(ca. 1100-1155) nonfiction writer, historian
In some of his writings, Geoffrey of Monmouth refers to himself as Gaufridus Monemutensis, which suggests he was born in Monmouthshire. Probably of Breton origin, he was raised in Wales. From 1129 to 1151, he lived in Oxford and was thought to have been a canon of the secular college of St. George. During his time there, he wrote his two well-known literary works, Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain, 1136) and Life of Merlin (1148), both in Latin. His Prophecies of Merlin, first written as a separate piece, was later incorporated into the History.
In 1151, Geoffrey became bishop-elect of St. Asaph, in northern Wales. He was ordained priest at Westminster in 1152 and consecrated the same year at Lambeth by Archbishop Theobald. According to the Welsh Chronicles, he died in 1155.
Geoffrey’s History of the Kings of Britain has held an important place in English literature since its completion. It is alternately a mere genealogy of royal primogeniture, a terse chronicle, a detailed sequence of dynastic lore, and a stirring narrative of an event or anecdote. Though the form and content of the History vary, the work as a whole is an epic tale spanning nearly 2,000 years. It begins with the fall of Troy in 1240 b.c. and tells the story of Brutus, great-grandson of the Trojan Aeneas, who was the first king of Britain and reigned for 23 years in the 12th century b.c. The epic ends with the death of the last British King Cadwallader in a.d. 689, after which the country was abandoned to the Saxons.
Geoffrey’s remarkably vivid prose grips the reader and is as exciting today as it was in the 12th century. His purpose for writing the History was to highlight the story of the Breton and Welsh peoples, who were driven from the mainland by the Saxons, and to describe the dominions and ambitions of the Norman kings.
Some of Geoffrey’s writings are rooted in facts he culled from various existing and authentic sources, including bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the British History by Nennius, and Concerning the Ruin of Britain by Gildas. However, what material he couldn’t find he simply made up.
To this day, Geoffrey is remembered for the romantic and heroic stories of valor, chivalry, and mystery in his History. These stories occupy an important place in English literature through Geoffrey’s well-paced, well-crafted, emotionally skillful handling of characters, places, and events. Readers of all ages continue to delve into his tales of King Arthur, Camelot, Avalon, the Knights of the Round-Table, Queen Guinevere, Lancelot, Mor-dred, and Merlin the Magician.
English Versions of Works by Geoffrey of Monmouth
The Historia Regum Brittanie of Geoffrey of Monmouth: Gesta Regum Britannie, Vol. 5. Edited by Neil Wright. Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell & Brewer, 1985.
The History of the Kings of Britain. Translated by Lewis Thorpe. New York: Penguin Classics, 1977.
Works about Geoffrey of Monmouth
Cooper, Helen. Romance in Time: Transforming Motifs from Geoffrey ofMonmouth to the Death ofShake-speare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Curley, Michael J. Geoffrey of Monmouth. New York: Macmillan Library References, 1994.
Parry, John J. and Robert A. Caldwell. “Geoffrey of Monmouth.” In Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative History, edited by Roger S. Loomis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
