Sir Tristrem: Sir Walter Scott's landmark edition

When Walter Scott published his edition of the medieval romance "Sir Tristrem" in 1804, he was not yet tided nor a novelist, but had already achieved literary notoriety both for his poetic translations and for his monumental achievement, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Indeed, in many ways, Scott's edition of Sir Tristrem is the culmination of his work in the Border Minstrelsey, and originally Scott had intended his edition of Sir Tristrem, which was reputed to be the work of the medieval poet and seer Thomas of Erceldoune, known as The Rhymer, to be a continuing volume of the series. With his edition of Sir Tristrem, Scott graduated from the annotative type of scholarship found among the ballads in the Border Minstrelsey to an analytical form of scholarship that probed controversial issues and provided new and important insights into the problems found in a particular literary work, an approach which was in many ways imique to his time. Scott's edition oiSir Tristrem stands as the first modem edition of a single medieval romance, and while he was not the first scholar to use the format, his practice of including copious notes and a lengthy introduction is in many ways still the norm today. This thesis will attempt to provide the following: information concerning Scott's edition, both personal to Scott and general to the period of time in which Scott produced his edition; an account of the poem of "Sir Tristrem" itself;^ and information concerning the Auchinleck manuscript, the manuscript in which the romance is found. In addition, discussion of specific areas of the edition, such as appendices, notes, and the introduction, will be provided along with information concerning Scott's editorial practices and materials used to compile his edition. Information will be presented and discussed in the order in which the corresponding sections appear in Scott's edition of Sir Tristrem.