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The Chronicle of the Early Britons The Chronicle of the Early Britons - Brut y Bryttaniait - according to Jesus College MS LXI an annotated translation by Wm R Cooper MA, PhD, ThD Copyright: AD 2009 Wm R Cooper Other books by Wm R (Bill) Cooper: After the Flood (1995) Paley’s Watchmaker (1997) William Tyndale’s 1526 ew Testament (2000) British Library Wycliffe’s ew Testament 1388 (March 2002) British Library Παγε 3 Acknowledgements My thanks must go to the Principal and Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford, for their kind permission to translate Jesus College MS LXI , and to publish that translation; with special thanks to D A Rees, the archivist at the College; and to Ellis Evans, Professor of Celtic Studies at Jesus, who scrutinized the translation. Παγε 4 The Chronicle of the Early Britons Introduction There lies in an Oxford library a certain old and jaded manuscript. It is written in medieval Welsh in an informal cursive hand, and is a 15 th -century copy of a 12 th -century original (now lost). Its shelfmark today is Jesus College MS LXI , but that has not always been its name. For some considerable time it went under the far more evocative name of the Tysilio Chronicle , and early in the last century a certain archaeologist made the following observation concerning it. The year was 1917, the archaeologist was Flinders Petrie (see Bibliography), and his observation was that this manuscript was being unaccountably neglected by the scholars of his day. It was, he pointed out, perhaps the best representative of an entire group of chronicles in which are preserved certain important aspects of early British history, aspects that were not finding their way into the published notices of those whose disciplines embraced this period. After all, he opined, it is not as if this chronicle poses any particularly deadly threat or challenge to the accepted wisdom of the day. On the contrary, it illuminates parts of early British history that are otherwise obscure, and in one or two places sheds light where before there was only complete and utter darkness. So exactly why this chronicle was so neglected in Flinders Petrie’s day, and indeed why it continues to be omitted from any serious discussion some ninety years on, is one of those strange imponderables of life. Doubtless there are a thousand reasons why historians pay no great heed to this ancient record, but that is no sufficient cause why it should go unread at all. Whether this passage or that is historically reliable or no are matters for scholars to wrangle over, and this they may do to their hearts’ content. But, degrees of historicity or otherwise notwithstanding, the most important consideration of all is that our ancient forebears believed it to be a true and honest account. This is how they saw their world and the past which led them to it, and this is the literary heritage that they have taken such pains to pass down to us. For that reason alone, their work should be read and admired - yes, and studied too - and towards that end the following translation of the manuscript has been made. I see no good reason why these ancient voices should be consigned to such oblivion when they have such a rich story to tell - a tale which weaves a veritable tapestry of kings and battles, triumphs and disasters, about which not one of us has heard at our school desks and which have waited many centuries to be told. It is a history that begins with the Fall of Troy. It tells of fortune and cunning, of heroism and cowardice, of chivalry and murder, of loyalty and betrayal. It concerns the birth of a people - the Britons - their settling of this island, the succession of their kings, and the timely correction of their sins under the chastising hand of God. We hear of Romans and Saxons, of Picts, Scots and Irish, of witchery and plague, of idleness and plenty, invasion and security. Traitors, kings and tyrants walk side by side over its pages, and there can be few accounts from any age or nation that can come near to challenging this ancient chronicle either for high drama or the sheer power of its narrative. Παγε 5 For the reader or student who wishes to delve further into the chronicle, there are copious endnotes added which deal with points of linguistic, historical, geographical and other concerns. Some of these notes will answer questions, whilst others, it is greatly hoped, will raise them. Either way, interest and inquiry will be stimulated towards a most important yet too little known aspect of our history and literary heritage, and if the present translation contributes something at least towards that end, then I shall consider its job well done. Wm R Cooper, Ashford, Middlesex. * Παγε 6 Translator’s ote Welsh texts of any century present the English translator with a problem or two concerning personal and place names, and there are hundreds of these in the chronicle that we are about to read. At the best of times, English readers find Welsh names impossibly difficult to pronounce, and the immediate task is always to render the names so that the English reader will not constantly trip over them. In my own attempt to solve the problem, I came to admire the ingenuity of Geoffrey of Monmouth who made a Latin version of the same chronicle at Oxford in the year 1136. Now, it is exceedingly rare these days to find even grudging praise being offered to Geoffrey, yet I do not hesitate to pay him the present compliment at least, for Geoffrey’s achievement was to Latinize the Welsh names in such a way as to make them pronounceable to his own readers of the early 12 th century, and so successful were his efforts that I make no apology whatever for borrowing many of his renderings. After all, the problem is exactly the same today as it was in his time. What, for example, would a modern English reader make of the name Gwrvyw ? Like his 12 th -century Latin-reading counterpart, he would baulk at guessing its pronunciation. That alone would greatly spoil his reading, and there is a whole sea of such names for him to wade through. But Geoffrey solved the problem beautifully in this case with the rendering Gorboduc . This I have shamelessly borrowed. Here and there, though, I did find it expedient to abandon even Geoffrey’s ingenious renderings, for he would sometimes give a Latin rendering which was as difficult to pronounce as the Welsh. For example, he takes the Welsh Gwychlan and turns it bravely into Ginchtalacus . However, as the subject who owned this name was a Dane, I have abandoned Geoffrey here altogether and simply given the original Danish form, which is Guthlac . This and similar cases should present the modern reader with no difficulty at all. Place names were much easier to deal with, for where these can be identified I have simply given their modern (English) forms. Kaer Benhwylgoed , for example, is present-day Exeter; Kaer Gradawc is Salisbury; Kaer Vynnydd y Paladr is likewise Shaftesbury. Each modern place name, however, is accompanied on its first appearance by an endnote which supplies the original Welsh reading. Finally, where, for the sake of intelligibility, I have had to add English words where no Welsh original exists, I have followed the time-honoured convention of enclosing them within square parentheses []. And where italicized proper names appear, these are given in place of the inordinate number of pronouns that litter the text, and which would otherwise have rendered obscure many parts of the narrative. After all, it helps to know just who is doing the talking or the deed! * Παγε 7 The Chronicle of the Early Britons - Brut y Bryttaniait - “Yf God will, at an other apter tyme and in more apt place, marveilous agreement of the historyes of Antiquity and great unlooked for light and credit will be restored to the Originalls of Brutus ...” (John Dee. 1577. Cotton MS. Vitellius. c. vii. f 206v) “Ancient writers sometimes meant what they said, and occasionally even knew what they were talking about ....” - George Kennedy Παγε 8 [Prologue] 1 Britain, the fairest of islands, whose name of old was Albion, 2 which lies in the Western Ocean twixt Gaul 3 and Ireland, 4 is eight hundred miles in length and two hundred broad, supplying the needs of its people with unending bounty. Its wide plains and rolling hills fill the land, and into its harbours flow the goods of many nations. It has forests and woods wherein are found all manner of creatures and wild beasts, and bees gather nectar from its flowers. It has beautiful meadows at the foot of rugged mountains, and pure clean springs with lakes and rivers teeming with all manner of fish. There are three great rivers: 5 the Thames, 6 the Humber, 7 and the Severn, 8 and these embrace the island like three great arms, along them being carried the trade and produce of lands across the seas. 9 In ancient times there beautified the land three and thirty great and noble cities, 10 of which some are now desolate, their walls cast down. But others are still lived in, and contain sacred places within them for the worship of God. And the land is now inhabited by five peoples: 11 the Britons, 12 the Normans, 13 the Saxons, 14 the Picts, 15 and the Scots. 16 And of all these peoples, it is the Britons who were its first inhabitants and who once filled the land from the Channel 17 to the Irish Sea - until, that is, the judgment of God fell upon them for their iniquities, which we shall presently set forth.
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