ARTHURIAN LINES OF DESCENT

 

 

"dux bellorum"--a 6th c. Briton? (Celtic origin)

 

 


Nennius (9th c.) describes 12 victories over the Saxons

 

 


William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum (1125)

suggests (seriously?) that Arthur ought to be taken more seriously

 

 


Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136)

takes up the challenge in Bks. 9-11 (incl. Lucius, Modred)

 

 

 

 

 

Wace, Roman de Brut (1155) [French]      

Text Box: Chretien de Troyes (c. 1170s), 5 Arthurian romances in French, including Lancelot (The Knight of the Cart) and the Grail story; Celtic tales into romance, addition of love plots. Vulgate Cycle (1215-30) of French prose romances, elaborations and continuations Arthurian romances in French and English (like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
 

 

 


La3amon's Brut (c.1200) [English,

semi-alliterative]

 

 

 


Chronicle tradition, Latin and English,

(e.g.,  Robert Mannyng of Brunne's verse

Chronicle of England [1338] and the

Alliterative Morte Arthure [c. 1400])

 

 


                                                                                                                                                    

 

 

 

 

Malory’s Morte Darthur (1470s)