Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

tOt (goofi of (gasingwerft an* ms+ Cotton Wtopatta B+D. By THE REV. ACTON GRISCOM, M.A., New YORK. INTRODUCTION. ON November 7th, 1917, Professor Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie read a suggestive paper before the British Academy entitled Neglected British History in which he re- opened the vexed question of a native British or Armori- can source for the early history of Britain. One possible source, identified in the Welsh chronicle known as Brut Tysilio had been supposed by certain scholars more than a century ago to underlie Geoffrey of Monmouth's famous Historia Regum Britannia,, and to represent the librum vetustissimum which Geoffrey repeatedly declared that he translated into Latin. This identification of source, however, and the arguments at that time put for- ward in its support, were shown in many respects to be mistaken, and the theory has been entirely discredited for at least fifty years by all literary and historical students and writers. It is repeatedly stated that no source has ever come to light, and that the most ancient book is a myth of Geoffrey's own invention,-part of the air of verisimilitude which that arch-romancer cast about his creation. Once a source was eliminated, all serious his- torical interest disappeared in Geoffrey's lists of kings and other incidents, such as Caesar's invasion, or his contri- butions as to the period of Roman occupation, and King Arthur's wars with the Saxons.