GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH & WHAT'S IN A NAME

The Kid Himself

Oh, you know, just reading Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, which is only the direct source for a) two complete Shakespeare plays (Lear and Cymbeline), b) Milton's Comus and c) Drayton's Poly-Olbion, besides launching the entire Arthurian tradition in Britain. Originally in Latin (here's a version with the typically thorough German commentary from waaay back). Reading this translation by Thompson/Giles from even waaayer back w/ occasional glances at the Latin for the sake of speed. It's been on my reading list since the Triassic period, but I finally decided to pilfer it for De Inanibus material before NaNoWriMo. And oh what material there is.

[Full disclosure: I'm only at Book V, Ch. XVII of the whole work, so I've got a ways to go.] Ma the Historia Regum Britanniae almost seems to've been written as a compendium of legendary characters for later authors to plunder. Ostensibly a legitimate chronicle derived from Welsh sources (per Geoffrey's dedicatory letter to the Earl of Gloucester), it follows a whacky, haphazard course through a long series of legendary British kings descended from Brutus (a Trojan war vet) who founded the first kingdom on the island after a complicated series of international misadventures. All the characters are treated with this unique, quirky combination of abruptness and amicability, as if the very cursory portraits and set-pieces somehow lends them a special charm. And the work proceeds in a breathless, Looney Tunes-like blur of reckless abandon and bonhomie. In a word, the book's just fun.

It also features some of the most eclectic and delightful names for a medieval chronicle (a genre which specializes in eclectic and delightful names). So here's a partial census through Book V, Ch. XVII:

  ✣ Corineus
  ✣ Imbertus
  ✣ Goffarius Pictus
  ✣ Turonus
  ✣ Goemagot
  ✣ Lud
  ✣ Antenor 
  ✣ Locri
  ✣ Albanact
  ✣ Kamber
  ✣ Aballac
  ✣ Estrildis
  ✣ Menpricius & Maxin, sons of Maddan
  ✣ Assaracus
  ✣ (geo.) Mount Paladur
  ✣ Aganippus
  ✣ Ferrex & Porrex, sons of Gorobgudo
  ✣ Staterius
  ✣ Brennius
  ✣ Elsingius
  ✣ (geo.) Calatarium
  ✣ (geo.) Trinovantum  
  ✣ Gorbonian
  ✣ Cap
  ✣ Blegabred
  ✣ Arthmail
  ✣ Eldol
  ✣ Samuilpenissel
  ✣ Cirdisus
  ✣ Evelinus
  ✣ Kymbelinus (=Cymbeline)