be a fictional element. A two-handed sword [claidheamh dà-làimh, in Gaelic, more commonly claidheamh-mòr or claymore meaning great sword], purporting to be Wallace's, which may contain original metal from his sword blade, was kept by the Scottish kings and is displayed as a relic in the Wallace Monument. The potency of these tales can be gauged from the following statement by the poet Robert Burns, writing some three centuries after they were first related. The two first books I ever read in private, and which gave me more pleasure than any two books I ever read again, were The Life of Hannibal and The History of Sir William Wallace [a modernised version of Blind Harry by William Hamilton of Gilbertfield]. Hannibal gave my young ideas such a turn that I used to strut in raptures up and down after the recruiting drum and bagpipe, and wish myself tall enough that I could be a soldier; while the story of Wallace poured a Scottish prejudice into my veins which will boil along there till the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest. The Battle of Stirling Bridge is depicted in the 1995 film Braveheart, but it bears little resemblance to the real battle. Most egregiously there being no bridge (due mainly to the difficulty of filming around the bridge itself), and tactics resembling the Battle of Bannockburn. The Battle of Stirling Bridge and its events are memorialized in the track of the same name, on the CD Two Years Enough by the Celtic punk band Brick Top Blaggers. References Further reading Armstrong, Peter. Stirling Bridge and Falkirk 1297–98: William Wallace's rebellion (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012). Barrow, G.W.S., Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland, 1976. Brown, C., "William Wallace" 2005. Cowan, Edward J., The Wallace Book, 2007, John Donald, Ferguson, J., William Wallace: Guardian of Scotland. 1948. Nicholson, R., Scotland-the Later Middle Ages, 1974. Prestwich, M., The Three Edwards: War and State in England, 1272–1277, 1980. Spiers, Edward N. et al. Military History of Scotland (2012) 912pp. Traquair, P., Freedom's Sword External links Historic Scotland site report and area map 1297 in Scotland Stirling Bridge Stirling Bridge Conflicts in 1297 History of Stirling (council area) 1297 in England Stirling Bridge Stirling Bridge