Histories of the Kings of Britain: King Arthur

This may rightly be considered one of the first published sources of the King Arthur legend. The translation by Sebastian Evans of this selection of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s chronicle of ancient British kings differs in several respects from more popular versions of Arthurian tales published centuries later. Notably absent here are the Round Table of knights, the Holy Grail, Guenevere’s affair with Sir Lancelot, and the Lady of the Lake. In their place is a pseudohistorical account of Arthur’s role in British wars against Saxons and Romans – not a work of chivalrous knights in shining suits of armor encountering maidens and monsters, but rather an attempt to forge a national epic for the British people.