Andrew Lang’s Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy is a literary study examining the authenticity and transmission of the Scottish Border ballads collected and edited by Scott while defending him against accusations of forgery and excessive alteration. Lang focuses especially on claims that Auld Maitland was invented by Scott or by members of James Hogg’s family, comparing testimony, manuscripts, and oral evidence to argue that the ballad probably arose from genuine tradition. Through discussions of The Ballad of Otterburne and other texts, he explains how Scott combined different oral and manuscript versions and revised damaged or archaic passages to create coherent literary readings. Although Lang acknowledges that Scott’s methods did not meet later standards of exact scholarly transcription, he concludes that Scott sought not to fabricate folklore but to preserve the spirit and poetic beauty of a disappearing ballad tradition.
Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy | 경남교육 전자도서관
