Shared Suffering: Death, Devotion and National Identity in Medieval Scottish Literature

Abstract

This essay explores how violence surrounding death serves as a vehicle for making individual experiences collective in three late-medieval texts: In a Thestri Stude Y Stod (Thestri), Blind Harry's The Wallace, and Dunbar's Fasternis Evin in Hell (Fasternis). Through varying emotional tones, anxiety in Thestri, laughter in Fasternis, and righteous anger in The Wallace, these works remind their readers of the communal nature of human experience, particularly within the religious and social fabric of late-medieval Scotland. The essay highlights how these texts intertwine religious, social, and national identities, using violence as a tool to evoke communal emotions that transcend the individual. Ultimately, the study demonstrates how the depiction of death and violence in these works functions as a reminder of the inescapable human condition, fostering both reflection and unity within medieval Scottish society.