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lukerik's review
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
3.0
The two earliest pieces of Arthuriana.
Gildas’ contribution is a spittle-flecked invective against the bloody Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, written during the incursion of the latter. Very interesting as to how the Britons saw themselves. He also has an entertaining go at various contemporary political figures. He says he was born in the year of the Battle of Badon Hill so if King Arthur were based on a real person he would have been able to tell us for sure. Unfortunately he doesn’t mention the name of the commander. The final part of the book is extremely tiresome. Gildas was an Old Testament kind of a guy and it’s a sort of compilation of quotations prophesying woe. Very boring.
Nennius’ contribution is more consistently entertaining. There’s seems to be some debate over whether he wrote it. It appears to have been something of a living document and certainly what we have is a later edition with additions by Anachoreta Marcus – Mark the Anchorite. Still, whether it dates from 831 or 944, it still has the earliest mention of the man himself.
As to this edition, it’s nice to have the two works together. The translation is old but readable. There are some oddities to it that wouldn’t happen today. For example Badon Hill is translated Bath-hill so you need to know there was an old theory that equated the two places. The introduction to Nennius is a strange meandering thing. The main problem is the lack of modern explanatory notes. It would be nice to have more context and some sort of guide to the line between history and legend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
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