The Arts In Berwick -- Ballads and Poems
Scots Berwick

Medieval Berwick was an international port with Flemish and German merchants having their own trading halls. Recent excavations have turned up pottery from all over Europe, and is likely these merchants also imported their own distinctive literary culture.

Perhaps the work of Hadewijh (fl.1230-40), the leading Flemish troubadour of her day, would have been known here. Also a version of Tristan and Isolda by the mysterious Borders poet Thomas the Rhymer (c.1220-97), was perhaps based on a German original imported by a Berwick merchant.


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