Geoffrey of Monmouth - Wikipedia Geoffrey of Monmouth From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search British cleric and historiographer Geoffrey of Monmouth Born Galfridus Arturus c. 1095 Possibly Monmouth, Wales Died c. 1155 (aged 59–60) Other names Galfridus Monemutensis Galfridus Arturus Galfridus Artur Gruffudd ap Arthur Sieffre o Fynwy Occupation Catholic cleric Known for Historia Regum Britanniae Prophetiae Merlini Vita Merlini Geoffrey of Monmouth (Latin: Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, Welsh: Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; c. 1095 – c. 1155) was a British cleric, anthropologist 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 (Latin: De gestis Britonum or Historia Regum Britanniae)[1] 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,[2] but is now considered historically unreliable. Contents 1 Biography 2 Works 2.1 Historia Regum Britanniae 2.2 Other writings 3 See also 4 References 5 Sources 6 External links 6.1 Editions of the Latin text 6.2 English translations available on the internet Biography[edit] Geoffrey was born between about 1090 and 1100,[3][4][5][6] in Wales or the Welsh Marches. He had reached the age of majority 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.[7] His works attest to some acquaintance with the place-names of the region.[7] Geoffrey was known to his contemporaries as Galfridus Arturus or variants thereof.[8][7] The "Arthur" in these versions of his name may indicate the name of his father or a nickname based on his scholarly interests.[8] Earlier scholars assumed that Geoffrey was Welsh or at least spoke Welsh.[8] His knowledge of this language appears to have been slight, however,[8] and there is no evidence that he was of either Welsh or Cambro-Norman descent.[7] He may have come from the same French-speaking elite of the Welsh border country as Gerald of Wales, Walter Map, and Robert, Earl of Gloucester, to whom Geoffrey dedicated versions of his History.[8] Frank Merry Stenton and others have suggested that Geoffrey's parents may have been among the many Bretons who took part in William I's conquest and settled in the southeast of Wales.[7] Monmouth had been in the hands of Breton lords since 1075[7] or 1086,[8] and the names Galfridus and Arthur were more common among the Bretons than the Welsh.[7] He may have served for a while in the Benedictine Monmouth Priory,[9] 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 area, sometimes styled magister (teacher).[8] 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.[8] Archbishop Theobald of Bec consecrated Geoffrey as Bishop of St Asaph at Lambeth on 24 February 1152,[10] having ordained him a priest at Westminster 10 days before. According to Lewis Thorpe, "There is no evidence that he ever visited his see, and indeed the wars of Owain Gwynedd make this most unlikely."[11] He appears to have died between 25 December 1154 and 24 December 1155 according to Welsh chronicles, when his successor took office.[8] Works[edit] Geoffrey's structuring and shaping of the Merlin and Arthur myths engendered their vast popularity which continues today, and he is generally viewed by scholars as the major establisher of the Arthurian canon.[12] The History's 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[edit] 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 (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, a descendant of Trojan hero Aeneas, to the death of Cadwaladr in the 7th century, covering Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain, Kings Leir and Cymbeline, 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, Archdeacon of Oxford, but modern historians have dismissed this claim.[13] 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.[14] Much of it is based on the Historia Britonum, a 9th-century Welsh-Latin historical compilation, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and Gildas's 6th-century polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, expanded with material from bardic oral tradition and genealogical tracts, and embellished by Geoffrey's own imagination.[15] In an exchange of manuscript material for their own histories, Robert of Torigny gave Henry of Huntingdon a copy of History, which both Robert and Henry used uncritically as authentic history and subsequently used in their own works,[16] 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, 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 onwards, was made up, partly by himself and partly by others."[17] Other contemporaries were similarly unconvinced by Geoffrey's History. For example, Giraldus Cambrensis recounts the experience of a man possessed by demons: "If the evil spirits oppressed him too much, the Gospel of St John 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' [as Geoffrey named himself] was substituted in its place, they instantly reappeared in greater numbers, and remained a longer time than usual on his body and on the book."[18] 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.[19] It enjoyed a significant afterlife in a variety of forms, including translations and adaptations such as Wace's Anglo-Norman Roman de Brut, Layamon's Middle English Brut, and several anonymous Middle Welsh versions known as Brut y Brenhinedd ("Brut of the Kings").[20] where it was generally accepted as a true account. In 2017, Miles Russell published the initial results of the Lost Voices of Celtic Britain Project established at Bournemouth University.[21] 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 and Trinovantes, two essentially pre-Roman tribes inhabiting central south-eastern Britain at the very end of the Iron Age; 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.[22] Other writings[edit] Geoffrey's earliest writing was probably the Prophetiae Merlini (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 (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 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.[8] See also[edit] Poetry portal Adam of Usk Ranulf Higdon William of Malmesbury References[edit] ^ Geoffrey of Monmouth. The history of the kings of Britain: an edition and translation of De gestis Britonum (Historia regum Britanniae). Arthurian studies. 69. Michael D. Reeve (ed.), Neil Wright (trans.). Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. 2007. p. lix. ISBN 978-1-84383-206-5.CS1 maint: others (link) ^ Polydore Vergil's sceptical reading of Geoffrey of Monmouth provoked a reaction of denial in England, "yet the seeds of doubt once sown" eventually replaced Geoffrey's romances with a new Renaissance historical approach, according to Hans Baron, "Fifteenth-century civilisation and the Renaissance", in The New Cambridge Modern history, vol. 1 1957:56. ^ Crick 2004: "it seems likely that he was born within ten years of 1100". ^ Foster 1959: "Geoffrey was b. between 1090 and 1100". ^ Arthurian Figures of history and legend: A biographical dictionary: "Geoffrey of Monmouth (floruit 1112–1139/ lifespan circa 1095–1155)". ^ A Concise History of Wales: "The key historical text was Historia Regum Brittanae (c.1139) by Geoffrey of Monmouth (c.1090–1155)". ^ a b c d e f g Roberts, "Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regnum Britanniae and Brut y Brenhinedd", p. 98. ^ a b c d e f g h i j J. C. Crick, "Monmouth, Geoffrey of (d. 1154/5)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 7 June 2009 ^ Dunn, Charles W. (1958). Bibliographical Note to History of the Kings of Britain. E.P Dutton & Co. ^ Burton, Edwin Hubert. "Geoffrey of Monmouth". Catholic Encyclopedia (1913). 6. ^ From the introduction to his translation of The History of the Kings of Britain (London: Penguin Books, 1966), p. 12. ^ Thorpe, Kings of Britain, p. 20ff., particularly pp. 20–22 & 28–31. ^ Richard M. Loomis, The Romance of Arthur New York & London, Garland Publishing, Inc. 1994, pg. 59 ^ Michael Curley, Geoffrey of Monmouth, p. 12 ^ Thorpe, Kings of Britain pp. 14–19. ^ C. Warren Hollister, Henry I (Yale English Monarchs), 2001:11 note44. ^ Quoted by Thorpe, Kings of Britain, p. 17. ^ Gerald of Wales, The Journey through Wales/The Description of Wales (Lewis Thorpe ed.), Penguin, 1978, Chapter 5, p 116. ^ Thorpe, Kings of Britain p. 28 ^ Thorpe, Kings of Britain p. 29 ^ Russell, Arthur and the Kings of Britain: The Historical Truth Behind the Myths p. 297-300 ^ Lost Voices of Celtic Britain Project Sources[edit] Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. Edited and translated by Michael Faletra. Broadview Books: Peterborough, Ontario, 2008. ISBN 1-55111-639-1 Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. Translated, with introduction and index, by Lewis Thorpe. Penguin Books: London, 1966. ISBN 0-14-044170-0 Crick, J. C. (2004). "Monmouth, Geoffrey of [Galfridus Arturus] (d. 1154/5)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10530. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Curley, Michael (1994). Geoffrey of Monmouth. New York: Twayne Publishers. Echard, Siân (1998). Arthurian Narrative in the Latin Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521021524. Echard, Siân, ed. (2011). The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature: The Development and Dissemination of the Arthurian Legend in Medieval Latin. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0708322017. Foster, Idris Llewelyn (1959). "Geoffrey of Monmouth (1090?–1155), or Galfridus (Gaufridus) Artur, or Galfridus (Gaufridus) Monemutensis, bishop of S. Asaph and chronicler". The Dictionary of Welsh Biography down to 1940. London: The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. pp. 274–5. Higham, N. J. (2002). King Arthur: Myth-making and History. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-21305-3. Morris, John (1996) [1973]. The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-84212-477-3. Parry, John Jay; Caldwell, Robert (1959). "Geoffrey of Monmouth". In Loomis, Roger S. (ed.). Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. Oxford University: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-811588-1. Roberts, Brynley F. (1991). "Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae and Brut y Brenhinedd". The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1307-8. Russell, Miles (2017). Arthur and the Kings of Britain: the Historical Truth Behind the Myths. Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 978-1445662749. Tatlock, J. S. P. (1950). The Legendary History of Britain: Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and its early vernacular versions. Berkeley: University of California Press. External links[edit] Wikisource has original works written by or about: Geoffrey of Monmouth Wikiquote has quotations related to: Geoffrey of Monmouth Wikimedia Commons has media related to Geoffrey of Monmouth. Latin Chroniclers from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries: Geoffrey of Monmouth from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Volume I, 1907–21. Works by Geoffrey of Monmouth at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Editions of the Latin text[edit] Works by or about Geoffrey of Monmouth at Internet Archive 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. Historia regum Britanniae, MS CUL Ff.1.25, Cambridge Digital Library. Lewis E 247 Gesta regum Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings); Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) at OPenn English translations available on the internet[edit] Historia Regum Britanniae: Histories of the Kings of Britain, tr. by Sebastian Evans, at Sacred Texts By Aaron Thompson with revisions by J. A. Giles 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). At Jones the Celtic Encyclopedia At Sacred-texts.com v t e Geoffrey of Monmouth Works Prophetiae Merlini (c. 1135) Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) Vita Merlini (c. 1150) Translations Roman de Brut Layamon's Brut Brut y Brenhinedd Characters Aeneas Saint Alban Albanactus Alhfrith of Deira Allectus Ambrosius Aurelianus Amphibalus Andragius Archgallo Archmail King Arthur Arvirargus Ascanius Augustine of Canterbury Aurelius Conanus Bedivere Beldgabred Beli Mawr Belinus Bladud Bledric ap Custennin Bledudo Brennius Brutus Greenshield Brutus of Troy Budic II of Brittany Cadfan ap Iago Cadoc Cador Cadwaladr Cadwallon ap Cadfan Camber (legendary king) Cap of Britain Capetus Silvius Capoir Caracalla Caradocus Carausius Cassivellaunus Catellus Catigern Cherin Claudius Cledaucus Clotenus Coel Hen Coilus Conan Meriadoc Constans II (usurper) Constantine the Great Constantine III (Western Roman Emperor) Constantine (Briton) Constantius Chlorus Cordelia of Britain Corineus Cunedagius Cunobeline Danius Saint David Digueillus Diocletian Dionotus Dunvallo Molmutius Ebraucus Edadus Edern ap Nudd Edwin of Northumbria Eldol Eldol, Consul of Gloucester Elidurus Eliud Enniaunus Estrildis Eudaf Hen Ferrex Fulgenius Gawain Gerennus Goffar the Pict Gogmagog (folklore) Goneril Gorboduc Gorbonianus Gorlois Gracianus Municeps Guiderius Guinevere Guithelin Gurgintius Gurguit Barbtruc Gurgustius Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio Gwenddydd Queen Gwendolen Helena (empress) Helenus Hengist and Horsa Hoel Humber the Hun Iago ap Beli Idvallo Igraine Ingenius of Britain Jago of Britain Julius and Aaron Julius Asclepiodotus Julius Caesar Sir Kay Keredic Kimarcus Kinarius Latinus Lavinia Leil Leir of Britain Locrinus King Lot Lucius of Britain Lucius Tiberius Lud son of Heli Maddan Maelgwn Gwynedd Magnus Maximus Mandubracius Queen Marcia Marganus Marganus II Marius of Britain Mempricius Merianus Merlin Millus Mordred Morgause Morvidus Myrddin Wyllt Nennius of Britain Octa of Kent Oenus Oswald of Northumbria Oswiu of Northumbria Owain mab Urien Penda of Mercia Peredur Peredurus Pir of the Britons Porrex I Porrex II Publius Septimius Geta Quintus Laberius Durus Redechius Redon of Britain Regan (King Lear) Rhydderch Hael Rience Rivallo Rud Hud Hudibras Runo Sawyl Penuchel Septimius Severus Silvius (mythology) Sisillius I Sisillius II Sisillius III Son of Gorbonianus Taliesin Tasciovanus Trahern Turnus Urianus Uther Pendragon Venissa Vespasian Vortigern Vortimer Vortiporius Wulfhere of Mercia Ywain Æthelberht of Kent Æthelfrith of Northumbria Œthelwald of Deira Topics Avalon Battle of Arfderydd Battle of Badon Battle of Camlann Battle of Guoloph Brut y Tywysogion Excalibur Lailoken List of legendary kings of Britain List of legendary rulers of Cornwall Logres Matter of Britain Molmutine Laws Nennius Pridwen Riothamus River Malvam Siege of Exeter (c. 630) Locations associated with Arthurian legend Treachery of the Long Knives Trinovantum Trojan genealogy of Nennius Walter of Oxford Wikiquote Wikisource texts Authority control BIBSYS: 90616890 BNC: 000042522 BNE: XX1152780 BNF: cb11904619w (data) CANTIC: a20002592 GND: 118716883 ICCU: IT\ICCU\CFIV\096888 ISNI: 0000 0001 2321 2370 LCCN: n50072242 LNB: 000220701 NDL: 01120140 NKC: osa2010597096 NLA: 35885524 NLI: 004953840 NLP: A26601175 NSK: 000011867 NTA: 067464688 PLWABN: 9810608450505606 RERO: 02-A000070878 SELIBR: 188120 SNAC: w6x66pps SUDOC: 026887789 Trove: 1131081 VcBA: 495/25179 VIAF: 89028232 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n50072242 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Geoffrey_of_Monmouth&oldid=996336852" Categories: Geoffrey of Monmouth 1090s births 1155 deaths 12th-century English people 12th-century historians 12th-century Latin writers 12th-century Roman Catholic bishops 12th-century Welsh poets 12th-century Welsh people Anglo-Normans in Wales Augustinian canons Bishops of St Asaph English Catholic poets Medieval Latin poets People from Monmouth, Wales People from Oxford Pseudohistorians Welsh historians Welsh mythology Welsh-speaking clergy Writers of Arthurian literature Anthropologists Hidden categories: CS1 maint: others Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata EngvarB from August 2014 Use dmy dates from August 2014 Articles containing Latin-language text Articles containing Welsh-language text Articles with hCards No local image but image on Wikidata Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB Commons category link from Wikidata Articles with LibriVox links Articles with Internet Archive links Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNC identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ICCU identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLP identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with RERO identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers AC with 25 elements Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Languages العربية Asturianu Беларуская Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎ Български Brezhoneg Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Galego 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Kernowek Kurdî Latina Lietuvių Lingua Franca Nova Magyar مصرى Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Norsk nynorsk Piemontèis Polski Português Română Русский Scots Simple English Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska ไทย Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 26 December 2020, at 00:17 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement