Andrew Wyntoun, known as Andrew of Wyntoun (), was a Scottish poet, a canon and prior of Loch Leven on St Serf's Inch and, later, a canon of

St. Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's four ...

. Andrew Wyntoun is most famous for his completion of an eight-syllabled metre entitled, ''

Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland The ''Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland'' ("Original Chronicle of Scotland") is a history of Scotland from the beginning of the world until the accession of King James I. Attributed to Andrew of Wyntoun, a learned scholar of the time, it is one of th ...

'', which contains an early mention of '' Robin Hood''; it is also cited by the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...

'' as the earliest work in English to use the word "

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

": pelling modernised"He was a constant Catholic;/All

Lollard Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catho ...

he hated and heretic." Wyntoun wrote the 'Chronicle' at the request of his patron, Sir John of Wemyss, whose representative, Mr. Erskine Wemyss of Wemyss Castle, Fife, possessed the oldest extant

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

of the work. The subject of the 'Chronicle' is the history of Scotland from the mythical period to the death of

Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (c. 1340 – 3 September 1420) was a member of the Scottish royal family who served as regent (at least partially) to three Scottish monarchs ( Robert II, Robert III, and James I). A ruthless politician, Albany ...

in 1420. The nine original manuscripts of the ''Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland'' still subsist today and are preserved within various facilities throughout the United Kingdom. Three out of the eight original manuscripts are currently preserved by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

, two are in the possession of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh; one, within the University of St Andrews Library; another, within the confines of Wemyss Castle and the eighth, privately owned by Mister John Ferguson of

Duns, Scottish Borders Duns is a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was the county town of the historic county of Berwickshire. History Early history Duns Law, the original site of the town of Duns, has the remains of an Iron Age hillfort at its summit. ...

, Berwickshire. The first edition of the 'Chronicle' (based on the Royal manuscript) was published by David Macpherson in 1795; the second edition was produced by David Laing and published in 1872 and the current standard edition was published by F. J. Amours as ''The Original Chronicle of Andrew of Wyntoun: Printed on Parallel Pages from the Cottonian and Wemyss MSS., with the Variants of the Other Texts''. The ''Chronicle'' is entirely composed of couplets, usually of eight syllables, although frequently there also are lines of six or 10 syllables.

References

* ''Oxford English Dictionary'', New York:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, 1989

External links

*
The Robin Hood passage
at the TEAMS Medieval Texts website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wyntoun, Andrew Of Scottish chroniclers 15th-century Scottish writers 15th-century Scottish historians Priors of Loch Leven Year of birth uncertain Early Scots poets 14th-century Scottish historians