Reiver’s Wedding

  18. Rosabelle

  19. Thomas the Rhymer III

  20. The Wild Huntsman

  21. William and Helen

  22. Young Lochinvar
  		 

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