The anonymous Older Scots narrative The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis is preserved in the Asloan manuscript (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates 16500), which was composed ca. 1515. The manuscript's name comes from its scribe, John Asloan, a copyist and notary public living in and around Edinburgh.
Like the contemporaneous Middle English manuscripts, the Scottish narrative is also part of the
Version A branch of the tradition, and also likely had a
French Version A text as its primary source, judging by the stories and their order. Also like the English texts, the
Buke is in octosyllabic tail-rhymed verse. However, the
Buke also diverges from the Version A/English narratives' pattern in a few key ways that suggest narrative proximity to the
Historia tradition as well. Catherine van Buuren notes that there are several points when the
Buke uses language identical to that found in some of the
Latin Version H texts, with narrative details further exemplifying the influence of the
Historia tradition (
Van Buuren (1982), pp. 136-81). Critically, this includes the revelation and gender-reveal of the empress's lover at the end of the frame story, something that is not found in the Version A narrative pattern. Van Buuren notes that while this could suggest a lost, early A/H source that blends the two traditions, it is perhaps more likely that the author of the
Buke was familiar with both the Version A and Version H narratives.
| General Information
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| Language within Version |
Older Scots
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| Narrative / Scholarly Group |
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| Parent Versions |
A (Seven Sages)
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| Siglum of the version of the Seven Sages |
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| Language & Composition
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| Original language of version |
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| Recorded branch of this secondary version
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| Connected prints
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No connected prints
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| Notes
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| Notes on motifs |
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| Notes on the frame |
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| Pattern of embedded stories in this version
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