The Works of Gildas and Nennius, Tr. by J.a. Giles

by Nennius, Gildas

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Genres: History

214 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1841

About the author

Nennius — or Nemnius or Nemnivus — was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary (10th century) tradition.

The Historia Brittonum was highly influential, becoming a major contributor to the Arthurian legend, in particular for its inclusion of events relevant to debate about the historicity of King Arthur. It also includes the legendary origins of the Picts, Scots, St. Germanus and Vortigern, and documents events associated with the Anglo-Saxon invasion of the 7th century as contributed by a Northumbrian document.

Nennius was a student of Elvodugus, commonly identified with the bishop Elfodd of Bangor who convinced British ecclesiastics to accept the Continental dating for Easter, and who died in 809 according to the Annales Cambriae.

Nennius is believed to have lived in the area made up by Brecknockshire and Radnorshire in present-day Powys, Wales.

Reviews

[Lukerik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The two earliest pieces of Arthuriana.

Gildas’ contribution is a spittle-flecked invective against the bloody Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, written during the incursion of the latter. Very interesting as to how the Britons saw themselves. He also has an entertaining go at various contemporary political figures. He says he was born in the year of the Battle of Badon Hill so if King Arthur were based on a real person he would have been able to tell us for sure. Unfortunately he doesn’t mention the name of the commander. The final part of the book is extremely tiresome. Gildas was an Old Testament kind of a guy and it’s a sort of compilation of quotations prophesying woe. Very boring.

Nennius’ contribution is more consistently entertaining. There’s seems to be some debate over whether he wrote it. It appears to have been something of a living document and certainly what we have is a later edition with additions by Anachoreta Marcus – Mark the Anchorite. Still, whether it dates from 831 or 944, it still has the earliest mention of the man himself.

As to this edition, it’s nice to have the two works together. The translation is old but readable. There are some oddities to it that wouldn’t happen today. For example Badon Hill is translated Bath-hill so you need to know there was an old theory that equated the two places. The introduction to Nennius is a strange meandering thing. The main problem is the lack of modern explanatory notes. It would be nice to have more context and some sort of guide to the line between history and legend.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting especially if you like very early England/Ireland history. This document was apparently extracted from the bowels of the vatican and translated from latin around 1600, the document was actually written around 500 ad. Gildas - was a bit of a doomer and mostly quoted from scripture to make his point. Nennius I found much more interesting, traced genealogy ostensibly going back the the sons of Noah, detailed some of the incredibly pugilistic life of days gone by (we really haven't changed much if you look at mankind's unredeemed core), detailed the conversion of England and incredible feats of some of the Saints. You could probably appreciate this document much more if you are a serious historian. I am just an interested bystander. You can get this document free from google books as a pdf file.