HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

LEGENDARY HISTORY: HISTORIA AND FABULA 405one of the sources previously consulted also by Bede for his HistoriaEcclesiastica (731), and to the Historia Brittonum written by anotherWelsh clerk, Nennius. 62 This is how, in a passage familiar to anymedievalist, Master Wace begins his story of the Round Table: 63En cele grant pais ke jo di,Ne sai si vus l’avez oï,Furent les merveilles pruveesE les aventures truveesKi d’Artur sunt tant recunteesKe a fable sunt aturnees.Ne tut mençunge, ne tut veir,Tut folie ne tut saveir.Tant unt li cunteür cuntéE li fableür tant flabléPur lur cuntes enbeleter,Que tut unt fait fable sembler. (Arnold edn., vol. 2, ll. 9787–98)Wace presents King Arthur as a model of twelfth-century feudalchivalry. Here he is arranging his troops on the battlefield and settingthem an example of coolness and courage:A cels dist li reis: « Ci estez!Pur nule rien ne vus movez.Si mestiers est, ça turneraiE les altres par vus tendrai,E si Romein, par aventure,Turneient a descunfiture,Puigniez aprés sis ateigniez,Ociez les, nes esparniez! »E cil distrent: « Bien le ferum. »Dunc prist une altre legiunDes nobles humes, des vassals,Healmes laciez, sur lurs chevals,Cels mist en un lieu plus veable,N’i ot fors lui nul cunestable.La fud sa meisnie priveeQu’il ot nurrie et alevee.En mi fist tenir sun dragunQue il portot pur gumfanun;“Exeter Medieval English Texts and Studies” (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1999),xv.62Ibid.63Quotations taken from Wace, Roman de Brut, ed. Ivor Arnold, 2 vols. (Paris,1938, 1940).