Barbour’s Black Douglas

A detailed discussion of the representation and characterization of Sir James Douglas ( Black Douglas ) in John Barbour\u27s poem The Bruce, examining the ways in which Barbour\u27s Douglas is shown not only as the flower of chivalry, but also as a Robin Hood-like denizen of the woods, and arguing that in the most highly colored Douglas episodes, Barbour feints toward the outrageous and transgressive, while also experimenting with his poem\u27s literary structure to incorporate disruption or incursions from a disorderly non-courtly world