English 65B/165B: Arthurian Literature

Week 2, Class 2

Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia regum Britanniae)

  1. Geoffrey of Monmouth

British or Breton ("pudibundus Brito")? Normanised Celt

Cleric at Oxford by 1129. Writes a good, effective Latin narrative.

Named Bishop of St Asaph in northeast Wales by 1151, but probably never resident

B. The History of the Kings of Britain

1. History: hi[story](Gk etym. "to find by discovery") is, in a sense, a "fiction"

1. Classical: Herodotus, Thucydides; Livy, Tacitus

2. Chronicle and medieval historiography:

Gregory of Tours vs. Bede

Celtic (Irish, Welsh)

3. Arthur in the Latin Chronicles

a. Gildas, c. 547, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae

b. After Bede, Nennius, c. 800, Historia Brittonum

c. Annals of Cambria, 900s, Battles of Badon, Camlann

d. Legend of St. Goeznovius (Goeuznou), 1019, continental base of Arthurian legend in Brittany

e. William of Malmesbury, 1125, De rebus gestis regum Anglorum

12th century England an era of historical writing with authors such as William of Malmesbury, Henry Huntington, William Newburgh, Matthew Paris. Among these,the Historia Regum Brittaniae of Geoffrey.

f. After Geoffrey of Monmouth, Giraldus Cambrensis, 1190s, De instructione prncipum

2. Geoffrey;s History one of the most successful rewritings of history, an historical fiction. Geoffrey rewrites history from Aeneas to Arthur, and inscribes Briton Arthur in history (see article in New Arthurian Encyclopedia).

Many but not all taken in by Geoffrey: William of Newburgh, Proemium, 3ff., questions veracity and historicity, calling it all "fabula."

3. Arthur here the major figure, not a small Briton chieftain but a world figure, who challenges and bests Scots, Picts, Irish, Norse, Gauls, and Romans.

Geoffrey sets up the Arthurian court and courtly love, presaging the tragedy of Guenevere, and the internal disloyalty/adultery within the court.

Arthur’s success and failure plotted as a rising and falling action: he is ready to march on Rome when Mordred and Guenevere do him in.

4. A strange, compelling work.

Qualities: controlled writing, impressive speeches, fascinating digressions (lurid rape scene in Mt St. Michel episode), large battle scenes, duels, individual confrontations, single combat.