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One obscure reference to Arthur occurs in The Legend of St. Goeznovius, written down in Brittany in 1019 by a Breton writer called William, who was chaplain to Bishop Eudo of Leon. He claims to have based his story on an earlier manuscript called Ystoria Britanica, of which all other trace is now lost.
The text mostly concerns the eponymous saint, but the few facts presented regarding Arthur may be summarised as follows...
It is possible that this is one of the texts used by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Lifris (or Leofric, who was the son of Bishop Herwald ) wrote an account of the life of a Welsh saint called Cadoc in the year 1100. Cadoc is supposed to have lived in the 6th century and met Gildas. In amongst all the usual sanctimonious crap are a few small references to Arthur, telling how...
In AD 1135 a canon of the secular college of St George at Oxford called Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote what appears to be the first complete version of the life of King Arthur, as a part of his historical work "Historia Regum Britanniae", or The History of the Kings of Britain. His sources included all the existing historical manuscripts, including Gildas, Bede and Nennius, but also included many records now lost. The most enigmatic of these was a book he describes as being "a certain very ancient book written in the British language" (ie Celtic) that was loaned to him by Archdeacon Walter.
The book attempts to give a complete history of Britain; Monmouth intended his text to be accepted as factual, not mythical. It begins with Aeneas leaving after the fall of Troy in 1240 BC so that his great-grandson can settle Britain, and finishes with the end of the Saxon conquest in AD 689. It is a mixture of verifiable fact, extremely dubious possible history and totally supernatural special effects. Geoffrey seems completely unable to distinguish between fact and fantasy (which makes it quite a fun read).
Out of 230 pages, about 60 describe the events surrounding the birth, life and death of King Arthur. These are summarised below.
During his time at Oxford from 1129 to 1151 Geoffrey also wrote "Vitae Merlini" (the Life of Merlin) and "Prophetae Merlini" (the Prophesies of Merlin). In 1151 he was a made Bishop Elect of St Asaph in North Wales, and a year later got promoted to Westminster. He died in 1155.
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