A review by lukerik
The History of the Kings of Britain: An Edition and Translation of the de Gestis Britonum [historia Regum Britanniae] by Michael D. Reeve, Geoffrey of Monmouth

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

4.0

A charming book, full of stories, many of them entertaining. Geoffrey’s used sources, some written, some oral, but this is obviously fiction. Difficult to categorise, but I suppose it’s a kind of historical prose romance. Why on earth would anybody think this was true? Well, some people will believe anything, but I think there’s something else going on. I noticed that he uses a narrative technique common in the Old Testament where you have a continuous high-level narrative which periodically zooms in to tell certain stories in more detail. He wrote it in Latin, as was their Bible. There’s a prophetic section that uses apocalyptic imagery. I think that Geoffrey, the clever boy, has done a mock-up using the same format in which people were accustomed to receive truth. 

That might not work today, but I did find myself wanting certain stories to actually be true. 
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