The Queen o Dunfermline

THE QUEEN O DUNFERMLINE
A Scots Historical Ballad of Saint Margaret of Scotland
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DANIIL LAZKO
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THE QUEEN O DUNFERMLINE
I
The rain gaed ower Dunfermline toun
afore the cock had crawn,
and doon the path frae stane to stane
a licht cam in a haun.
The watchman at the yett slept on,
the ha was lown and still;
she drew her hap aboot her heid
against the eastlin chill.
Her croun was left upon the kist,
her maidens lay abed;
the Queen o Scotland crossed the close
to whaur the kirk-lamp burned red.
She kneeled doon on the cauld kirk-flair,
nae cushion at her knee;
the wind blew in frae the Firth o Forth
wi the saut o the far-aff sea.
Nae Scottish cradle rocked her first,
nor English, though her kin
were kings in England: she was bred
whaur Danube’s watters rin.
Syne Normans cam, and England fell,
and the exiled hoose took sail;
the auld folk tell her boat ran in
to Fife afore the gale.
Licht at the kirk-door, licht on the stane —
the Queen gaes in her lane.
II
King Malcolm’s tour stood on a craig
whaur the burn ran deep and grey;
a man o the sword, he rose frae the fire
and gied the lady way.
And at Dunfermline they were wed,
the stranger and the King;
nae makar keeps the bridal sang —
the bells were left to sing.
He couldna read the books she read;
the letters were dark to him;
yet kissed the anes she likit best,
and gowd was set on their rim.
Three days she reasoned wi the kirk
o Lent and Easter-bread,
and Malcolm, wha had baith the tongues,
spak Gaelic for aa she said.
Eicht bairns she bore him; whiles at nicht,
whan the youngest woke to greet,
she prayed, its heid upon her shouder,
and rocked it on her feet.
She taucht them letters frae her book,
the Paternoster at her knee;
and three o them wore Scotland’s croun
in years she didna see.
Licht at the kirk-door, licht on the stane —
the mither’s no her lane.
III
Ilk mornin, or she brak her fast,
nine orphans cam frae the toun;
she fed them, spune by spune, hersel,
while the lang-gouned lords stood roun.
In Advent and in Lenten days
the beggars filled the ha;
the King gied bread at the table-heid,
and the Queen kneeled doon to them aa.
Whiles siller frae the King’s ain kist
gaed oot at the back-yett slee;
he kent fu weel whase haun it was,
and lauched, and let it be.
She set a boat upon the Forth
for the puir folk ower the tide
that socht Saint Andrew’s banes in Fife,
and a hearth-licht on ilka side.
Whaur she was wed she raised a kirk
to the Trinity, in stane,
and black monks cam frae Canterbury
to sing the hours through rain.
The auld folk tell her Gospel-book
fell whaur the ford ran by,
and lay a day amang the stanes,
and was liftit oot — and dry.
Licht at the kirk-door, licht on the stane —
the puir are no their lane.
IV
Lent efter Lent her fasts were sair,
her hauns grew thin and sma;
and she lay sick in Edinburgh tour
whan Malcolm rade awa.
Young Edgar cam frae the southern road,
his horse’s hooves on the stane;
he wad hae hid it — she saw his een,
and kent the King was slain.
She bade them bring the black rood near,
and held it close and lang;
the candle burned, the psalm gaed on,
and she gaed wi the sang.
They tell the haar cam up the Forth
and happit the castle-side,
and they bore her doon amang the mist
to the boat she set on the tide.
They laid her in Dunfermline kirk
afore the altar-stair,
and lang years efter pilgrims cam
and kneeled whaur she kneeled at prayer.
The rain gaes ower Dunfermline toun
afore the cock has crawn,
and there’s licht yet at the auld kirk-door
that’s cairried by nae haun.
Licht at the kirk-door, licht on the stane —
Lord, leave us no oor lane.
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Literary Analysis
Form
The Queen o Dunfermline consists of twenty-four quatrains in Scottish Common Measure (four stresses, three, four, three), rhymed ABCB, with a two-line refrain after every sixth stanza: 104 lines in all. The metre follows the living practice of ballad verse rather than strict syllable count: iambic and anapaestic feet alternate freely, occasional anacrusis and feminine endings in unrhymed positions are admitted, and every line is built to be spoken aloud with natural Scots stress. The four sections divide the life along its inner movement rather than its chronology: I, the stranger who comes in by night and by sea; II, the bride, queen and mother; III, the servant of the poor and the founder of Dunfermline; IV, death and memory.
The refrain
The refrain keeps one fixed line, Licht at the kirk-door, licht on the stane, and changes only its second line, built on the Scots idiom her lane (‘by herself, alone’). Its four appearances run: the Queen gaes in her lane ; the mither’s no her lane ; the puir are no their lane ; Lord, leave us no oor lane. A single pronoun and a single negation carry the whole spiritual arc of the poem: the queen alone at prayer; the mother no longer alone; the poor no longer alone because of her; and at last, with her gone, the remembering community asking not to be left alone. The theology is never stated; it lives in grammar. The refrain is deliberately austere, closer to a bell-stroke than to a hymn-chorus.
Light at the threshold
The governing image passes through five states without ever being explained: a light carried in a hand through the rain (I); the sanctuary lamp toward which she crosses the close (I); the hearth-lights on both shores of the Forth for the pilgrims (III); the candle at her deathbed (IV); and finally a light at the old kirk-door cairried by nae haun (IV). The closing line removes precisely the hand introduced in the opening stanza. The physical woman is gone; the light remains in the place. Stanzas 1 and 24 form a ring — the same rain, the same cockcrow — but the tense shifts from past to present, so that narrative becomes memory.
Crown and hand, standing and kneeling
The crown appears twice and the hand four times; the throne never appears at all. Royal magnitude is conveyed through humble objects: the crown left upon the kist, a spoon, a hearth, a boat, a book, a cross. Kneeling forms a second chain: she kneels on the cold church floor (I); she kneels before the beggars while the King stands giving bread at the head of the table (III); and pilgrims, generations later, kneel whaur she kneeled at prayer (IV). The gesture outlives the person who taught it. Margaret nevertheless remains a queen: she argues for three days with the clergy, she disciplines and teaches her children, and her authority is never softened into mere gentleness.
Malcolm
The King is drawn entirely through gesture, never through declaration: the warrior rising from his fire to make way for the lady; the unlettered man kissing books he cannot read and having them set in gold; the bilingual husband voicing her arguments in Gaelic before the Scottish clergy; the laughing indulgence with which he lets his own silver slip out at the back gate to the poor. His death reaches the poem only as news on a son’s face, and hers follows in the very next stanza. The marriage is shown as the meeting of two unlike people, not as a romance.
Dunfermline
Dunfermline is the poem’s second protagonist. It is the first word of place in the opening line and the first in the closing stanza; between them it becomes, in turn, the place of night prayer, of the wedding, of the church built on the spot of that wedding, of the Benedictine hours sung through rain, of burial, and of pilgrimage. By the final section its name no longer needs explanation: it is where the light is.
Sources and restraint
The poem keeps audible distinctions between kinds of knowledge. Material from history and from Margaret’s medieval Life is narrated directly; later tradition and legend are introduced by the ballad formulas the auld folk tell and they tell (the storm-driven landing, the Gospel-book in the ford, the concealing sea-mist). No speech is invented for any historical person. There are no miracles asserted, no battles, and no political allegory.
Genealogy and language
The ballad draws on the Scottish tradition by characteristic rather than imitation: Barbour’s clear four-beat narrative movement; Henryson’s compassion and compressed moral detail; a rare courtly brightness in the manner of Dunbar (gied the lady way); the spoken warmth of Ramsay and the plain-Scots immediacy of Burns (and lauched, and let it be); the refrain, mist and historical distance of Scott and the Border ballads; and, in the final image of an unheld light, something of Hogg’s quiet sense that the sacred survives in landscape and memory. The Scots is literary and consistent rather than phonetic: apostrophes are avoided (o, wi, aa), the -ch- spellings are kept throughout (licht, nicht, taucht, socht, lauched), and vocabulary is chosen for sound and precision, not for local colour.
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Scots–English Glossary
Words are listed in the form in which they occur in the poem. Roman numerals give the section(s) of the poem; R marks the refrain. On pronunciation: ch is the fricative of loch (licht, nicht, lauched); ou in toun, croun, doon, hoose is the vowel of English moon; au in auld, cauld, saut is a long open vowel close to English awe; ui in puir is a front rounded vowel, often heard as peer or pair in modern speech. The spelling avoids ‘apologetic’ apostrophes, as is usual in modern literary Scots.
Scots English Occurrence and note
aa all II, III. Rhymes with ha.
abed in bed I.
afore before I, IV. afore the gale: running before the wind, i.e. driven by the storm (I).
ain own III. the King’s ain kist: the King’s own coffer.
amang among III, IV.
anes ones II. the anes she likit best: the books she loved most.
auld old I, III, IV. the auld folk tell: ballad formula marking tradition.
awa away IV. rade awa: rode away (to war).
bairns children II.
banes bones; here the relics of St Andrew III.
black monks Benedictine monks, from their black habit III. The traditional English and Scots name.
blew in came in on the wind I.
brak her fast broke her fast; took her first food of the day III.
burn stream, brook II. The Tower Burn at Dunfermline.
cairried carried IV.
cam came passim. Past tense of come.
cauld cold I.
close enclosed yard or courtyard I.
couldna could not II.
craig crag, rocky height II.
crawn crowed I, IV. afore the cock had crawn: before cockcrow.
croun crown I, II.
didna did not II.
doon down I, III, IV.
Easter-bread the Easter communion II. The eucharist as received at Easter.
eastlin easterly; of the east wind I.
een eyes IV.
efter after IV. Lent efter Lent: year after year.
eicht eight II.
far-aff far-off I.
flair floor I. kirk-flair: church floor.
frae from passim.
fu weel full well III.
gaed went I, III, IV. the psalm gaed on: the psalm continued.
gaes goes IV, R.
gied gave II, III. gied the lady way: made way for the lady; gied bread: handed out bread.
gowd gold II.
greet weep, cry II.
ha hall I, III.
haar cold sea-mist of the east coast IV.
hae have IV. wad hae hid it: would have hidden it.
hap cloak, wrap I.
happit covered, wrapped IV.
haun, hauns hand, hands I, III, IV.
heid head I, II. table-heid: head of the table (III).
hersel herself III.
hoose house; here a royal house, dynasty I.
ilk each III. ilk mornin: every morning.
ilka every, each III. on ilka side: on both shores.
kent knew III, IV.
kirk church passim. kirk-lamp: sanctuary lamp; kirk-door: church door.
kist chest, coffer I, III.
lane alone, by oneself, in the construction ‘(one’s) lane’ R. her lane: alone; no her lane: not alone; no their lane, no oor lane: not alone (they, we). The idiom carries the refrain.
lang long III, IV.
lang-gouned long-gowned, robed III. Of the courtiers.
lauched laughed III.
licht light I, III, IV, R. hearth-licht: the light of a hearth; a hostel fire.
liftit lifted III.
likit liked, held dear, loved II.
lown calm, hushed, sheltered from wind I.
makar poet II. The traditional name for the medieval Scots poets.
mither mother R.
mornin morning III.
nae no passim.
nicht night II.
no not R. Post-verbal negative: leave us no oor lane = do not leave us alone.
o of passim.
oor our R.
oot out III.
or before III. or she brak her fast: before she ate.
ower over, across I, III, IV.
Paternoster the Lord’s Prayer (Latin Pater noster) II.
puir poor III, R.
rade rode IV.
rin run, flow I.
rood cross IV. the black rood: the Black Rood, Margaret’s reliquary cross.
roun round, around III.
sair sore; hard, severe IV.
sang song II, IV.
saut salt I.
shouder shoulder II.
siller silver; money III.
slee sly; unobserved, quietly III.
sma small; thin IV.
socht sought III.
spak spoke II. spak Gaelic for aa she said: rendered all she said into Gaelic.
spune spoon III. spune by spune: one spoonful at a time.
stane, stanes stone, stones passim, R.
syne then, thereafter I.
taucht taught II.
the hours the canonical hours of monastic prayer III.
toun town, settlement I, III, IV.
tour tower II, IV.
wad would II, IV. wad wake: would wake (habitual).
watters waters I.
wha who II.
whan when II, IV.
whaur where passim.
whase whose III.
whiles sometimes, at times II, III.
wi with I, II, IV.
yett gate I, III. back-yett: back gate, postern.
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Historical Note
The poem draws on three different kinds of evidence, and keeps them apart.
Documented history
Margaret was born c. 1045, probably in Hungary, where her father, Edward ‘the Exile’, son of King Edmund Ironside, had found refuge after the Danish conquest of England. The family returned to England in 1057. After the Norman Conquest of 1066 they took refuge in Scotland, c. 1068, and c. 1070 Margaret married Malcolm III, King of Scots.
She bore Malcolm eight children: six sons (Edward, Edmund, Ethelred, Edgar, Alexander, David) and two daughters (Edith, later called Matilda, and Mary). Three sons reigned as kings of Scots: Edgar (1097–1107), Alexander I (1107–1124) and David I (1124–1153). Edith/Matilda married Henry I and became queen of England.
At Dunfermline Margaret founded a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity. A letter of Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury confirms that he sent monks to her there; this was the first Benedictine community in Scotland, raised by her son David I to the status of an abbey in 1128. The foundations of her church survive beneath the nave of the present Abbey. Malcolm’s Tower stood on a promontory above the Tower Burn nearby. The crossing of the Forth used by pilgrims to St Andrews was known from the twelfth century as the Queen’s Ferry.
On 13 November 1093 Malcolm and their eldest son Edward were killed near Alnwick in Northumberland. Margaret, already gravely ill, died at Edinburgh Castle on 16 November 1093 and was buried at Dunfermline before the altar. She was canonised by Pope Innocent IV in 1250, and her relics were translated to a new shrine in the Abbey.
Medieval biography
The principal source is the Life of Margaret written c. 1100–1107 by Turgot, her confessor, later prior of Durham and bishop of St Andrews, at the request of her daughter Queen Matilda. From this Life the poem takes: her night prayers and severe fasting; the nine orphans fed each morning with her own spoon; the poor fed in the royal hall during Advent and Lent, served by the King and Queen together; Malcolm’s good-humoured tolerance of her taking his money for the poor; his kissing of books he could not read and having them adorned with gold; the council at which she argued for three days on church practice (the beginning of Lent, communion at Easter, the Sunday rest, forbidden marriages), with Malcolm interpreting into Gaelic; the ferry and hostels for pilgrims on both shores of the Forth; the church built on the site of the wedding; and her deathbed — the arrival of her son Edgar, his attempt to hide the news, the Black Rood held in her hands, the psalm, her death.
The opening scene of night prayer, Malcolm rising from his fire, and the child held at night are poetic reconstructions built on this material, not recorded incidents.
Later tradition and legend
The storm that drove the exiles’ ship into the Forth, and its landing at the place later called St Margaret’s Hope, belong to later tradition. So does the sea-mist said to have hidden her funeral from the forces of her brother-in-law Donald B;n, recorded in late-medieval chronicle tradition; the crossing of the procession by her own ferry is the poem’s extension of it.
The episode of the Gospel-book dropped into a river and recovered unharmed is told as a miracle already in Turgot’s Life; a Gospel book containing a Latin poem recording the incident survives in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. As a miracle it cannot be treated as historical fact, and the poem accordingly presents it as something the auld folk tell.
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Saint Margaret of Scotland
Margaret of Scotland (c. 1045 – 16 November 1093) stands at a hinge of Scottish history. A princess of the English royal house of Wessex, raised in exile at the Hungarian court, she became the wife of the Gaelic king Malcolm III and brought into his kingdom the Latin piety, learning and church discipline of continental Christendom.
Her religious importance lies in three things. First, her charity was organised as a daily discipline rather than an occasional gesture: the feeding of orphans and the poor, the ransoming of captives, the ferry and hostels for pilgrims. Second, through the council described by Turgot she brought the practice of the Scottish Church into closer agreement with that of Rome on Lent, Easter communion, the Lord’s Day and marriage. Third, her foundation at Dunfermline introduced Benedictine monasticism to Scotland.
Her dynastic importance was as great. Her sons Edgar, Alexander I and David I ruled Scotland for over half a century and completed much of the reshaping of the Church and the kingdom that she had begun; her daughter Matilda united her Old English line with the Norman kings of England. Dunfermline, where she was buried, became the principal burial place of the Scottish kings.
Margaret was canonised in 1250. At the Reformation her relics were dispersed: her head was taken to Edinburgh and later, after passing through the hands of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Scots College at Douai, where it was lost during the French Revolution. She is venerated in the Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox traditions as a model of lay royal sanctity. Her feast is kept on 16 November; the older Roman calendar kept it on 10 June. The chapel on Edinburgh’s Castle Rock which bears her name, built by her son David I, is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh.