History of the Kings of Britain

"Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain—the earliest work to detail the legendary foundation of Britain by Brutus the Trojan and the life of King Arthur—was among the most widely read books throughout the Middle Ages. Its sweeping account of the Britons began long before the Romans and challenged the leading histories of the twelfth century. Merlin, Guinevere, Mordred, Yvain, Gawain, and other popular Arthurian figures first come to life in Geoffrey’s chronicle. It was the ultimate source of tales retold in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and King Lear, and Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. The History survives in hundreds of manuscripts in Geoffrey’s standard text. This volume presents the first English translation of what may have been his source, the anonymous First Variant Version. This shorter and less polished Latin version of the History is attested in just a handful of manuscripts. It belonged to and was probably written by Archdeacon Walter of Oxford, who died in 1151."-- Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain was among the most widely read and lastingly influential books written in England during the middle ages. The standard or "Vulgate" text of Geoffrey's work survives in nearly two hundred manuscripts from the twelfth through fifteenth centuries, even more copies than survive of Bede. It invented a sweeping account of the legendary history of the Britons that covers nearly two thousand years, from their arrival in Britain with the Trojan refugee Brutus through their final loss of sovereignty to the Saxons after the death of their last king Cadwallader. The text translated here for the first time is commonly known as the "First Variant Version" of Geoffrey's work. All of the surviving manuscripts refer to it simply as the Historia Britonum ("History of the Britons"). On the basis of fundamental differences in vocabulary, syntax, and style, all scholars agree that Geoffrey himself did not write the Variant. Opinions as to the relationship between this text and Geoffrey's version have differed, with some regarding the Variant as an earlier version, and others as a later redaction of the Vulgate.--