In Scots this can still mean a cause of anger, grief or vexation, a sense that is now obsolete in English but which harks back to the original Old Norse meaning of the word. In one of the most famous passages from his long narrative poem, The Bruce (1375) John Barbour writes that Fredome is a noble thing; he goes on to explain:
Na, he that ay has levyt fre [No, he that has always lived free]
May nocht knaw weill the propyrte, [May not know well the attribute,]
The angyr na the wrechyt dome [The sorrow nor the wretched sentence]
That is couplyt to foule thyrldome, [That is coupled to foul slavery.]
Bot gyff that he had assayit it. [Unless he had tried it.]
Than all perquer he suld it wyt [Then fully by heart he should know it]
And suld think fredome mar to prys [And should think freedom more to be valued]
Than all the gold in warld that is. [Than all the gold that is in the world.]