Cantos I–II: Bards, Battles, and the Chivalric Frame

Aestheticizing the Highlands in The Lady of the Lake

The Hunt as Chivalric Entry

Sir Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake opens not with politics or rebellion, but with the visceral energy of a stag hunt. This choice is programmatic. The hunt serves as the poem’s narrative gateway, introducing the mysterious knight James Fitz-James—a southern, courtly figure—into the rugged Highland landscape. This article argues that in these opening cantos, Scott deliberately employs the aesthetic conventions of chivalric romance to frame the Highlands, transforming a region associated with political volatility into a picturesque and morally legible stage for adventure.

The hunt itself functions as a classic romance trope, establishing Fitz-James’s noble credentials while simultaneously emphasizing the sublime wildness of the Trossachs. The landscape is rendered not as a lived-in, socio-economic space but as an aesthetic object, a series of sublime vistas and picturesque scenes perfectly suited for a knightly quest (Scott Canto I). This act of framing is crucial; it contains the potentially threatening “otherness” of the Highlands within a familiar and reassuring literary genre, making it safe for his predominantly Lowland and English readership. As scholar Ina Ferris suggests, the Romantic national tale often works to manage and neutralize cultural difference through such aesthetic strategies (Ferris 12).

The Bard and Mediated Memory

The introduction of Allan-bane, the aged bard, is another key element in this aestheticizing project. His harp’s invocation, calling on the muse of memory, immediately positions the narrative as a mediated performance rather than a direct historical account. The bard is a symbol of authentic, ancient culture, yet his presence also serves to legitimize Scott’s own authorial act of myth-making. Allan-bane is both a vessel of cultural memory and a gatekeeper who sanctions the story we are about to hear.

This creates a crucial layer of distance. We are not experiencing the “real” Highlands but a curated version, filtered through the legitimizing voice of tradition. The bardic frame allows Scott to present his constructed narrative as an authentic echo of the past, masking its contemporary ideological work: the creation of a stable, romanticized history for a nation still negotiating its identity within the Union.

Roderick Dhu and the Romantic Outlaw

The arrival of Roderick Dhu, the fierce clan chief, introduces the central political tension, yet he too is immediately filtered through the chivalric lens. He is depicted as a noble outlaw, whose martial pride and fierce loyalty to his clan align with the heroic codes of romance, even as they position him as an antagonist to the state. His war-song, “Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!”, is a performance of masculine, martial power, yet it is presented as a piece of cultural spectacle—a “martial ditty” for the reader’s consumption (Scott Canto II).

By casting the figure of Highland rebellion as a recognizable chivalric type, Scott both acknowledges the region’s warrior ethos and contains it. Roderick is a magnificent but ultimately anachronistic figure, a relic of a feudal past whose heroic code is destined to be superseded by the centralized power embodied by the disguised king. In these opening cantos, Scott sets the stage for a conflict that will be resolved not through political negotiation, but through the narrative logic of romance.

Continue -» Cantos III–IV: Prophecy, Power, and the Fading of the Old Order

Return to the The Lady of the Lake index

This article was developed through an iterative collaboration between our Editor-in-Chief and multiple AI language models. Various LLMs contributed at different stages—from initial ideation and drafting to refinement and technical review. Each AI served as a creative and analytical partner, while human editors maintained final oversight, ensuring accuracy, quality, and alignment with AuthZ's editorial standards.