University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections

Content Description A full-length autograph manuscript (386 leaves) of R. M. Ballantyne’s Erling the Bold: A Tale of the Norse Sea-Kings, a novel of Viking life, inspired by Icelandic sagas. This is very much a working manuscript with alterations, clarifications and revisions to every aspect of the text including changes to characterisation, dialogue, narrative development and descriptive writing. From the evidence of this manuscript, this was Bannatyne’s first draft of the...

Scope and Contents The collection consists of two sketchbooks by Scottish writer R. M. Ballantyne:1. The first sketchbook is made of approximately 85 leaves, almost all of which bear original drawings (pencil, ink and ink-and wash), cartoons, sketches and preliminary ideas. Some are highly finished images intended for a subsequently abandoned book of his fishing trip to Norway, as well as material for the published 'Freaks on the Fells'. On the first blank is Ballantyne's presentation inscription...