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Nennius
Nennius – or Nemnius or Nemnivus – was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the '' Historia Brittonum'', based on the prologue affixed to that work. This attribution is widely considered a secondary (10th-century) tradition. Nennius was a student of Elvodugus, commonly identified with the bishop Elfodd of Bangor who convinced British ecclesiastics to accept the Continental dating for Easter, and who died in 809 according to the ''Annales Cambriae''. Nennius is believed to have lived in the area made up by Brecknockshire and Radnorshire in present-day Powys, Wales. Thus, he lived outside the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, isolated by mountains in a rural society. Because of the lack of evidence concerning the life of Nennius, he has become the subject of legend himself. Welsh traditions include Nennius with Elbodug and others said to have escaped the massacre of Welsh monks by Ethelfrid in 613, fleeing to the north. Author ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historia Brittonum
''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 Brittonum'' is commonly attributed to Nennius, as some recensions have a preface written in his name. Some experts have dismissed the Nennian preface as a late forgery, arguing that the work was actually an anonymous compilation. Overview The ''Historia Brittonum'' describes the supposed settlement of Britain by Trojan expatriates and states that Britain took its name after Brutus, a descendant of Aeneas. The work was the "single most important source used by Geoffrey of Monmouth in creating his ''Historia Regum Britanniae''" and via the enormous popularity of the latter work, this version of the earlier history of Britain, including the Trojan origin tradition, would be incorporated into subsequent chronicles for the long-running hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elfodd
Elfodd, Elvodug or Elfoddw ( la, Elbodus or ''Elbodius''; died 809) was a Welsh bishop. He induced the Welsh church to accept the Roman computus for determining the date of Easter endorsed elsewhere in Britain at the Synod of Whitby in 664. This was after centuries of continuing the practice. Elfodd appears to have been associated with the monastery at Holyhead on Anglesey as a young man and must have still been comparatively young when in 768 he persuaded the Welsh church to come into line with Rome as regards the method of calculating the date of Easter. The annals Brut y Tywysogion state: "Eight years after that 68Easter was moved for the Britons, and Elbodius the servant of God moved it". Elfodd's death is recorded under the year 809. Brut y Tywysogion describes him as "archbishop of Gwynedd", making him bishop of Bangor. Nennius, who says in the ''History of the Britons'' that he was a pupil of Elfodd's,II. The Apology Of Nennius. “Here begins the apology of Nennius, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Britain, known perhaps as a king of the Britons or at least connoted as such in the writings of Bede and Gildas. His existence is contested by scholars and information about him is obscure. He may have been the "superbus tyrannus" said to have invited Hengist and Horsa to aid him in fighting the Picts and the Scots, whereupon they revolted, killing his son in the process and forming the Kingdom of Kent. It is said that he took refuge in North Wales, and that his grave was in Dyfed or the Llŷn Peninsula. Gildas later denigrated Vortigern for his misjudgement and also blamed him for the loss of Britain. He is cited at the beginning of the genealogy of the early Kings of Powys. Medieval accounts Gildas The 6th-century cleric and historian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matter Of Britain
The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Western story cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature, together with the Matter of France, which concerned the legends of Charlemagne, and the Matter of Rome, which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology. History The three "Matters" were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel, whose epic ' ("Song of the Saxons") contains the line: The name distinguishes and relates the Matter of Britain from the mythological themes taken from classical antiquity, the "Matter of Rome", and the tales of the Paladins of Charlemagne and their wars with the Moors and Saracens, which constituted the " Matter of France". King Arthur is the chief subject of the Matter of Britain, along with stories rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historicity Of King Arthur
The historicity of King Arthur has been debated both by academics and popular writers. While there have been many suggestions that Arthur was a real historical person, current consensus among academic historians holds him to be a mythological or folkloric figure.Tom Shippey, "So Much Smoke", ''review'' of Nicholas J. Higham, ''King Arthur: The Making of the Legend'', 2018, ''London Review of Books'', 40:24:23 (20 December 2018) However, non-specialists and a few academic historians continue to defend Arthur's historicity. The first definite mention of Arthur appears circa 828 in the ''Historia Brittonum'', where he is presented as a military leader fighting against the invading Saxons in 5th- to 6th-century Sub-Roman Britain at the Battle of Badon, written more than three centuries after the events depicted. He develops into a legendary figure in the Matter of Britain from the 12th century, following Geoffrey of Monmouth's influential but largely fictional ''Historia Regum Britan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 the acts of Gildas' contemporaries, both secular and religious, whom he blames for the dire state of affairs in sub-Roman Britain. It is one of the most important sources for the history of Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, as it is the only significant source for the period written by a near contemporary of the people and events described. Part I contains a narrative of British history from the Roman conquest to Gildas' time; it includes references to Ambrosius Aurelianus and the Britons' victory against the Saxons at the Battle of Mons Badonicus. Part II is a condemnation of five kings for their various sins, including both obscure figures and relatively well-documented ones such as Maelgwn Gwynedd. Part III is a similar attack upo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons over the course of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation and continuing until the Anglo-Saxons assumed control of much of Britain around the 7th century. It is one of the central pieces of the Matter of Britain. Although taken as historical well into the 16th century, it is now considered to have no value as history. When events described, such as Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain, can be corroborated from contemporary histories, Geoffrey's account can be seen to be wildly inaccurate. It remains, however, a valuable piece of medieval literature, which contains the earliest known version of the story of King Lear and his three daughters, and h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 recounts the history of the Britons before and during the coming of the Saxons. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during the sub-Roman period, and was renowned for his Biblical knowledge and literary style. In his later life, he emigrated to Brittany where he founded a monastery known as St Gildas de Rhuys. Hagiography Differing versions of the ''Life of Saint Gildas'' exist, but both agree that he was born in what is now Scotland on the banks of the River Clyde, and that he was the son of a royal family. These works were written in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and are regarded by scholars as unhistorical. He is now thought to have his origins farther south. In his own work, he claims to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened within Britain, and the identity was not merely imported. Anglo-Saxon identity arose from interaction between incoming groups from several Germanic tribes, both amongst themselves, and with indigenous Britons. Many of the natives, over time, adopted Anglo-Saxon culture and language and were assimilated. The Anglo-Saxons established the concept, and the Kingdom, of England, and though the modern English language owes somewhat less than 26% of its words to their language, this includes the vast majority of words used in everyday speech. Historically, the Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period in Britain between about 450 and 1066, after their initial settlement and up until the Norman Conquest. Higham, Nicholas J., and Martin J. Ryan. ''The A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 the acts of Gildas' contemporaries, both secular and religious, whom he blames for the dire state of affairs in sub-Roman Britain. It is one of the most important sources for the history of Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, as it is the only significant source for the period written by a near contemporary of the people and events described. Part I contains a narrative of British history from the Roman conquest to Gildas' time; it includes references to Ambrosius Aurelianus and the Britons' victory against the Saxons at the Battle of Mons Badonicus. Part II is a condemnation of five kings for their various sins, including both obscure figures and relatively well-documented ones such as Maelgwn Gwynedd. Part III is a similar attack upo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annales Cambriae
The ( Latin for ''Annals of Wales'') is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later editions were compiled in the 13th century. Despite the name, the record not only events in Wales, but also events in Ireland, Cornwall, England, Scotland and sometimes further afield, though the focus of the events recorded especially in the later two-thirds of the text is Wales. Sources The principal versions of appear in four manuscripts: * A: London, British Library, Harley MS 3859, folios 190r–193r. * B: London (Kew), National Archives, MS. E.164/1 (K.R. Misc. Books, Series I) pp. 2–26 * C: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Domitian A.i, folios 138r–155r * D: Exeter, Cathedral Library, MS. 3514, pp. 523–28, the . * E: ''ibid.'', pp. 507–19, the . *A is written in a hand of about 1100–1130 AD, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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