The Bride of Lammermoor

The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), by Scottish writer Walter Scott, is a historical novel following the love affair of two young people from opposing families. The story was initially published anonymously.

In the introduction, Scott reveals that he became aware of this fireside story through his mother, Anne Rutherford. A lawyer friend then provided him with dozens of original sources. Previously, he writes, he wouldn’t have ventured to publish this account, but since a poet has recently talked about the affair, he feels that he can now do the same. The story is based on a real incident and all fictional personas in The Bride of Lammermoor can be traced to real people.

The tale takes places in a hilly range of southeast Scotland, around 1807. Edgar Ravenswood is a gallant young man. Edgar’s father was a royalist and supported King James VII during the “Glorious” Revolution of 1688. In the opening scene, Edgar is attending his father’s funeral. King James VII, who supported Catholic rights and was a patron of France, lost the war, and the Ravenswood family was stripped of much of their power and wealth.



This makes them a prime target of scorn and opportunity for Sir William Ashton. The cunning Sir William wants to take advantage of the Ravenswoods' unfortunate luck and buy or usurp as much of their property as possible. All they are left with is the tower of Wolf’s Crag, which is in poor shape, always cold, and not at all pretty to look at. With his family being picked at like a carcass, Edgar vows revenge against Sir William.

Lucy Ashton, the daughter of Sir William, is an unassuming and cultured young woman. After Edgar shoots a wild boar to death that is threatening Sir William and Lucy, he meets Lucy, and his hateful planning comes to a halt. The two quickly declare their mutual love and, in secret, they plan to be married. Sir William has grown fond of Edgar’s good nature and agrees to the match.

Lady Ashton, however, wants Lucy to marry someone who will give the family greater political influence; it won’t help the Ashtons at all to marry into the Ravenswood family, which has fallen from grace. The wife of Sir William is similar to the ambitious and cunning Lady Macbeth in that they both push their family members toward criminal acts that, alone, they would not have carried out.



While Edgar is off travelling in France, Lady Ashton’s first step toward breaking up the engagement is to make it seem that Edgar has lost interest in Lucy. To do this, she steals all of the letters Edgar sends back to Scotland, and hides them away from Lucy.

Lady Ashton’s next step is to bribe a mercenary solider, Captain Westenho, into spreading the lie that Edgar has pledged to be wedded to another woman in France. Not caring about the harmful effect this has on her daughter, Lady Ashton then takes Lucy to a fortune teller, Ailsie Gourlay. Ailsie pretends to read some signs in her shop; the signs suggest that Edgar is no longer betrothed to Lucy and that he will ultimately marry someone else.

Despite all this gossip, Lucy maintains hope that Edgar still loves her. She insists: she won’t be persuaded otherwise until he tells her himself. She writes to him, but Lady Ashton again intercepts the letter.



Fortunately, there is one serious glitch in Lady Ashton’s scheming. When she pays a priest, the Reverend Bide-the-bent, to tell Lucy that God wants her to move on, he doesn’t go through with the message Lady Ashton wants to send. Instead, he helps Lucy write a new letter and sends it to Europe himself. But surprisingly, there is no reply.

At this silence, Lucy finally accepts that Edgar has likely moved on. With a faint heart, she finally accepts the advances of the Laird of Bucklaw, who happens to be a family enemy of the Ravenswoods. She writes one more time to Edgar, saying that unless she hears back from him she will have to marry Bucklaw. Lucy cannot know that Edgar is travelling back to Scotland and cannot reply.

As luck would have it, the day before the official wedding, Edgar returns. He immediately jumps to the conclusion that Lucy has been unfaithful and yells at her. Unable to explain her situation, Lucy is silent and cowers before him. She has already signed an official document agreeing to marry the Laird of Bucklaw.



Lucy and the Laird of Bucklaw marry. To rub the marriage in Edgar’s face, Lady Ashton makes sure that the wedding reception takes place on property formerly owned by the Ravenswood family.

Lucy declares an intense hatred for her new husband. Right before they are to consummate their relationship, she stabs Bucklaw and he nearly dies. He survives, but Lucy does not. The entrapment of marriage to a man she doesn’t even like, the manipulative nature of her mother, her lost love for Edgar, and her crime of having stabbed someone are too much for her: she goes insane, has a series of seizures, and dies.

Bucklaw tells no one that his new wife tried to stab him; instead, he simply informs everyone that Lucy is dead.



Edgar makes an appearance at Lucy’s funeral. Lucy’s brother blames Edgar for her death: if he hadn't made her half crazy with his silence in France, then she probably would not have died. He challenges Edgar to a duel to the death. Duty bound, Edgar accepts.

On the way to the duel, feeling miserable over the death of his loved one and at the prospect of killing her brother, Edgar’s mind wanders and he doesn’t see a patch of quicksand directly in front of him. He falls into it quickly, declaring his regret and his love for Lucy before dying.