Sunday, January 08, 2012

A surfeit of Geoffries ...

... The Arthurian Game of Origins (Thesis Thursday #4) — Got Medieval.

Depending on which piece of this raw material we chose to put the emphasis upon we might safely assert, as others have already, that Geoffrey was either a Welsh rabble-rouser, a Cornish patriot, a Breton sympathizer, or a Norman apologist; that during the Anarchy that followed the death of Henry I a supporter of Empress Matilda, or of her rival King Stephen, or a peace-broker between the two; that he was either a sober historian in the model of St. Augustine, Virgil, or Boethius; or that he was merely a faithful compiler, a parodist, or an inveterate liar who lied out of an inordinate love of lying,1 and these are only but a few of the many Geoffries on offer.

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