Chap. XX Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Conclusion
But as for the kings that have succeeded among them in Wales, since that time, I leave the history of them to Caradoc of Lancarvan, my contemporary; as I do also the kings of the Saxons to William of Malmesbury, and Henry of Huntingdon. But I advise them to be silent concerning the kings of the Britons,227 since they have not that book written in the British tongue, which Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, brought out of Brittany, and which being a true history, published in honour of those princes, I have thus taken care to translate.
Footnotes
227 This advice might be thought judicious, if we could be persuaded of the authenticity of Geoffrey’s cherished discovery, but there are lamentable defects, of a grave character, attending upon this British volume.
1. It was first made known six hundred years after the events which it relates.
2. No MS. copy is now in existence, nor any record of its ever having been multiplied by transcription.
3. It relates stories utterly at variance with acknowledged history.
4. It abounds in miraculous stories, which, like leaven, ferment and corrupt the whole mass.
5. It labours under great suspicion from the mendacious character of the people, whose credit it was written to support. With these remarks we leave the work to the consideration of the reader, who may compare it, if he likes, with the Chronicles of Gildas and Nennius, which form the next portions of this volume.