THE CHRONICLERS OF EARLY BRITAIN

Nick Higham

As a figure of Latin literature, Arthur derives from the central Middle Ages and most particularly the fertile mind of the British cleric responsible for the Historia Brittonum (HB). This work was arguably written in 829–30 in Gwynedd and under the patronage of King Merfyn, who was then in his fourth regnal year. HB appears, however, to have been composed by an author with greater personal experience of the southern March and south-east Wales than of north-west Wales. This is particularly clear as regards his collection of marvels (chs 67–75): several comparatively detailed narratives relate to the south east (chs 67–74), including instances which betray a personal presence in these vicinities, and these contrast with the very brief listing of four marvels relating to Anglesey, offered in as many sentences, which along with two somewhat fuller Irish stories seem to have been appended to the author's initial foray into this particular genre.

The HB is far from being an attempt at what we might consider history, but was presented as a kind of sermon, carrying a nationalist, dynastic and ideological agenda and – like other early medieval narratives – seeking to manipulate the past to serve present needs. The popularity of HB during the Middle Ages led to numerous recensions, which have in turn made establishment of the primary text and its authorship problematic. The following will focus specifically on the Harleian text, on the assumption that it is the earliest and closest to the original.

First, we should place this work in its immediate political and cultural context. In the early ninth century, British kingship was limited to the extreme west, specifically to Strathclyde, Wales and Cornwall, and contemporary historical perspectives were necessarily conditioned very largely by the creation of Anglo-Saxon England across what had formerly been the economic and demographic heartland of the Roman diocese. This author clearly has very little accurate knowledge of the Roman/medieval interface but displays familiarity with a 'Loss of Britain' story which stemmed ultimately from Gildas's De excidio et conquestu Britannie (DEB: Concerning the Loss and Lament/Complaint of Britain). Gildas, writing at an ill-defined point in the very late fifth or early sixth century, portrayed the Britons as if latter-day Israelites, so God's chosen people, but interpreted Roman-period and sub-Roman history, and particularly the arrival of the Saxons in Britain, as ind