Page:Le Morte d'Arthur - Volume 1.djvu/13

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Preface
xi

The first passage to demand attention is written in Latin, for it occurs in the Historia Brittonum with which the name of Nennius is associated. The year of the composition of the Historia Brittonum was, according to M. A. de la Borderie, no other than A.D. 822,[1] and the words relating to Arthur read as follows[2]:—

In illo tempore Saxones invalescebant in multitudine, et crescebant in Britannia. Mortuo autem Hengisto, Octha ejus filius transivit de sinistrali parte Brittanniæ ad regnum Cantiorum, et de ipso orti sunt reges Cantiorum. Tunc Arthur pugnabat contra illos in illis diebus cum regibus Brittonum, sed ipse dux erat bellorum. Primum bellum fuit in ostium fluminis quod dicitur Glein; secundum, et tertium, et quartum, et quintum, super aliud flumen, quod dicitur Dubglas, et est in regione Linnuis. Sextum bellum super flumen quod vocatur Bassas. Septimum fuit bellum in Silva Celidonis, id est, Cat Coit Celidon. Octavum fuit bellum in castello Guinnion, in quo Arthur portavit imaginem Sanctæ Mariæ perpetuæ virginis super humeros suos, et pagani versi sunt in fugam in illo die, et cædes magna fuit super illos per virtutem Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et per virtutem Sanctæ Mariæ virginis genetricis ejus. Nonum bellum gestum est in Urbe Legionis. Decimum gessit bellum in littore fluminis, quod vocatur Tribruit. Undecimum factum est bellum in monte, qui dicitur Agned. Duodecimum fuit bellum in monte Badonis, in quo corruerunt in uno die nongenti sexaginta viri de uno impetu Arthur; et nemo prostravit eos nisi ipse solus, et in omnibus bellis victor exstitit. Et ipsi, dum in omnibus bellis prosternebantur, auxilium a Germania petebant, et augebantur multipliciter sine intermissione, et reges a Germania deducebant, ut regnarent super illos in Brittannia, usque ad tempus quo Ida regnavit, qui fuit Eobba filius, ipse fuit primus rex in Beornicia, id est, im Berneich.

As regards a historical Arthur, the words here cited are very suggestive, for without explicitly saying that Arthur was one of the kings of the Brythons, they make him the general or dux bellorum, in whom one readily recognises the superior officer, known in the time of Roman rule as the Comes Britanniæ. This office, it may be presumed, was continued after the Roman forces left, with the only difference that the

  1. See l’Historia Britonum attribuée a Nennius et l’Historia Britannica avant Geoffro de Monmouth, par Arthur de la Borderie (Paris and London, 1883), p. 20. Since the above was written Zimmer’s work entitled Nennius Vindicatus (Berlin, 1893) has reached me, and in it he gives it as his conclusion, p. 82, that the Historia Brittonum was put together as early as the year 796.
  2. Nennii Historia Britonum ad fidem codicum manuscriptorum recensuit Josephus Stevenson (London, 1838), pp. 47–9.