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Arthurian Legend
The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth's (''History of the Kings of Britain)'' is a central component of the Matter of Britain. It was one of the three great Western story cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature, together with the Matter of France, which concerned the legends of Charlemagne and his companions, as well as the Matter of Rome, which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology and classical history. Its pseudo-chronicle and chivalric romance works, written both in prose and verse, flourished from the 12th to the 16th century. Name The three "matters" were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel, whose epic ' ("Song of the Saxons") contains the lines: The name distinguishes and relates the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval Literature
Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th, 15th or 16th century, depending on country). The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works. Like modern literature, it is a broad field of study, from the utterly sacred to the exuberantly profane, touching all points in between. Works of literature are often grouped by place of origin, language, and genre. Languages Outside of Europe, medieval literature was written in Geʽez, Ethiopic, Syriac language, Syriac, Coptic language, Coptic, Japanese language, Japanese, Chinese language, Chinese, and Arabic, among many other languages. In Western Europe, Latin was the common language for medieval writing, since Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church, which domin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Bodel
Jean Bodel (c. 1165 – c. 1210), also spelled Jehan Bodel, was an Old French -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... poet who wrote a number of '' chanson de geste">chansons de geste'' as well as many fabliaux. He lived in Arras">fabliaux.html" ;"title="chanson de geste">chansons de geste'' as well as many fabliaux">chanson de geste">chansons de geste'' as well as many fabliaux. He lived in Arras. Writings Bodel wrote ("Song of the Saxons") about the war of King Charlemagne with the Saxon people, Saxons and their leader Widukind, whom Bodel calls ''Guiteclin''. He also wrote a miracle play called the '':fr:Le Jeu de saint Nicolas, Le Jeu de saint Nicolas'' ("The Play of Saint Nicolas"), which was probably first performed in Arras on 5 December 1200. Set in the middle of an epic battle between Christians and Muslims, the play tells the story of a good Christian who escapes the battle and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Founding Of Rome
The founding of Rome was a prehistoric event or process later greatly embellished by Roman historians and poets. Archaeological evidence indicates that Rome developed from the gradual union of several hillfort, hilltop villages during the Prehistoric Italy#Bronze Age, Final Bronze Age or early Iron Age Europe#Italy, Iron Age. Prehistoric Italy, Prehistoric habitation of the Italian Peninsula occurred by 48,000 Before Present, years ago, with the area of Rome being settled by around 1600 BC. Some evidence on the Capitoline Hill possibly dates as early as and the nearby valley that later housed the Roman Forum had a developed necropolis by at least 1000BC. The combination of the hilltop settlements into a single polity by the later 8th centuryBC was probably influenced by the trend for city-state formation emerging from ancient Greece. Roman mythology, Roman myth held that their city was founded by Romulus, son of the war god Mars (mythology), Mars and the Vestal virgin Rhea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the ''Eclogues'' (or ''Bucolics''), the ''Georgics'', and the Epic poetry, epic ''Aeneid''. A number of minor poems, collected in the ''Appendix Vergiliana'', were attributed to him in ancient times, but modern scholars generally regard these works as spurious, with the possible exception of a few short pieces. Already acclaimed in his own lifetime as a classic author, Virgil rapidly replaced Ennius and other earlier authors as a standard school text, and stood as the most popular Latin poet through late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and early modernity, exerting inestimable influence on all subsequent Western literature. Geoffrey Chaucer assigned Virgil a uniquely prominent position among all the celebrities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trojan War
The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mythology), Paris of Troy took Helen of Troy, Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology, and it has been Epic Cycle, narrated through many works of ancient Greek literature, Greek literature, most notably Homer's ''Iliad''. The core of the ''Iliad'' (Books II – XXIII) describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the ''Odyssey'' describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a Epic Cycle, cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Latin literature, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nennius
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. 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. Thus, he lived outside the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, isolated by mountains in a rural society. Because of the lack of evidence concerning the life of Nennius, he has become the subject of legend himself. Welsh traditions include Nennius with Elbodug and others said to have escaped the massacre of Welsh monks by Ethelfrid in 613, fleeing to the north. Authorsh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historia Brittonum
''The History of the Britons'' () is a purported history of early Britain written around 828 that survives in numerous recensions from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Brittonum'' is commonly attributed to Nennius, as some recensions have a preface written in that name. Some experts have dismissed the Nennian preface as a late forgery and argued that the work was actually an anonymous compilation. Overview The ''Historia Brittonum'' describes the supposed settlement of Britain by Trojan settlers and says that Britain was named for Brutus, a descendant of Aeneas. The "single most important source used by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical ''Historia Regum Britanniae''" and through the enormous popularity of the latter work, this version of the early history of Britain, including the Trojan origin tradition, was incorporated into subsequent chronicles of the long-running history of the land, such as the Middle English '' Brut of England'', also known as ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gogmagog (giant)
Gogmagog (also ''Goemagot'', ''Goemagog'', ''Goëmagot'' and ''Gogmagoc'') was a legendary Giant (mythology), giant in the Matter of Britain. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' ("The History of The Kings of Britain", 12th century), he was a giant inhabitant of Cornwall, who was thrown off a cliff during a wrestling match with Corineus (the legendary namesake of Cornwall, and companion of Brutus of Troy). Later tradition expanded on this story, with Gogmagog described as a descendant of Albion#Anglo-Norman Albina story, Albina, and the chieftain and largest of the giants found by Brutus and his men inhabiting the land of Albion. The effigies of Gogmagog and Corineus, used in English pageantry and later instituted as guardian statues at Guildhall, London, Guildhall in London eventually earned the familiar names "Gog and Magog". Etymology The name "Gogmagog" is commonly derived from the biblical characters Gog and Magog; however, Peter Roberts (priest), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leir Of Britain
Leir was a legendary king of the Britons whose story was recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical 12th-century '' History of the Kings of Britain''. According to Geoffrey's genealogy of the British dynasty, Leir reigned around the 8th century BC, around the time of the founding of Rome. The story was modified and retold by William Shakespeare in his Jacobean tragedy ''King Lear''. Name Geoffrey of Monmouth identified Leir as the eponymous founder of the city of Leicester (''Ligoraceastre'' in Old English; ,Nennius (). Theodor Mommsen (). ''Historia Brittonum'', VI. Composed after AD 830. Hosted at Latin Wikisource. ), which he called (using the Old Welsh form of the city's name) ''Kaerleir'' ("City of Leir"). ''Leir'', ''Lerion'', and ''Ligora(ceastre)'' all derive from the old Brittonic name of the River Soar, *''Ligera'' or *''Ligora''. Legend Reign Leir's story was first recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth's '' History of the Kings of Britain''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coel Hen
Coel (Old Welsh: ''Coil''), also called ''Coel Hen'' (Coel the Old) and King Cole, is a figure prominent in Welsh literature and legend since the Middle Ages. Early Welsh tradition knew of a Coel Hen, a 4th-century leader in Roman Britain, Roman or Sub-Roman Britain and the progenitor of several kingly lines in Hen Ogledd, Yr Hen Ogledd (the Old North), a region of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic-speaking area of what is now northern England and southern Scotland. Later medieval legend told of a Coel, apparently derived from Coel Hen. He was said to be the father of Helena, mother of Constantine I, Saint Helena of Constantinople and through her the grandfather of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Although it is likely to be erroneously identifying Saint Elen, Saint Helen of Caernarfon. Other similarly named characters may be confused or conflated with the Welsh Coel. The legendary "King Coel" is sometimes supposed to be the historical basis for the popular nursery rhym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brutus Of Troy
Brutus, also called Brute of Troy, is a mythical British king. He is described as a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas, known in medieval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain. This legend first appears in the ''Historia Brittonum'', an anonymous 9th-century historical compilation to which commentary was added by Nennius, but is best known from the account given by the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth in his . ''Historia Brittonum'' Some have suggested that attributing the origin of 'Britain' to the Latin 'Brutus' may be ultimately derived from Isidore of Seville's popular 7th-century work ''Etymologiae'' (c. 560–636), in which it was speculated that the name of Britain comes from ''bruti'', on the basis that the Britons were, in the eyes of that author, brutes, or savages. A more detailed story, set before the foundation of Rome, follows, in which Brutus is the grandson or great grandson of Aeneas – a legend that was perh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Legendary Kings Of Britain
The following list of legendary kings of Britain () derives predominantly from Geoffrey of Monmouth's circa 1136 work ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' ("the History of the Kings of Britain"). Geoffrey constructed a largely fictional history for the Celtic Britons, Britons (ancestors of the Welsh people, Welsh, the Cornish people, Cornish and the Breton people, Bretons), partly based on the work of earlier medieval historians like Gildas, Nennius and Bede, partly from Welsh genealogies and saints' lives, partly from sources now lost and unidentifiable, and partly from his own imagination (see bibliography). Several of his kings are based on genuine historical figures, but appear in unhistorical narratives. A number of Middle Welsh language, Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey's ''Historia'' exist. All post-date Geoffrey's text, but may give us some insight into any native traditions Geoffrey may have drawn on. Geoffrey's narrative begins with the exiled Troy, Trojan prince Brutus of Tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
