Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by justabean_reads
The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
3.0
I've been trying to get a basic grounding in Arthuriana, which I've largely ignored due to being boring and kind of a downer, to be honest, so this seemed to be a logical place to start. Written in Latin in 1136, it's one of the early compilations of earlier folktales and songs. It's also completely bananas.
(This is J. A. Giles' 19th-century update of an 18th-century translation by Aaron Thompson, about which all subsequent translators complain, but I read a couple chapters of a translation from the 1980s, and frankly didn't notice a heck of a lot of difference.)
Starting from when the refugees from the fall of Troy journeyed to and colonised Britain (led by Brutus, grandson of Aeneas), which was of course terra nullius when they got there. After founding London under the name "New Troy," we get to an increasingly wild set of pre-Roman kings, including King Lear and King Lear's dad, who was a necromancer, and that one guy who went and conquered Rome. I admit to glazing over a bit for some of the lists of kings, and definetely for some of the stories about Roman Britain (though they're probably hilarious if you're really familiar with that era, which I am not). A lot of the history is barely coded commentary on Norman Britain, which I picked up was happening, but didn't especially understand. Plus utterly BS explanations for place names, such as "Britain" coming from "Brutus" and "London" from "King Lud" et cetera.
There were a bunch more kings after the Romans packed it in, and then we hit Vortigern, where I perked up because at least I've heard of him (sexy Jude Law in black leather from the 2017 film). Cutting out the prophecies of Merlin (which were long, and extremely tedious, and may have made sense as insider baseball on Norman politics), the Arthur stuff was pretty fun. It was interesting what was in place that far back (Uther going in disguise to Igraine, Arthur having a special sword via Avalon, Arthur marrying Guinevere, a few of the knights, Arthur "dying" because of his nephew's betrayal), what I hadn't run into before (Merlin being the son of an incubus and a nun, Merlin building Stonehenge, Arthur attempting numerous genocides, then heading out to conquer Rome), and what was not yet in place (no sword in the stone, not a lot of knights I knew, such as Lancelot, no holy grail).
Then Arthur went to Avalon, and we were back to British kings I didn't care about (plus surprise cannibalism), and the author complaining about how the Saxons and Angles were the worst. In part because they were pagans, but mostly just because they were German.
It's a pretty fast read, and I'm glad I swung through, but I can see why everyone spent the next thousand years fleshing out the story. For the most part, it's pretty bare on details, and I don't think anyone gets an actual personality. Most of the entertainment value comes from how wild the stories are, and how obviously cranky the author is about other versions of history being Incorrect.
(This is J. A. Giles' 19th-century update of an 18th-century translation by Aaron Thompson, about which all subsequent translators complain, but I read a couple chapters of a translation from the 1980s, and frankly didn't notice a heck of a lot of difference.)
Starting from when the refugees from the fall of Troy journeyed to and colonised Britain (led by Brutus, grandson of Aeneas), which was of course terra nullius when they got there. After founding London under the name "New Troy," we get to an increasingly wild set of pre-Roman kings, including King Lear and King Lear's dad, who was a necromancer, and that one guy who went and conquered Rome. I admit to glazing over a bit for some of the lists of kings, and definetely for some of the stories about Roman Britain (though they're probably hilarious if you're really familiar with that era, which I am not). A lot of the history is barely coded commentary on Norman Britain, which I picked up was happening, but didn't especially understand. Plus utterly BS explanations for place names, such as "Britain" coming from "Brutus" and "London" from "King Lud" et cetera.
There were a bunch more kings after the Romans packed it in, and then we hit Vortigern, where I perked up because at least I've heard of him (sexy Jude Law in black leather from the 2017 film). Cutting out the prophecies of Merlin (which were long, and extremely tedious, and may have made sense as insider baseball on Norman politics), the Arthur stuff was pretty fun. It was interesting what was in place that far back (Uther going in disguise to Igraine, Arthur having a special sword via Avalon, Arthur marrying Guinevere, a few of the knights, Arthur "dying" because of his nephew's betrayal), what I hadn't run into before (Merlin being the son of an incubus and a nun, Merlin building Stonehenge, Arthur attempting numerous genocides, then heading out to conquer Rome), and what was not yet in place (no sword in the stone, not a lot of knights I knew, such as Lancelot, no holy grail).
Then Arthur went to Avalon, and we were back to British kings I didn't care about (plus surprise cannibalism), and the author complaining about how the Saxons and Angles were the worst. In part because they were pagans, but mostly just because they were German.
It's a pretty fast read, and I'm glad I swung through, but I can see why everyone spent the next thousand years fleshing out the story. For the most part, it's pretty bare on details, and I don't think anyone gets an actual personality. Most of the entertainment value comes from how wild the stories are, and how obviously cranky the author is about other versions of history being Incorrect.