Some Biblical Influences on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historiography
Readers of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae will recall the striking passage in 8.7 (Faral 125) in which Aur-elius, after the great victory over Hengist and the Saxons, calls together his leaders to decide what to do about the captive Hengist. Whereupon Eldad, Bishop of Gloucest...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
1958
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| In: |
Traditio
Year: 1958, Volume: 14, Pages: 378-385 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Readers of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae will recall the striking passage in 8.7 (Faral 125) in which Aur-elius, after the great victory over Hengist and the Saxons, calls together his leaders to decide what to do about the captive Hengist. Whereupon Eldad, Bishop of Gloucester, addresses Aurelius as follows: Etsi omnes istum liberare niterentur, ego cum in frusta conscinderem. Insequerer namque prophetam Samuelem, qui, cum Agag, regem Amalech, in potestatem tenuisset, conscidit ilIum in frusta dicens: Sicut fecisti matres sine liberis, sic faciam hodie matrem tuam sine liberis inter mulieres [1 Reg. (1 Sam.) 15.33]. Sic igitur facite de isto, qui alter Agag existit. Unlike Samuel, Bishop Eldad does not hew Hengist in pieces before the Lord; instead the Saxon is decapitated by the Bishop's brother, Eldol (who was not a churchman), and in fact is given a decent burial by Aurelius, who was, Geoffrey tells us, a moderate (‘ modestus’) individual. Yet it is almost beyond question that Geoffrey's whole account of the death of Hengist (for which there is no hint in his sources) is modeled on the biblical story of Samuel and Agag. |
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| ISSN: | 2166-5508 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Traditio
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0362152900010175 |