HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

404 PETER AINSWORTHHis descriptions of combat and storms at sea are unforgettable, 56 andhis ability to make short, invented dialogues seem as though they havesprung from real-life encounters is unsurpassed. Almost half of Wace’sBrut centers on the (hi)story of a legendary king already celebratedby Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae (finishedca. 1136–38). Neil Wright’s recently published research inclines usto think that Wace could only have consulted a shortened versionor ‘variant’ of Geoffrey’s work. 57 In Geoffrey’s opinion Arthur, havingdefeated the Saxon invaders at the beginning of the sixth centuryand triumphed over the Romans, was a ‘national’ hero. The Arthuriansection of the Brut adapted by Wace from his written source is availableto us in a bilingual edition by Emmanuèle Baumgartner andIan Short. 58 Before we look at Wace’s work, let us—with the assistanceof Short and Baumgartner—briefly address his role model andsource, Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose contribution we must notunderestimate:Founding a new Troy on the banks of the Thames, according theBreton language the status of a classical tongue by describing it as a‘convoluted form of Greek’, providing for the first time a history worthyof the indigenous Britons, presenting a virtually forgotten Celticmilitary leader as an internationally renowned conqueror capable of atriumph over Rome recalling that of his illustrious predecessors Belinand Brennus who, well before Caesar, had imposed their authority—this indeed was an ambitious historiographical project. 59Beyond Geoffrey and Wace, the literary fortunes of King Arthurand his knights of the Round Table (which featured for the firsttime in the Brut at ll. 9747–60) would be taken up by Chrétien deTroyes and his successors. 60 However, even if he refuses to embraceall the Breton ‘marvels’ inherited from Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wacestill evinces confidence in the fundamental historical value of hissource. With respect to certain details of the post-Roman period herefers to the De Excidio Britannie written by the Welsh clerk Gildas, 6156Grisward (1970).57Geoffrey of Monmouth, The Historia Regum Britanniae II: The First Variant Version,ed. Neil Wright (Cambridge, 1988), xi–cxiv.58Wace, La Geste du Roi Arthur, ed. E. Baumgartner and I. Short, in Bibliothèquemédiévale 10/18 (Paris, 1993).59Wace, La Geste du Roi Arthur, ed. Baumgartner and Short, 9; my translation.60Cf. Pelan (1974).61Wace’s Roman de Brut. A History of the British. Text and Translation. Ed. J. Weiss,