Week 6: Brutus and Britain's foundation myth

Foundation myths, whether of nations, dynasties or cities, have been at the heart of western culture since classical times. Europe’s archetypal national foundation myth was the subject of Virgil’s Aeneid. Present in Virgil’s poem are three key elements which appear repeatedly in western foundation myths: the wanderer/outsider making good; the foundation prompted by divine prophecy or visions, and the planting, by the ‘chosen people’ of their new (and often superior) culture in a foreign land. Most medieval states, cities and dynasties were comparative newcomers, and many sought to obscure their uncomfortably recent origins in a cloud of myth.

Troy provided the ideal means to do this. In medieval England, the Trojan myth received perhaps its most elaborate and fantastical development. The original source for the English tradition was probably the 9^th century Historia Brittonum, (Pseudo-Nennius). This original story was greatly expanded by Geoffrey of Monmouth who begins his own work with an account of Brutus, or Brute, Aeneas’s grandson, who is expelled from Italy with his followers, and wanders the Mediterranean. In a vision, the goddess Diana tells Brutus that his destiny is to lead the Trojans to an island in the west, where he shall found a race of kings. Brutus eventually realises the prophecy, founding Britain, and supplanting its primitive native giants. Thus, Brutus’s tale exhibits the ‘Virgilian’ topoi of the outsider, divine intervention and colonisation.

Brutus of Troy, represented here as founder of London

Blog Question: What are the elements of the story of Brutus as relayed in the reading from Wace’s Brut, that mark it as the perfect foundation myth from Britain?

Week 5: Contemporary supporters and detractors of Geoffrey of Monmouth

William of Newburgh (1135-1198) Augustinian canon and historian, whose major work Historia rerum Anglicarum was written between 1196-8. The work is divided into 5 books including a Prologue from which the extract in the reader is taken which itself looks back largely with approval to the work of Gildas and Bede. Book I covers 1066-1154; Book II deals with the reign of Henry II from 1154-74; Book III covers from 1175 to Henry's death in 1189; Book IV covers 1187-94 and Book V covers the remaining years until William's death (1194-98). William of Newburgh is a writer whose reputation has remained consistently high among modern readers largely because of the high order of his historical ability. His critical judgement is well demonstrated in his repose to the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth.

William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum

Henry of Huntingdon (1088-1157) was a historian and poet whose major work was Historia Anglorum covering the period between the invasions of Julius Caesar and the coronation of Henry II in 1154. There was a moral purpose to this work which was to interpret the five invasions of Britain 1) by the Romans; 2) by the Picts and Scots; 3) by the Angles and Saxons; 4) by the Danes; and 5) by the Normans; as five punishments or plagues inflicted by God on a faithless people (sound familiar?). The letter of the excerpt in the reader, addressed to Warin the Briton (Breton?) concerns the origin of the "British kings who reigned in this country down to the coming of Julius Caesar" and is pretty much taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth.

MS Illustration from Historia Anglorum

Gerald of Wales (1146-1220) author and ecclesiastic. After a long period of education mainly in Paris, Gerlad entered the service of King Henry II in 1184. His Itinerarium Cambriae (1191) is remarkable for the detailed narrative it provides of specific events but also for its acute coments on social customs.

Gerald of Wales

Ranulf Higden (d.1364) was a Benedictine monk and chronicler whose major work was his universal chronicle in seven books known as the Polychronicon. This work offered to the educated audience of fourteenth century England a picture of world history based on medieval tradition but with an interest in antiquity and with the early history of Britain related as part of the whole.

Ranulf Higden's world view

QUESTION: Select one of the four primary source extracts provided in the unit reader for this week's work and analyse the view expressed about Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum britanniae. What do you think?

Week 4: The Galfridian Age Begins

From the dedicatory letter serving as preface to the Historia Regum Britanniae

"Oftentimes in turning over in mine own mind the many themes that might be subject-matter of a book, my thoughts would fall upon the plan of writing a history of the Kings of Britain, and in my musings thereupon meseemed it a marvel that, beyond such mention as Gildas and Bede have made of them in their luminous tractate, nought could I find as concerning the kings that had dwelt in Britain before the Incarnation of Christ, nor nought even as concerning Arthur and the many others that did succeed him after the Incarnation, albeit that their deeds be worthy of praise everlasting and be as pleasantly rehearsed from memory by word of mouth in the traditions of many peoples as though they had been written down.  

Now, whilst, I was thinking upon such matters, Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, a man learned not only in the art of eloquence, but in the histories of foreign lands, offered me a certain most ancient book in the British language that did set forth the doings of them all in due succession and order from Brute, the first King of the Britons, onward to Cadwallader, the son of Cadwallo, all told in stories of exceeding beauty. At his request, therefore, albeit that never have I gathered gay flowers of speech in other men's little gardens, and am content with mine own rustic manner of speech and mine own writing-reeds, have I been at the pains to translate this volume into the Latin tongue. 

For had I besprinkled my page with high-flown phrases, I should only have engendered a weariness in my readers by compelling them to spend more time over the meaning of the words than upon understanding the drift of my story."

QUESTION:

Is the "most ancient book in the British language" a source awaiting discovery or is it the fabrication of a great storyteller seeking authority for his own invention? What do you think? 

Week 3: William of Malmesbury and the "truthful history"

"Glass discovered at Glastonbury Abbey dates back to 7th century, researchers find" (from medievalists.net) [May 2012]

Glastonbury glass discoveries

New research led by the University of Reading has revealed that finds at Glastonbury Abbey provide the earliest archeological evidence of glass making in Britain. Professor Roberta Gilchrist, from the Department of Archaeology, has re-examined the records of excavations that took place at Glastonbury in the 1950s and 1960s.  

Glass furnaces recorded in 1955-7 were previously thought to date from before the Norman Conquest. However, radiocarbon dating has now revealed that they date approximately to the 680s, and are likely to be associated with a major rebuilding of the abbey undertaken by King Ine of Wessex. Glass-making at York and Wearmouth is recorded in historical documents in the 670s but Glastonbury provides the earliest and most substantial archaeological evidence for glass-making in Saxon Britain.  

The extensive remains of five furnaces have been identified, together with fragments of clay crucibles and glass for window glazing and drinking vessels, mainly of vivid blue-green colour. It is likely that specialist glassworkers came from Gaul (France) to work at Glastonbury. The glass will be analysed chemically to provide further information on the sourcing and processing of materials.

 Professor Gilchrist said "Glastonbury Abbey is a site of international historical importance but until now the excavations have remained unpublished. The research project reveals new evidence for the early date of the monastery at Glastonbury and charts its development over one thousand years, from the 6th century to its dissolution in the 16th century.” 

............ end of article:.........

William of Malmesbury has much to say about the history of Glastonbury Abbey and demonstrates cautious historical methodology in dating its origin. His position is nicely captured in the excerpt from Geoffrey Ashe's Avalonian Quest.





The question to answer:
"What role did Glastonbury play in the early spread of Christianity in Britain?"