Geoffrey of Monmouth

by Brian Edward Rise

 
Writer and author who created the main framework of Arthurian legend and the figure of Arthur as a semihistorical British king. Geoffrey was born at Monmouth in Southeastern Wales and was of Welsh or Breton descent. He taught at Oxford between the years 1129 and 1151. All three of his surviving works are written in Latin. Prophetiae Merlini (“Prophecies of Merlin”) is the first. Modifying the name of the northern bard Myrddin, Geoffrey uses Welsh predictions of a Celtic revival and many of his own probable invention and ascribes them to the prophet. This work was followed toward 1136-1138 by the Historia Regum Britanniae that incorporated the prophecies in it. Near the end of 1150 he composed a long narrative poem expanding on Welsh traditions about the prophet entitled, Vita Merlini (“Life of Merlin”).