Nennius: British History and the Welsh Annals

Arthurian Period Sources #8

by Nennius, John Robert Morris (Translator)

Arthurian Period Sources Volume 1: Introduction, Notes and Index edited by John Morris An important source material for students of Dark-Age Britain, this six-volume work details a large corpus of refences and accounts of the period which, whilst not drawing too many conclusions, does allow students to examine the nature and extent of records available.

Genres: History, Arthurian

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Nennius — or Nemnius or Nemnivus — was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary (10th century) tradition.

The Historia Brittonum was highly influential, becoming a major contributor to the Arthurian legend, in particular for its inclusion of events relevant to debate about the historicity of King Arthur. It also includes the legendary origins of the Picts, Scots, St. Germanus and Vortigern, and documents events associated with the Anglo-Saxon invasion of the 7th century as contributed by a Northumbrian document.

Nennius was a student of Elvodugus, commonly identified with the bishop Elfodd of Bangor who convinced British ecclesiastics to accept the Continental dating for Easter, and who died in 809 according to the Annales Cambriae.

Nennius is believed to have lived in the area made up by Brecknockshire and Radnorshire in present-day Powys, Wales.

Reviews

[Rupert Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Always read the original source material if you can," my old history teacher Mr Hackett used to say. So when I saw this second hand I just had to grab it. I'm glad I did.
I was familiar with various extracts from this 9th century compendium from other reading, but it was fascinating to see those extracts in their original context.
The introduction by Dr Morris was very interesting. Dr Morris has been somewhat controversial in some areas of academia, but his views are always interesting and worth considering - even if ultimateley you don't agree with his analysis.
Worth every penny. If you have an interest in Dark Age Britain, get this book.

[Nate]

Nice and short. Read for class

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nennius is not as entertaining as Gildas, I must say. He's far less bitchy in his historical judgements, although the odd bit does shine through: "Nennius, pupil of the holy Elvodug, have [sic] undertaken to write down some extracts that the stupidity of the British cast out" is pretty much the opening line, which gave me a great deal of hope for an amusing read, but sadly he becomes a lot more objective and scholarly from then on. Instead, he makes a great deal of effort to standardise chronology - the introduction tells me he was one of the few to do so at this time - so this fairly short document is as well-ordered and readable as he can reasonably make it, though the fairly extensive lists of "begats" will never be thrilling reading.

I've also shelved this as "Arthurian" because this is one of the very earliest Arthurian sources, although as with Gildas there's not a great deal of relevance here. Just a few paragraphs mainly, and it doesn't give a great deal of detail. The closing sections on the wonders of Britain and Ireland are more interesting...

[Matthew Richey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Earliest known Arthur mention (9th century) trying to set out a history of Britain. One of the primary sources for Geoffrey of Monmouth. I had fun reading it. The author is trying to write a historical account as best he can, using oral sources and sparse records.