Historia Brittonum: The History of the Britons

The History of the Britons' (Historia Brittonum) is one of the most important and fascinating texts concerning British History in the Dark Ages. Starting with the legendary arrival of Brutus and then following through the Roman invasions, the Saxon invasions in the time of Vortigern, the famous battle-list of Arthur and the battles of Urien Rheged, Cadwallon and Oswald. Added to this is a list of the twenty-eight famous cities of Britain and the Miracles (Mirablia) of Britain. The manuscript known as Harleian 3859, dating from c. 1100 and kept in the British Library, contains some of the most important textual material for Dark Age Britain, and Wales in particular. This is a New Edition of the classic Wade-Evans text first published in 1938 and Out of Print from decades. Wade-Evans added informative notes detailing showing the sources of the Historia Brittonum and how it influenced later works. This is a reliable and easy to understand edition of one of the earliest and most useful texts for the history of Wales and Dark Age Britain and also the earliest source for the Arthurian tradition. Also found in this manuscript are the 'Welsh Annals' (Annales Cambriae) one of the most important sources for the pre-Norman history of Wales and the basis for the later 'Chronicle of the Princes' (Brut Y Twysogion). Following the 'Annals' are a collection of 'Welsh Genealogies' concerning the rulers over different regions of Wales that trace their ancestry back to people from the mythological past of Wales. See more