Soothfastness, Troth, and Trouthe

These are John Barbour's words opening his long narrative poem about Robert the Bruce, a narrative meant to achieve historical soothfastness, but one in which the reminiscences of romance are strong. Not only is there the often-quoted passage at Book 3, lines 435–62 where the Bruce encourages his men by reading from the romance of Ferumbras (see Chapter 3 above), but there are comparisons at Book 2, lines 531–50 and Book 6, lines 181–270 between episodes in the Bruce's quest to win the kingdom of Scotland and episodes in the Roman de Thèbes; comparisons at Book 1, lines 521–68 between the treason of Sir John Comyn and the treason that brought down Troy, Alexander, Julius Caesar, and King Arthur; an allusion at Book 3, lines 72–87 to the Roman d'Alexandre; and a comparison at Book 10, lines 710–37 between the taking of Edinburgh and the taking of Tyre, again from the Roman d'Alexandre. Indeed Barbour explicitly labels the story a romance in its first book:

Barbour's Bruce proposes two grounds of value or rather pleasure for story, as if pleasure were self-evidently valuable: the aesthetic and the soothfast.