Geoffrey Of Monmouth
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Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth,
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle ''
The History of the Kings of Britain ''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistory, pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey ...
'' ( la, De gestis Britonum or ') which was widely popular in its day, being translated into other languages from its original Latin. It was given historical credence well into the 16th century, but is now considered historically unreliable.


Biography

Geoffrey was born between about 1090 and 1100, in
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
or the Welsh Marches. He had reached the
age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the contr ...
by 1129 when he is recorded as witnessing a charter. Geoffrey refers to himself in his ''Historia'' as ''Galfridus Monemutensis'' (Geoffrey of Monmouth), which indicates a significant connection to Monmouth, Wales, and may refer to his birthplace. His works attest to some acquaintance with the place-names of the region. Geoffrey was known to his contemporaries as ''Galfridus Arturus'' or variants thereof.J. C. Crick, "Monmouth, Geoffrey of (d. 1154/5)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004
accessed 7 June 2009
/ref> The "Arthur" in these versions of his name may indicate the name of his father or a nickname based on his scholarly interests. Earlier scholars assumed that Geoffrey was
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
or at least spoke
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
. His knowledge of this language appears to have been slight, however, and there is no evidence that he was of either Welsh or
Cambro-Norman Cambro-Normans ( la, Cambria; "Wales", cy, Normaniaid Cymreig; nrf, Nouormands Galles) were Normans who settled in southern Wales, and the Welsh Marches, after the Norman invasion of Wales, allied with their counterpart families who settled E ...
descent.Roberts, "Geoffrey of Monmouth, ''Historia Regnum Britanniae'' and ''Brut y Brenhinedd''", p. 98. He may have come from the same French-speaking elite of the Welsh border country as
Gerald of Wales Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taugh ...
,
Walter Map Walter Map ( la, Gualterius Mappus; 1130 – 1210) was a medieval writer. He wrote '' De nugis curialium'', which takes the form of a series of anecdotes of people and places, offering insights on the history of his time. Map was a court ...
, and
Robert, Earl of Gloucester Robert FitzRoy, 1st Earl of Gloucester (c. 1090 – 31 October 1147David Crouch, 'Robert, first earl of Gloucester (b. c. 1090, d. 1147)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 200Retrieved ...
, to whom Geoffrey dedicated versions of his ''History''. Frank Merry Stenton and others have suggested that Geoffrey's parents may have been among the many
Bretons The Bretons (; br, Bretoned or ''Vretoned,'' ) are a Celtic ethnic group native to Brittany. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brittonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwall and Devon, mo ...
who took part in
William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
's conquest and settled in the southeast of Wales. Monmouth had been in the hands of Breton lords since 1075 or 1086, and the names Galfridus and Arthur were more common among the Bretons than the Welsh. He may have served for a while in the Benedictine
Monmouth Priory Monmouth Priory, in Priory Street, Monmouth, Wales, is a building that incorporates the remains of the monastic buildings attached to St Mary's Priory Church. The priory was a Benedictine foundation of 1075, and parts of the mediaeval buildings ...
, but most of his adult life appears to have been spent outside Wales. Between 1129 and 1151, his name appears on six charters in the
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
area, sometimes styled ''magister'' (teacher). He was probably a secular canon of St. George's college. All the charters signed by Geoffrey are also signed by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, a canon at that church. Another frequent co-signatory is Ralph of Monmouth, a canon of
Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...
. Archbishop
Theobald of Bec Theobald of Bec ( c. 1090 – 18 April 1161) was a Norman archbishop of Canterbury from 1139 to 1161. His exact birth date is unknown. Some time in the late 11th or early 12th century Theobald became a monk at the Abbey of Bec, risi ...
consecrated Geoffrey as Bishop of St Asaph at Lambeth on 24 February 1152, having ordained him a priest at Westminster 10 days before. According to
Lewis Thorpe Lewis Guy Melville Thorpe FRSA FRHistS (5 November 1913 – 10 October 1977)''UK and Ireland, Obituary Index, 2004-2018'' was a British philologist and translator. He was married to the Italian scholar and lexicographer Barbara Reynolds. After ...
, "There is no evidence that he ever visited his see, and indeed the wars of
Owain Gwynedd Owain ap Gruffudd (  23 or 28 November 1170) was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great ( cy, Owain Fawr) and the first to be ...
make this most unlikely." He appears to have died between 25 December 1154 and 24 December 1155 according to Welsh chronicles, when his successor took office.


Works

Geoffrey's structuring and shaping of the Merlin and
Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more wi ...
myths engendered their vast popularity which continues today, and he is generally viewed by scholars as the major establisher of the Arthurian canon. The ''Historys effect on the legend of King Arthur was so vast that Arthurian works have been categorised as "pre-Galfridian" and "post-Galfridian", depending on whether or not they were influenced by him.


''Historia Regum Britanniae''

Geoffrey wrote several works in Latin, the language of learning and literature in Europe during the medieval period. His major work was the ''
Historia Regum Britanniae ''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...
'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), the work best known to modern readers. It relates the purported history of Britain, from its first settlement by
Brutus of Troy Brutus, also called Brute of Troy, is a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas, known in medieval British history as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain. This legend first appears in the ''Historia Brittonum'', an anonymous ...
, a descendant of Trojan hero
Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons ...
, to the death of
Cadwaladr Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon (also spelled Cadwalader or Cadwallader in English) was king of Gwynedd in Wales from around 655 to 682 AD. Two devastating plagues happened during his reign, one in 664 and the other in 682; he himself was a victim of t ...
in the 7th century, covering
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
's invasions of Britain, Kings Leir and
Cymbeline ''Cymbeline'' , also known as ''The Tragedie of Cymbeline'' or ''Cymbeline, King of Britain'', is a play by William Shakespeare set in Ancient Britain () and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerning the early Celti ...
, and one of the earliest developed narratives of King Arthur. Geoffrey claims in his dedication that the book is a translation of an "ancient book in the British language that told in orderly fashion the deeds of all the kings of Britain", given to him by
Walter Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...
, Archdeacon of Oxford, but modern historians have dismissed this claim. It is likely, however, that the Archdeacon did furnish Geoffrey with some materials in the Welsh language which helped inspire his work, as Geoffrey's position and acquaintance with him would not have permitted him to fabricate such a claim outright. Much of it is based on the ''
Historia Britonum ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Br ...
'', a 9th-century Welsh-Latin historical compilation,
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
's ''
Ecclesiastical History of the English People The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict b ...
'', and
Gildas Gildas ( Breton: ''Gweltaz''; c. 450/500 – c. 570) — also known as Gildas the Wise or ''Gildas Sapiens'' — was a 6th-century British monk best known for his scathing religious polemic ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'', which recount ...
's 6th-century polemic ''
De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'' ( la, On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain, sometimes just ''On the Ruin of Britain'') is a work written in Latin by the 6th-century AD British cleric St Gildas. It is a sermon in three parts condemning ...
'', expanded with material from bardic oral tradition and genealogical tracts, and embellished by Geoffrey's own imagination. In an exchange of manuscript material for their own histories,
Robert of Torigny Robert of Torigni (also known as Roburtus de Monte) (c. 1110–1186) was a Norman monk, prior, abbot and twelfth century chronicler. Religious life Robert was born at Torigni-sur-Vire, Normandy c. 1110 most probably to an aristocratic family b ...
gave
Henry of Huntingdon Henry of Huntingdon ( la, Henricus Huntindoniensis; 1088 – AD 1157), the son of a canon in the diocese of Lincoln, was a 12th-century English historian and the author of ''Historia Anglorum'' (Medieval Latin for "History of the English"), ...
a copy of ''History'', which both Robert and Henry used uncritically as authentic history and subsequently used in their own works, by which means Geoffrey's fictions became embedded in popular history. ''The History of the Kings of Britain'' is now usually considered a literary forgery containing little reliable history. This has since led many modern scholars to agree with
William of Newburgh William of Newburgh or Newbury ( la, Guilelmus Neubrigensis, ''Wilhelmus Neubrigensis'', or ''Willelmus de Novoburgo''. 1136 – 1198), also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon of Anglo-Saxon de ...
, who wrote around 1190 that "it is quite clear that everything this man wrote about Arthur and his successors, or indeed about his predecessors from
Vortigern Vortigern (; owl, Guorthigirn, ; cy, Gwrtheyrn; ang, Wyrtgeorn; Old Breton: ''Gurdiern'', ''Gurthiern''; gle, Foirtchern; la, Vortigernus, , , etc.), also spelled Vortiger, Vortigan, Voertigern and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in ...
onwards, was made up, partly by himself and partly by others." Other contemporaries were similarly unconvinced by Geoffrey's ''History''. For example,
Giraldus Cambrensis Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taugh ...
recounts the experience of a man possessed by demons: "If the evil spirits oppressed him too much, the
Gospel of St John The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "sig ...
was placed on his bosom, when, like birds, they immediately vanished; but when the book was removed, and the ''History of the Britons'' by 'Geoffrey Arthur' s Geoffrey named himselfwas substituted in its place, they instantly reappeared in greater numbers, and remained a longer time than usual on his body and on the book." Geoffrey's major work was nevertheless widely disseminated throughout medieval Western Europe; Acton Griscom listed 186 extant manuscripts in 1929, and others have been identified since. It enjoyed a significant afterlife in a variety of forms, including translations and adaptations such as
Wace Wace ( 1110 – after 1174), sometimes referred to as Robert Wace, was a Medieval Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy (he tells us in the ''Roman de Rou'' that he was taken as a child to Caen), ending his car ...
's Old Norman-French ''
Roman de Brut The ''Brut'' or ''Roman de Brut'' (completed 1155) by the poet Wace is a loose and expanded translation in almost 15,000 lines of Norman-French verse of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin '' History of the Kings of Britain''. It was formerly known ...
'',
Layamon Layamon or Laghamon (, ; ) – spelled Laȝamon or Laȝamonn in his time, occasionally written Lawman – was an English poet of the late 12th/early 13th century and author of the ''Brut'', a notable work that was the first to present the legend ...
's Middle English '' Brut'', and several anonymous
Middle Welsh Middle Welsh ( cy, Cymraeg Canol, wlm, Kymraec) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ( cy, Hen G ...
versions known as ' ("''Brut of the Kings''"). where it was generally accepted as a true account. In 2017,
Miles Russell Miles Russell, (born 8 April 1967) is a British archaeologist best known for his work and publications on the prehistoric and Roman periods and for his appearances in television programmes such as ''Time Team'' and ''Harry Hill's TV Burp''. Per ...
published the initial results of the Lost Voices of Celtic Britain Project established at
Bournemouth University Bournemouth University is a public university in Bournemouth, England, with its main campus situated in neighbouring Poole. The university was founded in 1992; however, the origins of its predecessor date back to the early 1900s. The univer ...
. The main conclusion of the study was that the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' appears to contain significant demonstrable archaeological fact, despite being compiled many centuries after the period that it describes. Geoffrey seems to have brought together a disparate mass of source material, including folklore, chronicles, king-lists, dynastic tables, oral tales, and bardic praise poems, some of which was irrevocably garbled or corrupted. In doing so, Geoffrey exercised considerable editorial control, massaging the information and smoothing out apparent inconsistencies in order to create a single grand narrative which fed into the preferred narrative of the Norman rulers of Britain. Much of the information that he used can be shown to be derived from two discrete sources: * the orally transmitted, heroic tales of the
Catuvellauni The Catuvellauni (Common Brittonic: *''Catu-wellaunī'', "war-chiefs") were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century. The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their ...
and
Trinovantes The Trinovantēs (Common Brittonic: *''Trinowantī'') or Trinobantes were one of the Celtic tribes of Pre-Roman Britain. Their territory was on the north side of the Thames estuary in current Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, and included land ...
, two essentially pre-Roman tribes inhabiting central south-eastern Britain at the very end of the
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
; * the king-lists of important post-Roman dynasties that ruled territories in western Britain. Stretching this source material out, chopping, changing and re-editing it in the process, Geoffrey added not just his own fictions but also additional information culled from later Roman histories and also those of Dark Ages and early medieval writers such as Gildas and Bede.''Lost Voices of Celtic Britain Project''
/ref>


Other writings

Geoffrey's earliest writing was probably the ' (''Prophecies of Merlin'') which he wrote before 1135, and which appears both independently and incorporated into ''The History of the Kings of Britain''. It consists of a series of obscure prophetic utterances attributed to Merlin which he claimed to have translated from an unspecified language. The third work attributed to Geoffrey is the hexameter poem ''
Vita Merlini ''Vita Merlini'', or ''The Life of Merlin'', is a Latin poem in 1,529 hexameter lines written around the year 1150. Though doubts have in the past been raised about its authorship it is now widely believed to be by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It tel ...
'' (''Life of Merlin''), based more closely on traditional material about Merlin than the other works. Here he is known as Merlin of the Woods (''Merlinus Sylvestris'') or Scottish Merlin (''Merlinus Caledonius'') and is portrayed as an old man living as a crazed and grief-stricken outcast in the forest. The story is set long after the timeframe of the ''History''s Merlin, but the author tries to synchronise the works with references to the mad prophet's previous dealings with
Vortigern Vortigern (; owl, Guorthigirn, ; cy, Gwrtheyrn; ang, Wyrtgeorn; Old Breton: ''Gurdiern'', ''Gurthiern''; gle, Foirtchern; la, Vortigernus, , , etc.), also spelled Vortiger, Vortigan, Voertigern and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in ...
and Arthur. The ''Vita'' did not circulate widely, and the attribution to Geoffrey appears in only one late 13th-century manuscript, but it contains recognisably Galfridian elements in its construction and content, and most critics recognise it as his.


See also

*
Adam of Usk Adam of Usk ( cy, Adda o Frynbuga, c. 1352–1430) was a Welsh priest, canonist, and late medieval historian and chronicler. His writings were hostile to King Richard II of England. Patronage Born at Usk in what is now Monmouthshire (Sir Fynwy) ...
*
Ranulf Higdon Ranulf Higden or Higdon ( – 12 March 1364) was an English chronicler and a Benedictine monk who wrote the ''Polychronicon'', a Late Medieval magnum opus. Higden, who resided at the monastery of St. Werburgh in Chester, is believed to ha ...
*
William of Malmesbury William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a ...


References


Sources

* Geoffrey of Monmouth. ''The History of the Kings of Britain''. Edited and translated by Michael Faletra. Broadview Books: Peterborough, Ontario, 2008. * Geoffrey of Monmouth. ''The History of the Kings of Britain.'' Translated, with introduction and index, by Lewis Thorpe. Penguin Books: London, 1966. * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Latin Chroniclers from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries: Geoffrey of Monmouth
from ''
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature'' is an encyclopedia of literary criticism that was published by Cambridge University Press between 1907 and 1921. Edited and written by an international panel of 171 leading scholars a ...
'', Volume I, 1907–21. *


Editions of the Latin text

* * Hammer, Jacob/ Geoffrey of Monmouth, ''Historia regum Britanniae'', a variant version. Edited by Jacob Hammer. Medieval Academy Books, No. 57 (1951).
Medieval Academy Electronic Editions
Geoffrey of Monmouth, Second Variant version of the "Historia Regum Britannie" from Library of
Matthew Parker Matthew Parker (6 August 1504 – 17 May 1575) was an English bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder (with a p ...
.
Historia regum Britanniae, MS CUL Ff.1.25, Cambridge Digital Library



English translations available on the internet

*''Historia Regum Britanniae'': *

tr. by
Sebastian Evans Sebastian Evans (2 March 1830 – 19 December 1909) was an English journalist and political activist, known also as a man of letters and an artist. He helped to form the National Union of Conservative Associations. Life Born on 2 March 1830 at M ...
, at Sacred Texts ** By Aaron Thompson with revisions by
J. A. Giles John Allen Giles (1808–1884) was an English historian. He was primarily known as a scholar of Anglo-Saxon language and history. He revised Stevens' translation of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' and Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History of the English ...
at http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/geoffrey_thompson.pdf. (PDF) ** (Arthurian passages only) edited and translated by J. A. Giles at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/geofhkb.htm. *''Vita Merlini'', Basil Clarke's English translation from ''Life of Merlin: Vita Merlini'' (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1973). ** A
Jones the Celtic Encyclopedia
** A

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geoffrey of Monmouth 1090s births 1155 deaths 12th-century Latin writers 12th-century English Roman Catholic bishops 12th-century Welsh poets 12th-century Welsh historians Anglo-Normans in Wales Augustinian canons Bishops of St Asaph Medieval Latin poets People from Monmouth, Wales People from Oxford Pseudohistorians Welsh mythology Welsh-speaking clergy Writers of Arthurian literature British anthropologists