Everything about Geoffrey Of Monmouth totally explained
Geoffrey of Monmouth (c.
1100 – c.
1155) was a
clergyman and one of the major figures in the
development of British history and the popularity of tales of
King Arthur.
Biography
Geoffrey's birthplace is unknown, but he may have been born in
Monmouth in
Wales, possibly of
Breton ancestry. Certainly he'd significant connections to
Monmouth, as his name suggests, and the descriptions of
Caerleon in
Historia Regum Britanniae indicate familiarity with the area. He studied at
Oxford University, where he met
Walter, who was
Archdeacon of Oxford. On 21 February
1152 Archbishop Theobald consecrated Geoffrey as
bishop of St Asaph, having ordained him a priest 10 days before. "There is no evidence that he ever visited his see," writes
Lewis Thorpe, "and indeed the wars of
Owain Gwynedd make this most unlikely." Geoffrey attested about six different charters between the years 1129 and 1151; the date of his death is recorded in the Welsh Chronicles.
Writings
Geoffrey wrote several works of interest, all in Latin, the language of learning and literature in Europe during the medieval period. The earliest one to appear was
Prophetiae Merlini ("The Prophecies of Merlin"), which he wrote at some point before 1135. Geoffrey presented a series of
apocalyptic narratives as the work of the earlier
Merlin who, until Geoffrey's book came out, was known as "Myrddin". The first work about this legendary prophet in a language other than
Welsh, it was widely read — and believed — much as the prophecies of
Nostradamus were centuries later; John Jay Parry and Robert Caldwell note that the
Prophetiae Merlini "were taken most seriously, even by the learned and worldly wise, in many nations", and list examples of this credulity as late as 1445.
Next was
Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), the work best known to modern readers. It purports to relate the history of
Britain, from its first settlement by
Brutus, a descendant of the
Trojan hero
Aeneas, to the death of
Cadwallader in the 7th century, taking in
Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain, two kings,
Leir and
Cymbeline, later immortalised by
Shakespeare, and one of the earliest developed narratives of
King Arthur. In it, he outlines the rise and fall of many British kings, including Arthur himself and his father, Uther the Conqueror. Geoffrey claims to have translated it from an ancient book written in Welsh, although few take this claim seriously. Much of it's based on the
Historia Britonum, a 9th century Welsh-Latin historical compilation,
Bede's
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum and
Gildas's 6th century polemic
De Excidio Britanniae, expanded with material from Welsh legend, genealogical tracts, and Geoffrey's own imagination. It contains little believed historical fact, and many modern scholars are tempted 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, either from an inordinate love of lying, or for the sake of pleasing the Britons." 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." However, His work wasn't popularly received thus poorly, and it enjoyed a significant afterlife in a variety of forms, including the Brut tradition. Further, his structuring and reshaping of the Merlin and Arthur myths engendered the vast popularity of Merlin and Arthur myths in written literature, a popularity that lasts to this day; he's generally viewed by scholars as the major establisher of the Arthurian canon.
Lastly, Geoffrey wrote the
Vita Merlini ("The Life of Merlin") at some point between 1149 and 1151. This is in part Geoffrey's retelling of the earlier Myrddin legend from Welsh tradition, but includes numerous other source materials as well, and includes elements of the tradition of saints' lives as well as the sort of encyclopaedic knowledge of the natural world and the heavens then in vogue at Oxford. The work, Geoffrey's only known poem, was written in Latin verse (hexameter).
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