Editing Blind Harry (section)

===Sources===
Blind Harry claimed his work was based on a book by Father John Blair, Wallace's boyhood friend and personal [[chaplain]]. This book has not been seen in modern times and may never have existed; the poet's attribution of his story to a written [[text (literary theory)|text]] may have been a literary device; many contemporary critics believe that ''Acts and Deeds'' is based on [[oral history]] and the national [[tradition]]s of Blind Harry's homeland.

Most historians nowadays regard ''Acts and Deeds'' as a versified [[historical novel]], written at a time of strong anti-English sentiment in Scotland. At twelve volumes, the work is also doubted to be solely his work. Elspeth King maintained that despite any inaccuracies, Harry's patriotic and nationalistic portrayal was to ensure Wallace's continuing reputation as a hero. [[Robert Burns]] acknowledged his debt to Harry, paraphrasing the following lines from Harry's ''Wallace'' in his own poem [[Scots Wha Hae|Robert Bruce's Address to his Army at Bannockburn]] (Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled):<br />
<blockquote>A false usurper sinks in every foe<br />
And liberty returns with every blow</blockquote>
which Burns described as "a [[couplet]] worthy of [[Homer]]".

The earliest version of the work is found in a manuscript written in 1488 by John Ramsay, the purported scribe of [[John Barbour (poet)|John Barbour's]] narrative poem ''[[The Brus]]''. The manuscript is found at the [[National Library of Scotland]] in [[Edinburgh]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Companion to English Literature|editor-first=Margaret|editor-last=Drabble|year=1985|page=453}}</ref>