Brut y Brenhinedd

Brut y Brenhinedd (Welsh for "Chronicle of the Kings") is a collection of variant Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin History of the Kings of Britain. About 60 versions survive, with the earliest dating to the mid-13th century. Adaptations of Geoffrey's Historia were extremely popular throughout Western Europe during the Middle Ages, but the Brut proved especially influential in medieval Wales, where it was largely regarded as an accurate account of the early history of the Britons.

Geoffrey's Historia and the Brut y Brenhinedd

Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae (completed by c. 1139) purports to narrate the history of the Kings of Britain from its eponymous founder Brutus of Troy to Cadwaladr, the last in the line. Geoffrey professed to have based his history on "a certain very ancient book" written in britannicus sermo (the 'British' tongue, i.e. Old British, Welsh, or Breton), which he had received from Walter, archdeacon of Oxford. It became one of the most popular works in the medieval West, but its impact was particularly profound and enduring in Wales, where the Historia was accepted as a largely authentic and authoritative account. The influence is most clearly evidenced by the existence of several translations into Welsh from the 13th century onwards, usually known as Brut y Brenhinedd. The manuscript history of these texts is a rich and long one attesting to the production of several translations and new redactions, most of which were copied many times over.