Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy

In this lively exploration of nineteenth‑century literary sleuthing, the author takes listeners into the tangled world of Sir Walter Scott’s border ballads. Using letters between Scott, James Hogg, and other antiquarians, the narrative pieces together how songs like Auld Maitland and The Ballad of Otterburn were collected, edited, and sometimes misunderstood. The discussion pivots on whether Scott deliberately presented a modern composition as an ancient relic, or simply recorded a genuine oral tradition.

The study also brings forward a chorus of voices from the past—old women in the Ettrick hills, folk‑society members, and archivists—who kept these verses alive long after the printing press. By weaving together manuscript notes, scholarly editions, and personal anecdotes, the book paints a vivid picture of how oral memory survived the rise of newspapers and urbanization. Listeners will come away with a richer sense of how the border’s haunting melodies were preserved and the debates that still surround their authenticity.