Roman de Brut

The opening of the Roman de Brut in Durham Cathedral MS C. iv. 27. This is the earliest manuscript of the poem, and dates from the late 12th century.

The Brut or Roman de Brut (completed 1155) by the poet Wace is a loose and expanded translation in almost 15,000 lines of Norman-French verse of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin History of the Kings of Britain.[1] It was formerly known as the Brut d'Engleterre or Roman des Rois d'Angleterre, though Wace's own name for it was the Geste des Bretons, or Deeds of the Britons.[2][3] Its genre is equivocal, being more than a chronicle but not quite a fully-fledged romance.[4]

It narrates a largely fictional version of Britain's story from its settlement by Brutus, a refugee from Troy, who gives the poem its name, through a thousand years of pseudohistory, including the story of king Leir, up to the Roman conquest, the introduction of Christianity, and the legends of sub-Roman Britain, ending with the reign of the 7th-century king Cadwallader. Especially prominent is its account of the life of King Arthur, the first in any vernacular language,[5] which instigated and influenced a whole school of French Arthurian romances dealing with the Round Table – here making its first appearance in literature – and with the adventures of its various knights.

  1. ^ Foulon 1974, pp. 95–96.
  2. ^ Labory, Gillette (2004). "Les debuts de la chronique en français (XIIe et XIIIe siècles)". In Kooper, Erik (ed.). The Medieval Chronicle III: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle Doorn/Utrecht 12–17 July 2002 (in French). Amsterdam: Rodopi. p. 5. ISBN 9042018348. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  3. ^ Traill, H. D., ed. (1894). Social England: A Record of the Progress of the People. London: Cassell. p. 354. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  4. ^ Lacy, Norris J. (1996). "French Arthurian literature (medieval)". In Lacy, Norris J. (ed.). The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. p. 160. ISBN 0815323034. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  5. ^ Wilhelm 1994, p. 95.