Geoffrey of Monmouth

1987 Number 11 of 100

The only complete life of King Arthur was written by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk, in 1136 AD, undoubtedly the most accomplished Latin prose and poetry writer of all time. Educated in France, he knew no Welsh, and relied on rough translations of the Mabinogion and Cronicles of Arthur's contemporaries: St. Gildas and St. Nennius. He Chose to ignore the Welsh Triads, the Welsh record of Welsh rulers in which Arthur was recorded as only a minor Pict chieftan. Geoffrey claimed his secret source of information was a small book written by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, and the Pope forbade any one else to look at it!

According to Sir John Ryes, the most renouned of all Arthurian scholors (1927), "Ille Arturus Magnus Rex" is more an epic than an accurate history. Geoffrey's dates, locations and personages are confused and in some cases downright bogus! His fabrication was intended to create a tourist attraction at Glastonbury Monastary (an impossible site for Camelot) which was the British debarcation point for the Crusades. The sole reason for the immense popularity of the story in the Christian world was the description of Arthur's coronation: likening it to Christ's coronation in Heaven! 190 Latin copies of the original manuscript still exist in 49 European libraries.

The only indisputable fact about Geoffrey's King Arthur is that it is a wonderful tale, which gives love, hope and chivalry to a dark world. If it didn't happen, then it should have!