THE two epic poems about Scotland's national heroes - Blind Harry's Wallace and John Barbour's The Bruce - dating from the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries respectively, are challenging for modern readers.

Blind Harry's work was given a spirited update in the eighteenth century and now James Higgins offers an accessible translation in verse of the story of Bruce. Here his narrator introduces his main protagonists (Abramis, £17.50).

from BOOK I, THE BRUCE

…the old tales that humankind reads

describe to it the heroic deeds

of valiant men of bygone epochs

just as if they were here among us.

Certainly it behoves us to prize

those who in their day were bold and wise,

endured trials and tribulation,

won themselves a great reputation

for heroism in battle's hard press

and were devoid of cowardliness.

Such were Robert Bruce, king of Scotland,

who was courageous of heart and hand,

and Sir James, scion of the Douglas line

whose merits were so famed in his time

that he was known in many a country

for his worth and his nobility.

It is about them I write these pages,

and I pray that God may grant me grace

so that my endeavours are fruitful

and I say only what is truthful.