WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY
Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)
Vol. 1, No. 46: September 14, 2022
The
Legendary Origins of the British Monarchy
Editor’s Note
Three
years ago, on Halloween 2019, I was discussing the poems of Taliesin (fl. 6th
century CE), a legendary Welsh bard, with one of the ACES James Scholars who is
also a published poet. She was wondering about the meaning of a line in one of
his poems, in which he says to his listeners, “Now I have come to the remnant
of Troy.” Here’s the answer to that question – and thereby hangs a tale – the
legendary account of how the British monarchy was established, in the aftermath
of the Trojan War.
This
week, I’d like to present a story that has captivated my imagination since the
late 1980s, when I was majoring in Classical Philology in the College of LAS at
the University of Illinois. 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:
Stanza #1 of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Translated by Jessie L. Weston
(1850-1928)
After the siege and the assault of Troy, when that burg was
destroyed and burnt to ashes, and the traitor slain for his treason, the noble Aeneas
and his kin sailed forth to become princes and patrons of well-nigh all the
Western Isles. Thus Romulus built Rome (and gave to the city his own name,
which it bears even to this day); and Ticius turned him to Tuscany; and
Langobard raised him up dwellings in Lombardy; and Felix Brutus sailed far over
the French flood, and founded the kingdom of Britain, wherein have been war and
waste and wonder, and bliss and bale, oft-times since.
Brutus of Troy, the legendary
founder of the British monarchy, as pictured in a 15th-century
manuscript. (Image Credit: Publc Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Excerpt from The Age of Chivalry
Chapter 2: “The Mythical History
of England”
By Thomas Bulfinch (1796-1867)
The
illustrious poet, 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.
Another
story is that Histion, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, had four sons,
Francus, Romanus, Alemannus, and Britto, from whom descended the French, Roman,
German, and British people.
Rejecting
these and other like stories, 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. According to this authority, 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 therefor 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 the more willingly cast in his lost 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
Walk'st 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
bidd'st 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,
Seagirt it lies, where giants
dwelt of old;
Now, void, it fits thy people:
thither bend
Thy course; there shalt thou find
a lasting seat;
There to thy sons another Troy
shall rise,
And kings be born of thee, 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 Tyrrhene 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 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 Trojanova (New Troy), changed in time to
Trinovantus, now London;
"For noble Britons sprong
from Trojans bold,
And Troynovant was built of old
Troy's ashes cold.”
-- Edmund SPENSER: The Faerie Queen, Book III, Canto IX, Line 38
and, having governed the isle twenty-four years, died,
leaving three sons, Locrine, Albanact and Camber. Locrine had the middle part,
Camber the west, called Cambria from him, and Albanact Albania, now Scotland.
Brutus
I Felix, the legendary first King of Britain (fl. ca. 1100 BCE), as depicted in
a Middle English chronicle from the 15th century CE. (Image Credit:
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The
Landing of the Trojans at Totnes in Devonshire (SW England)
Excerpted
from King Edward III by William Blake (1757-1827)
Our
fathers swarm from the ships. Giant voices
Are
heard from the hills, the enormous sons
Of
Ocean run from rocks and caves: wild men
Naked
and roaring like lions, hurling rocks,
And
wielding knotty clubs, like oaks entangled
Thick
as a forest, ready for the axe.
Our
fathers move in firm array to battle,
The
savage monsters rush like roaring fire;
Like
as a forest roars with crackling flames,
When
the red lightning, borne by furious storms,
Lights
on some woody shore; the parched heavens
Rain
fire into the molten raging sea!
The
smoking trees are strewn upon the shore,
Spoiled
of their verdure! O how oft have they
Defied
the storm that howled o’er their heads!
Our
fathers, sweating, lean on their spears, and view
The
mighty dead: giant bodies, streaming blood,
Dread
visages, frowning in silent death!
Further Reading
·
Historia
Brittonum (History of the Britons) by Nennius (828 CE)
·
Historia
Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1136 CE)
·
Roman
de Brut by Wace
(ca. 1155 CE)
·
Brut by Layamon (ca. 1190-1215 CE)
·
Brutus
the Trojan, Founder of the British Empire: An Epic Poem by Hildebrand Jacob (1735 CE)
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