FORDUN, JOHN OF (d. c. 1384)

This article appears in Volume V10, Page 644 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FLA-FRA

FORDUN, JOHN OF (d. c. 1384) , Scottish chronicler. The statement generally made that the chronicler was born at Fordoun (Kincardineshire) has not been supported by any direct evidence. It is certain that he was a secular priest, and that he composed his history in the latter part of the 14th century; and it is probable that he was a chaplain in the cathedral of Aberdeen. The

work

WORK

Fordun

FORDUN, JOHN OF (d. c. 1384)

is the earliest attempt to write a continuous history of

Scotland

. We are informed that

Fordun

FORDUN, JOHN OF (d. c. 1384)

's patriotic zeal was roused by the removal or destruction of many national records by

Edward

EDWARD

III. and that he travelled in England and Ireland, collecting material for his history. This

work

WORK

is divided into five books. The first three are almost entirely fabulous, and form the groundwork on which Boece and Buchanan afterwards based their historical fictions, which were exposed by

Thomas

Innes in his

Critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

Essay (i. pp. 201-214). The 4th and 5th books, though still mixed with fable, contain much valuable information, and become more authentic the more nearly they approach the author's own time. The 5th book concludes with the death of King

David

I. in 1153. Besides these five books, Fordun wrote part of another book, and collected materials for bringing down the history to a later period. These materials were used by a continuator who wrote in the middle of the 15th century, and who is identified with Walter Bower (q.v.), abbot of the monastery of Inchcolm. The additions! of Bower form eleven books, and bring down the narrative to the death of King James I. in 1437. According
to the custom of the time, the continuator did not hesitate to interpolate Fordun's portion of the work with additions of his own, and the whole history thus compiled, is known as the Scotichronicon.
The first printed edition of Fordun's work was that of

Thomas

Gale

in his Scriplores quindecim (vol. iii.), which was published in 1691. This was followed by Thomas Hearne's (5 vols.) edition in 1722. The whole work, including Bower's continuation, was published by Walter Goodall at Edinburgh in 1759. In 1871 and 1872 Fordun's chronicle, in the

original

ORIGINAL

Latin and in an English translation, was edited by William F. Skene in The Historians of

Scotland

. The preface to this edition collects all the biographical details and gives full bibliographical references to MSS. and editions.

End of Article: FORDUN, JOHN OF (d. c. 1384)

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