The History of the Kings of Britain
Completed in 1136, "The History of the Kings of Britain" traces the story of the realm from its supposed foundation by Brutus to the coming of the Saxons some two thousand years later. Vividly portraying legendary and semi-legendary figures such as Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin the magician and the...
show more
Completed in 1136, "The History of the Kings of Britain" traces the story of the realm from its supposed foundation by Brutus to the coming of the Saxons some two thousand years later. Vividly portraying legendary and semi-legendary figures such as Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin the magician and the most famous of all British heroes, King Arthur, it is as much myth as it is history and its veracity was questioned by other medieval writers. But Geoffrey of Monmouth's powerful evocation of illustrious men and deeds captured the imagination of subsequent generations, and his influence can be traced through the works of Malory, Shakespeare, Dryden and Tennyson.
show less
Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780140441703 (0140441700)
ASIN: 140441700
Publish date: January 27th 1977
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Pages no: 373
Edition language: English
Historia Regum Britanniae is a highly mythologized, and possibly fictional, history of Britain prior to the Anglo-Saxon conquest. Published in 1136, the work covers 2,000 years between the Fall of Troy to the reign of Cadwallader the last non-Saxon king. Geoffrey claims to have translated an ancient...
I feel I need not speak at any length about the dubious amount of actual history contained in this influential little volume, nor would I bet money on Monmouth believing in the strict historicity of his work when he wrote it. Monmouth does, unfortunately, believe a little to readily in the patriotic...
Don't read it in one go. Full of legends and names. Apart from that, awesome in it's own right.
I'm uncertain of how to file this. It's presented as history, but that's slightly "history" in the sense that Herodotus wrote "history" as well. It is and it isn't. It purports to tell the history of the kings of Britain, from the founding of the nation by Brutus, to the point at which the Saxons ga...
Log in with Facebook 
