Date and Compositon of the History of the Kings of Britian (Historia Regum Britanniae)

• finished c. 1136-38, though the date is much debated
• written by Geoffrey of Monmouth (Gaufridus Monemutensis c. 1100-1155), prior of the Abbey of Monmouth, Wales
  • "active in the emerging schools of Oxford" (Longman, 160)
  • blended his Latin learning (the liberal arts and Roman Catholic culture) and his Welsh cultural heritage (oral tradition and written literature) in his writing
  • He and his work form a confluence of Anglo-Norman and Welsh languages and influences, negoiating the cultural differences between the two traditions extant in 12th-century Britain--the former a hegemonic, conquering culture, the latter an increasingly peripheral culture.
  • also wrote The Prophecies of Merlin (finished c. 1135)
• represented as if it were a Latin prose translation of "a certain very ancient book written in the British language" (Longman, 161), i.e., probably early Welsh or Breton
• dedicated to Robert, Earl of Gloucester (uncle of Henry II), and to Waleran, Count of Mellent, both of whom are depicted as wise, learned men, skilled in politics, warfare, and protecting their people
• represented as a history in the tradition of Bede (c. 681-735) and Gildas (d. 570)
  • cites documentary and archaeological evidence, as well as eyewitness testimony to substantiate his narrative of a British mythology
  • presents a counter-history--the pre-Christian events of British history not recorded in Bede's Christian history of the island
  • Geoffrey creates an earlier established history for the island than that created by Bede and the Anglo-Saxons and Catholics whose history he recounts.
  • creates an imperial Roman enemy as an historical foe of all the peoples of Britain
• But we cannot trust many, if any, of the "facts" Geoffrey presents as history.

Influences Incorporated in Geoffrey's History

• Vergil's Aeneid, which provides the starting point for the original British dynasty
  • Aeneas, with his son Ascanius, flees Troy, defeated by the Greeks in the Trojan War, to found Italy; Brutus, grandson of Ascanius and therefore Aeneas' great-grandson, is exiled from Italy and eventually sails to Britain (named for him) and established a colony.
• biblical, Trojan, and Roman histories, as evidenced in the chronology of events included
• Celtic tradition of Arthur as found in oral transmission and in Nennius, Gildas, and other early Welsh texts
  • Arthur is depicted in early fragmentary documentary and literary allusions as a king or great war leader (dux bellorum) who reunited the British after the Saxon and Pictish incursions and the attempts of the Romans to return to the island.
• Geoffrey's Prophecies of Merlin, which allows Geoffrey to legitimize the authority of both texts--each is substantiation of the other

Influence of Geoffrey's Work on Later Tradition

It is to Geoffrey that we owe the later Arthurian romance conventions of

• a brave people battling to stem their cultural and political decline,
• a dangerous yet compelling lust that overwhelms its victim and brings about the downfall of the lovers and, eventually, the structure of the society in which they live,
• "the ambivalent position of Mordred as cousin or nephew" (Longman, 161) to Arthur, and
• the end of Arthur's kingdom, brought about by treachery among those closest to the king--loyal knights and kin--and by sexual transgressions much like those that led to Arthur's own conception.

Return to King Arthur and the Matter of Britain

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