Geoffrey of Monmouth – författare

Completed in 1136, The History of the Kings of Britain traces the story of the realm from its supposed foundation by Brutus to the coming of the Saxons some two thousand years later. Vividly portraying legendary and semi-legendary figures such as Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin the magician and the most famous of all British heroes, King Arthur, it is as much myth as it is history and its veracity was questioned by other medieval writers. But Geoffrey of Monmouth's powerful evocation of illustrious men and deeds captured the imagination of subsequent generations, and his influence can be traced through the works of Malory, Shakespeare, Dryden and Tennyson.

For the first time in English, Mark Walker presents a verse translation of the twelfth-century epic poem by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the originator of many of the Arthurian legends familiar to us today. Here is the original Merlin - a mysterious and mad character inspired by ancient Welsh legends. But he is also a king, a prophet, and a modern Renaissance man. This brand-new translation casts Geoffrey's Latin into accessible English hexameter verse, giving readers a feel for the rhythms of the original. The extensive introduction sets the poem in the context of Geoffrey's life and writings, while each chapter opens with helpful background material. Turn back the pages of time and discover the mythical, magical world of the original Merlin.

Text and translation of key Arthurian text - a major source for scholars.Written in the 1130s, Geoffrey's imaginative history of the Britons from Brutus to Cadwallader, the first work to recount the woes of Lear and the glittering career of Arthur, rapidly became a bestseller in the British Isles and Francophone Europe, with over 200 manuscripts surviving. Yet no critical edition of the main version has appeared since 1929.This new text, for which 14 manuscripts have been collated in full, rests on a survey of the entire tradition; it is accompanied by a facing English translation, prepared especially for this volume. A comprehensive introduction discusses the status of variant versions, the shape of the main tradition, and many questions of editorial principle; critical notes analyse some problems raised by the transmitted text; and there is a full index of names.MICHAEL REEVE is Kennedy Professor of Latin Emeritus at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge; Dr NEIL WRIGHT is a Senior Language Teaching Officer at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge.