- Appendix I: Legendary
versions of the Roman conquest of Britain
A study of Welsh
legends of Roman conquest, with some important
insights into Celtic royal theory.
A look at a
mysterious minor figure in Nennius.
The Aurelius
Ursicinus whose tremendous treasure was found at
Hoxne was probably Ambrosius’ purple-wearing
father, the overthrown Mild King. A local legend
of a martyred king may refer to him, and may have
something to tell us about Christian practice
under pagan Saxon rule.
A demonstration
that Procopius’ sources for Britain were of
two kinds: either bookish and outdated, or a pack
of lies from mendacious Frankish sources.
A demonstration
that, in about 580, St.Patrick was regarded
mainly as the patron saint of one Ulster tribe,
the Dal Fiatach.
- Appendix VI: More about the
legend of the fortress and the dragons
Further points
about the legends of Vortigern and Vortimer,
extending the comparison with Irish legendry.
Demonstration
that at least four separate and incompatible
legends were told about Urien, the hero of
Taliesin’s poetry, and that Nennius’
account of him was only one of them and totally
unreliable as history.
Regretful
dismissal of an attractive but unreliable
Renaissance-age notice from Lorraine, about
contacts between the Roman commander Aegidius and
Britain in the fifth century.
- Appendix IX: Modern
parallels for the final defeat of
Cadwallon
Thoughts about
the end of Cadwallon’s murderous ride
through North Britain in 634.
Reconstruction,
from a piece of Welsh hagiography and a Breton
legend, of one of Arthur’s least-known
feuds, with one Mil Du Marchog. It involves an
interesting observation about Arthurian epic.
A suggestion
that one of the more obscure characters from the
saga of the Volsungs may derive from English
memories of Vitalinus/Vortigern.
- Appendix XII: More evidence
for direct contact between Franks and
Celtic Britons, ca..535
The survival in
Welsh Britain of a non-classical table of descent
for European peoples, which can only go back to
the very first generation of Frankish Christians
and can easily be dated to 535 at the latest,
shows that British Celtic and Frankish (not
Roman) Gaulish ecclesiastics had been in direct
contact some time in the second quarter of the
sixth century.
History
of Britain, 407-597 is copyright © 2002, Fabio
P. Barbieri. Used with permission.
Comments
to: Fabio P.
Barbieri
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