Abstract

The Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth has enjoyed an enormous amount of attention. In the first place, the work itself was extraordinarily popular. The most recent edition of the text, by Acton Griscom, lists almost 200 surviving Latin manuscripts, 48 of the twelfth century, and more have been added and will be added. In the second, it was and is a puzzle. It was found difficult to interpret as soon as it appeared. Henry of Huntingdon was frankly surprised by the work, which he found at Bec in 1139. Gerald of Wales claimed that it had been exposed as a fraud; William of Newburgh would have it so exposed. Alfred of Beverley thought it worthy of at least some serious attention by historians. Gerald's claim is goodnatured and softened by a story. William's is not; indeed his accusation that Geoffrey attempted to give historical falsehood the color of truth by turning it into Latin forms one of the most vitriolic of his passages. jQuery.click { event.preventDefault(); })