ARTHURIAN CHRONICLES: ROMAN DE BRUT

by

WACE


TRANSLATED BY EUGENE MASON




INTRODUCTION

"... In the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme,
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights."

SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet cvi.


I.--WACE

In the long line of Arthurian chroniclers Geoffrey of Monmouth
deservedly occupies the first place. The most gifted and the most
original of their number, by his skilful treatment of the Arthurian
story in his _Historia Regum Britanniae_, he succeeded in uniting
scattered legends attached to Arthur's name, and in definitely
establishing their place in chronicle history in a form that persisted