Hello,
everyone –
With
the month of October now hurtling toward its inevitable conclusion – the Keltik
New Year’s Eve, a/k/a Halloween – I’d like to present a story that has
captivated my imagination since the late 1980s, which saw me fall in love with
my Keltik heritage! :) Every culture has a
foundational legend or cycle of legends – stories that explain how and why the
culture was founded, and by whom. Such stories exemplify the values and beliefs
of the people who transmit them from one generation to the next. For medieval
Britons, their foundational legend is grounded in the classical poetry of Homer
and Virgil, as can be seen from the story of Brutus the Trojan, the legendary
first King of Britain, as retold below.
We
begin with a summary of the legend from the first stanza of Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight, a 14th-century Middle English poem,
which is a classic of Arthurian literature:
Soon
as the siege and assault had ceased at Troy,
the
burg broken and burnt to brands and ashes,
the
traitor who trammels of treason there wrought
was
tried for his treachery, the foulest on earth.
It
was Aeneas the noble and his high kin
who
then subdued provinces, lords they became,
well-nigh
of all the wealth in the Western Isles:
forth
rich Romulus to Rome rapidly came,
with
great business that burg he builds up first,
and
names it with his name, as now it has;
Ticius
to Tuscany, and townships begins;
Langobard
in Lombardy lifts up homes;
and
fared over the French flood Felix Brutus
on
many banks all broad Britain he settles then,
where war and wreck and wonder
betimes have worked within,
and oft both bliss and blunder
have held sway swiftly since.
The
Legend of Brutus the Trojan
By
Thomas Bulfinch (1796-1867)
Excerpted
from The Age of Chivalry (1858) – Chapter II: “The Mythical History of
England”
Note: In honor of the KeltiK
New Year (which falls on November 1), here is the legend of Brutus the Trojan –
an exiled prince who eventually became King Brutus I Felix of Britain.
The legendary migration of the Trojan exiles from Greece to Britain is supposed
to have taken place around 1100 BCE.
The illustrious poet, [John] Milton, in his History of England,
is the author whom we chiefly follow in this chapter. According to the earliest
accounts, Albion, a giant, and son of Neptune, a contemporary of Hercules,
ruled over the island, to which he gave his name. Presuming to oppose the
progress of Hercules in his western march, he was slain by him. Milton gives
more regard to the story of Brutus, the Trojan, which, he says, is supported by
“descents of ancestry long continued, laws and exploits not plainly seeming to
be borrowed or devised, which on the common belief have wrought no small
impression; defended by many, denied utterly by few.” The principal authority
is Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose history, written in the twelfth century,
purports to be a translation of a history of Britain brought over from the opposite
shore of France, which, under the name of Brittany, was chiefly peopled by
natives of Britain who, from time to time, emigrated thither, driven from their
own country by the inroads of the Picts and Scots.
Brutus was the son of Silvius, and he of Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, whose
flight from Troy and settlement in Italy are narrated in Stories of Gods
and Heroes. Brutus, at the age of fifteen, attending his father to
the chase, unfortunately killed him with an arrow. Banished therefore by his
kindred, he sought refuge in that part of Greece where Helenus, with a band of
Trojan exiles, had become established. But Helenus was now dead, and the
descendants of the Trojans were oppressed by Pandrasus, the king of the
country. Brutus, being kindly received among them, so throve in virtue and in
arms as to win the regard of all the eminent of the land above all others of
his age. In consequence of this, the Trojans not only began to hope, but
secretly to persuade him to lead them the way to liberty. To encourage them,
they had the promise of help from Assaracus, a noble Greek youth, whose mother
was a Trojan. He had suffered wrong at the hands of the king, and for that
reason he more willingly cast in his lot with the Trojan exiles.
Choosing a fit opportunity, Brutus with his countrymen withdrew to the woods
and hills, as the safest place from which to expostulate, and sent this message
to Pandrasus: “That the Trojans, holding it unworthy of their ancestors to
serve in a foreign land, had retreated to the woods, choosing rather a savage
life than a slavish one. If that displeased him, then, with his leave, they
would depart to some other country.” Pandrasus, not expecting so bold a message
from the sons of captives, went in pursuit of them, with such forces as he
could gather, and met them on the banks of the Achelous, where Brutus got the
advantage and took the king captive. The result was that the terms demanded by
the Trojans were granted; the king gave his daughter Imogen in marriage to Brutus
and furnished shipping, money, and fit provision for them all to depart from
the land.
The marriage being solemnized, and shipping from all parts got together, the
Trojans, in a fleet of no less than three hundred and twenty sail, betook
themselves to the sea. On the third day, they arrived at a certain island,
which they found destitute of inhabitants, though there were appearances of
former habitation, and among the ruins a temple of Diana. Brutus, here
performing sacrifice at the shrine of the goddess, invoked an oracle for his
guidance, in these lines:
“Goddess
of shades, and huntress, who at will
Walks
on the rolling sphere, and through the deep;
On
thy third realm, the Earth, look now, and tell
What
land, what seat of rest, thou bids me seek;
What
certain seat where I may worship thee
For
aye, with temples vowed and virgin choirs.”
To
whom, sleeping before the altar, Diana in a vision thus answered:
“Brutus!
Far to the west, in the ocean wide,
Beyond
the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,
Seat-girt
it lies, where giants dwelt of old;
Now,
void, it fits thy people; thither bend
Thy
course; there shall thou find a lasting seat;
There
to thy sons another Troy shall rise,
And
kings be born of these, whose dreaded might
Shall
awe the world, and conquer nations bold.”
Brutus, guided now, as he thought, by divine direction, sped his course towards
the west, and, arriving at a place on the Tyrrhenian Sea, found there the
descendants of certain Trojans who, with Antenor, came into Italy, of whom
Corineus was the chief. These joined company, and the ships pursued their way
till they arrived at the mouth of the river Loire, in France, where the
expedition landed, with a view to a settlement; but [they] were so rudely
assaulted by the inhabitants that they put to sea again and arrived at a part
of the coast of Britain, now called Devonshire, where Brutus felt convinced
that he had found the promised end of his voyage, landed his colony, and took
possession.
The island, not yet Britain, but Albion, was in a manner desert and
inhospitable, occupied only by a remnant of the giant race whose excessive
force and tyranny had destroyed the others. The Trojans encountered these and
extirpated them, Corineus, in particular, signalizing himself by his exploits
against them; from whom Cornwall takes its name, for that region fell to his
lot, and there the hugest giants dwelt, lurking in rocks and caves, till
Corineus rid the land of them. Brutus built his capital city and called it
Troja Nova (New Troy), changed in time to Trinovantum, now London; and,
having governed the isle 24 years, died, leaving three sons, Locrinus,
Albanactus, and Camber. Locrinus had the middle part [England], Camber the
west, called Cambria [Wales] from him, and Albanactus Albany, now Scotland.
Happy
Keltik New Year! :)
Rob
