Author: Thomas of Ercildoune
Biography:
THOMAS of Ercildoune (fl 13th century)
Also known as Thomas the Rhymer. Walter Scott (q.v.) had originally intended his edition of Thomas’s Sir Tristrem to be published with his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border but a decision was made to issue it separately because of the length of the work. The 15 stanza conclusion is Scott’s own composition. He edited the poem from the c. 1340 Auchinleck manuscript, held in Scott’s lifetime by the Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh and now at the NLS. (This database also includes a record for The Harrowing of Hell, a miracle play edited from the Auchinleck manuscript and printed in 1835.) Limited contemporary documentation survives for Thomas of Ercildoune and what there is may conflate several historical figures. He likely lived in the late 13th century, the time of composition of Sir Tristrem with which his name is traditionally associated. He may have lived in Scotland or northern England, and the poem was written in an unspecified local dialect. A later work, Thomas of Erceldoune, dates from the 14th century, and survives in five manuscripts. It is that poem which led to the enduring association of Thomas with magic and prophecy. Scott includes information about Thomas in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and in the lengthy introduction to Sir Tristrem. (ODNB 12 Aug. 2024; W. B. Todd and A. Todd, Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History 1796-1832 [1998])
Other Names:
- Thomas of Erceldoune
- Thomas the Rhymer