A certain man had three sons:

Jesus' parable of the prodigal son came to mind as I read part of Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain (ISBN 0140441700); indeed, the passage my title refers to the three sons of Constantine (not "the Great" Roman emperor known for the beginning of the Christianization of the Roman Empire, but the second British king by that name), Constans who at first got out of the struggle for succession by being placed in a monastery, Aurelius Ambrosius, and Utherpendragon.


The last one you may vaguely know because of his son Arthur.


Today the ruler of Camelot -- which isn't mentioned in here by that name, Arthur simply rules Britain which itself is named for Aeneas' great-grandson who landed there a la Columbus in the Americas -- is largely regarded, like King Lear contemporary with the founding of Rome (mid-8th century BC) and Cymbeline with Augustus Caesar (last half of 1st century BC/first two decades of the 1st century AD) who both became central figures in plays by William Shakespeare, as apocryphal.


Who grew up and became King.


Which makes you wonder -- well, it made ME wonder! -- what Shakespeare's King Arthur would have been like ... but anyway, this twelfth century chronicle translated expertly by Lewis Thorpe who minimally butts in with footnotes is just marvelous. That is NOT easy to say about a history. But that Geoffrey places a great many events he relates to Biblical happenings (back when way many more than now believed them real) tells me that more of this is real than maybe some scholars believe.


KING Arthur.


When the above-named leader Brutus had built the city about which I have told you, he presented ... and gave them a code of laws by which they might live peacefully together. At that time the priest Eli was ruling in Judea and the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines. . . . The sons of Hector reigned in Troy . . . In Italy reigned Aeneas Silvius, son of Aeneas and uncle of Brutus, the third of the Latin Kings.


Thorpe also gives you a half-decent ... no, that's not true. He gives you an excellent index of every proper name and place in The History wherever it appears as well as connects them. He truly would have lived and thrived had we followed Bernard Shaw's advice about people who write books without indexes. AND a Time Chart connecting the events in other countries Geoffrey dates with the kings of Britain, from the fall of Troy to the end of the seventh century AD. 1900 years in 8 parts.


I'm impressed!


It's likely the introduction Thorpe -- who had to translate The History from Latin -- wrote won't make my eyes or yours glaze over, but I skipped it. I do urge you to read the Prophecies of Merlin though (Part Five) and don't worry about what they do or don't mean; the style they're written in reminded me of the Hebrew prophet Daniel in the Old Testament, or Malachy's Prophecy of the Popes. (And Malachy would be contemporaneous with Geoffrey himself, early 12th century. Wonder if they met?)


I wonder as I wander,

David