Arthurian Chronicles

by Wace, Layamon, Gwyn Jones (introduction)

The spread of the Arthurian legend during the course of the twelfth century is one of the most remarkable phenomena in literary history. Arthurian Chronicles looks at two unsung but deserving poets who contributed to the diffusion of the legend, Wace who preceded the more famous Chretien de Troyes, and Layamon, who followed him. Wace was of an inquiring turn of mind, with, for his day, a scholarly and sceptical approach to lais , marvellous tales, and fables. `Not all lies, nor all true, all foolishness, nor all sense. So much have the story-tellers told, and so much have the makers of fables fabled to embellish their stories, that they have made all seem fable,' he writes. He was the first to mention the famous Round Table. In Layamon's Brut , Arthur, hero and emperor, makes his first appearance in English vernacular literature. It is Layamon who tells of the elves that attended on the infant Arthur and endowed him with gifts and qualities; he also launched Arthur after his last battle to Argante in Avallon, to be healed of his wounds. In this English language prose translation of the Wace and Layamon Arthurian poems, the folk-tale ferocity of Arthur is made as exciting to the readers as to the poets who contributed so much to Arthur's legend. Originally published by J.M. Dent & Sons,1962.

Genres: Arthurian, Classics, Medieval

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Wace (c. 1115 – c. 1183) was a Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy (he tells us in the Roman de Rou that he was taken as a child to Caen), ending his career as Canon of Bayeux.

Wace, dit aussi Guace ou Wistace était un poète normand, né à Jersey. Ses deux œuvres majeures sont le Roman de Brut et le Roman de Rou.

Sometimes referred to as Robert Wace.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I read these. I remember liking one much more than the other. One of them leans very hard into Arthur being a violent warlord. The other is more interested in courtly love. It's still a few centuries before Mallory's Morte de Arthur and you can tell that he had a lot of work to do. But interesting comparing the two and then comparing this against Monmouth's Historium Regnum. In both I thought it very strange how much they emphasized that Arthur was Roman over his being British. I don't know if this was supposed to be an attack on Rome/the Catholic Church at the time or why the writers thought that this would somehow cement Arthur's legitimacy. It is curious.

[Mark Speed · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the works of a couple of poets, who sought to write down the Arthurian tales that had become popular in the centuries after the Norman invasion of England. As such, they're probably the best source documents we have.

Full of unlikely events, magic, and mythical creatures they're a good insight into the medieval European mind. It's easy to forget how very dark the darkness of night was before the coming of gas and electricity; impossible to understand how dark the medieval mind was before science. What hope was there against foreign invaders? Somewhere in the mists there had to be a mythical hero.