The Works of Gildas and Nennius

by Gildas, Nennius, John Allen Giles (Translator)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MR. GUNN'S PREFACE. The Editor, some years since, during a residence in Rome, obtained permission to search the library of the Vatican palace, for manuscripts relating to the history and affairs of this country. In the course of this interesting employment, an ancient exemplar of the " His- toria Brittonum" was discovered. Presuming that one which dates much higher than any hitherto known, might be free from the inaccuracies and interpolations long complained of in those of more recent date, a copy was procured; and it is this work to which the attention of the reader is solicited. The original is on parchment, fairly written in double columns, and fills ten pages of a miscellaneous volume, of the folio size. Great care has been taken to obtaina faithful transcript of it; the orthography, however erroneous, is preserved, the capital and small letters correspond with the original; there is the same division of paragraphs; the forms of the points, and the location of them, though no guide to the sense, have one common resemblance; nor, except in a few instances, are any orthographical corrections attempted. So dry and abrupt is the style, as to set a literal version at defiance; in that now offered, the meaning of the author is, I trust, preserved. I once entertained a doubt as to the propriety of one, since the perusal of the work will be limited to that description of readers, who will never refer to a translation as an authority, when the original is before them. Consisting of ninety-three pages. The first eighteen contain —" Nitardi Angelherti opus de rebus gallicis ;"—from p. 19 to 46, " Frodoardi Chronicon ah obitu Karoli magni ad annum 978;"—from p. 47 to 57, the present work;—the genealogy of Karolus magnus, consisting of nine lines, then follows; and from p. 57, t...

Genres: History

108 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1841

About the author

Gildas (Breton: Gweltaz; c. 500 – c. 570) - also known as Gildas the Wise or Gildas Sapiens - was a 6th-century British monk best known for his scathing religious polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), which recounts the history of the Britons before and during the coming of the Saxons. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during the sub-Roman period, and was renowned for his Biblical knowledge and literary style.

Gildas was born in what is now Scotland on the banks of the River Clyde, the son of a royal family. In his later life, he emigrated to Brittany where he founded a monastery known as St. Gildas de Rhuys.

Reviews

[Lukerik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The two earliest pieces of Arthuriana.

Gildas’ contribution is a spittle-flecked invective against the bloody Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, written during the incursion of the latter. Very interesting as to how the Britons saw themselves. He also has an entertaining go at various contemporary political figures. He says he was born in the year of the Battle of Badon Hill so if King Arthur were based on a real person he would have been able to tell us for sure. Unfortunately he doesn’t mention the name of the commander. The final part of the book is extremely tiresome. Gildas was an Old Testament kind of a guy and it’s a sort of compilation of quotations prophesying woe. Very boring.

Nennius’ contribution is more consistently entertaining. There’s seems to be some debate over whether he wrote it. It appears to have been something of a living document and certainly what we have is a later edition with additions by Anachoreta Marcus – Mark the Anchorite. Still, whether it dates from 831 or 944, it still has the earliest mention of the man himself.

As to this edition, it’s nice to have the two works together. The translation is old but readable. There are some oddities to it that wouldn’t happen today. For example Badon Hill is translated Bath-hill so you need to know there was an old theory that equated the two places. The introduction to Nennius is a strange meandering thing. The main problem is the lack of modern explanatory notes. It would be nice to have more context and some sort of guide to the line between history and legend.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting especially if you like very early England/Ireland history. This document was apparently extracted from the bowels of the vatican and translated from latin around 1600, the document was actually written around 500 ad. Gildas - was a bit of a doomer and mostly quoted from scripture to make his point. Nennius I found much more interesting, traced genealogy ostensibly going back the the sons of Noah, detailed some of the incredibly pugilistic life of days gone by (we really haven't changed much if you look at mankind's unredeemed core), detailed the conversion of England and incredible feats of some of the Saints. You could probably appreciate this document much more if you are a serious historian. I am just an interested bystander. You can get this document free from google books as a pdf file.