Circa 1135, Geoffrey of Monmouth completed De gestis Britonum (On the Deeds of the Britons), which purported to be a true account of the ancient Britons based on a liber uetustissimus, a “most ancient book.”1 Unlike their descendants, the colonized Welsh, the ancient Britons were a gloriously powerful people who enjoyed sovereignty over Britain from the time of Aeneas until the coming of the Saxons. Geoffrey's historia fantastica (fantastic history) was taken as fact by Welsh and Norman readers alike, becoming one of the single most influential texts of medieval Britain.2 While most discussions of De gestis Britonum focus on the text's portrayal of Britons, Bretons, Romans, Saxons, and Normans, one group in the text has gone almost entirely undiscussed.3 These are the Flemish, alternately called Moriani and Ruteni in the text, an apparently fearsome enemy of the ancient Britons, known to invade Northumbria...
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April 01 2023
Flemish Immigration and Geoffrey of Monmouth's De gestis Britonum
The Journal of English and Germanic Philology (2023) 122 (2): 216–231.
Citation
Coral Lumbley; Flemish Immigration and Geoffrey of Monmouth's De gestis Britonum. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 1 April 2023; 122 (2): 216–231. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/1945662X.122.2.04
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