#nennius

[pgwodewose]

100 Named Arthurian Women #5: Rowena

Rowena (also known as Rowen and Ronwen), daughter of the Saxon lord Hengist and later wife of King Vortigern, who first appears in the Historia Brittonum by Nennius (though she is unnamed in this text), then Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britannia (in which she is given a name) as well as Wace's Brut and Layamon's Brut.

[pgwodewose]

[wandrenowlereacts]

This passage above from Book IV of Monmouth’s HRB is very interesting. Essentially…

Julius Caesar has had his arse kicked twice by King Cassibellaunus. During his second attempt at trying to conquer Britain, Cassibellaunus’ brother, Nennius, fights against Julius Caesar and manages to defeat him and grab his sword, but not before getting mortally wounded by said sword. Nennius ultimately dies of his wounds and he’s buried with Julius Caesar’s sword.

The sword is called Crocea Mors (as shown above), meaning “Yellow Death”. If you’re wounded by this sword, that’s it. You’re done for. And this is exactly what happened to Nennius.

It’s a shame that no more is mentioned about the sword “Crocea Mors”, because it sounds really super cool.

[wandrenowlereacts]

Previously, in the first four and a half parts of the Historia Brittonum (I’m using John Morris’ contents analysis for this, btw), we left off with St. Germanus adopting Vortigern’s son with his daughter, seeing as the king told his daughter to say that the monk was the father of their child. Today, we continue with the other half part of the fourth part of the HB and onwards and get to find out what happens next.

Essentially, after the whole adoption fiasco, Vortigern moves on to do other things. Mainly, he decides to ask his wise men, “So… What should I do now?”

Wise Men: You should look up real state in order to build a citadel to defend yourself from the Saxons.

Vortigern thinks this a wise idea, so he travels around the country looking for the perfect real state spot. He finally settles on the province of Guenet. He hires people to start building but the construction materials keep disappearing. The king consults his wise men about what this could mean, and they tell him to do human sacrifice of a boy without a father.

Just like HRB, they find Ambrose (as in Merlin in the narrative). The king interrogates his mother because, “Is it true your son doesn’t have a father?”

Cue the woman probably frustrated about this line of questioning, so she’s like, “"Fine! Okay, fine! I'll say it! He's got no father, and I don't know how he was born, and I didn't have sex with a man! There. Are you happy!?"

And thus, Vortigern plans to sacrifice this child. The next day, Ambrose asks the king what they plan to do with him. The king is really honest about his plans for the boy. Then, Ambrose proceeds to dismantle the plans they had for him and explains what's what. He also tells Vortigern that the property he bought sucks and to look other prime real estate and to leave it to him since he was destined to own it. Basically…

Vortigern: What’s your name, kid? Ambrose: I'm Ambrose. Vortigern: Is it true you don’t have a father? Ambrose: 🙄 Of course, I do. Everyone has a father! My father was a Roman consul.

Vortigern ends up gifting (probably for the inconveniences caused) young Ambrose the whole property where he planned to build his citadel plus the Western provinces and all. Ambrose ends up becoming Emrys the Overlord later on.

After leaving Guenet, Vortigern moves on to look for other real state. He finds it at long last in the region of Gueneri and builds a city called Cair Guorthegirn after his own name. In the meantime, his son Vortimer fights against the Saxons, and we all know how that ends from the HRB. Moreover, yet another event that we know from HRB is about the massacre of Vortigern’s nobles.

Anyways, guess who makes his appearance again!? St. Germanus! He’s still having a lot of things to say to Vortigern. In a nutshell, he tells Vortigern to repent from his sins. Naturally, Vortigern flees from St. Germanus and goes to the province of Guorthegirnaim. 🤣

And you’d think it end there, right? Nope, it does not! St. Gerrmanus follows Vortigern to his home. This frustrates Vortigern to no end, so to get rid of him Vortigern makes the monk the commander of his army against the Saxons. St. Germanus proceeds to pray and God helps him defeat the Saxons by sinking down their ships.

Seeing this occur, Vortigern proceeds to flee again St. Germanus, taking his wives with him, to the city built by the order of his wise men. 😆 St. Germanus follows him again and he and the clergy pray. Three days later, fire comes down from heaven and that’s how Vortigern and everyone in the city dies.

But that’s not all! Nennius provides essentially “a choose your own ending” for Vortigern by providing two more possible endings:

Vortigern ran away, became a wanderer, and died of a broken heart.

The earth swallowed Vortigern up when his castle was burned since his body wasn’t found among the casualties.

(Personally, I like the St. Germanus ending for Vortigern. It’s hilarious as hell).

Anyways, after the many death endings possibilities for Vortigern, Nennius mentions Vortigern's ancestors. He also mentions his sons, Vortimer, Categirn, Pascent and Faustus (who the son with his daughter), whom St. Germanus adopted. We all know the fate of Vortigern’s eldest sons, but not of Faustus. So… Faustus grows into a very respectable young man, and he builds a huge monastery at the banks of the river Renis. Meanwhile, St. Germanus decides to retire by going home and dies over there.

The next part is Nennius talking about St. Patrick, his work and legacy. And this is where you ask, where in the world is Arthur? Well, he appears, though not how we know him. In Nennius’ narrative, he’s a commander. He fights in the days of Octa, son of Hengist. He fights twelve battles, and he proceeds to win them all. Nothing more is said about him.

After this, Nennius moves on to share a fact I didn’t know. Hengist has descendants! Obviously, I knew about his two sons Octa and Ebissa, but I didn’t know about the descendants, seeing as Monmouth implied that they’d been decimated fighting against Arthur. The point is that apparently Octa is the ancestor of the royal line of the kingdom Kent (which is so cool)

Additionally, Nennius mentions a lot of genealogy for the different kings of Britain. There are a lot of names that are familiar to me because they are in HRB. For instance, did you know Eoppa has a son? Yes, that Eoppa who poisoned Aurelius in HRB! So Eoppa’s son is named Ida, and he was the first king of Bernicia (this happened in York, by the way).

Something I found out that I thought was hilarious was the fact that Cadwalla died in battle and his son Cadwallader died in the pestilence. Ahahaha, Monmouth, you liar!  You said Cadwallader died in bloody Rome!

The book ends with Nennius sharing the wonders of Britain (one of them is the tomb of Amr, son of Arthur, whose tomb cannot be measured because it changes constantly each time you do); the wonders of the island of Monia, and of Ireland.

And that's how Historia Brittonnum ends.

Lesson? Don’t believe a woman when she tells you she doesn’t know how her son was born. On the other hand, don’t try to get rid of someone because they can and will surprise you. Lastly, don’t leave out the good parts of a story like Monmouth did (he deprived us of the St. Germanus shenanigans!).

Thoughts on Historia Brittonum? Nennius is without a doubt the Grandfather of Arthuriana. The fact that the majority of his book is used by Monmouth as the basis to write the HRB and is nothing short but incredible. Now, I’m starting a new reading journey and I’m going to read Barbara Tepa Lupack’s “The Girl’s King Arthur”. See you then! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

[wandrenowlereacts]

This is the genealogy of that Brutus the Hateful, who has never been traced to us, when the Irish, who do not know their origin, wished to be under him. This is how our noble elder Cuanu gathered the genealogy of the British from the chronicles of the Romans. Brutus was the son of Silvius, son of Ascanius, son of Aeneas, son of Anchises, son of Capen, son of Asaracus, son of Tros, son of Erectonius, son of Dardanus, son of Jupiter, of the race of Ham, the accursed son who saw his father Noah and mocked him. Tros had two sons, Ilius and Asaracus. Ilius first founded the city of Ilium, that is Troy, and then begot Lamedon, who was the father of Priam. But Asaracus begot Capen, who was the father of Anchises. Anchises begot Aeneas, who was the father of Ascanius. So I found it, as I have written it on this page, for you, Samuel, the child of my master, the priest Beulan. But this genealogy is not written in any book of Britain, but was in the writing of the writer's mind. – Historia Brittonium, written by Nennius, translated by John Morris in Nennius: British History and the Welsh Annals [Arthurian Sources, vol. 3] (1980)

[wandrenowlereacts]

I keep adding more things to read. But I figured that if I was reading Monmouth, then I ought to read Nennius as well, seeing as his work is one of the primary sources Monmouth uses. If I called Geoffrey of Monmouth and his Welsh compatriots the Fathers of Arthuriana, then Nennius is the Grandfather of Arthuriana (in my opinion).

Who is Nennius? He’s this monk dude from the 9th century. He wrote the “Historia Brittonnum” (in English, The History of the Britons) for propaganda purposes (this video here talks about it, as well as talks about Arthur). In his work, Nennius does a chronology, explores the origins of the Britons, talks about post Roman Britain, mentions a few cities, saints, locations, genealogies and notable people, such as Brutus, Hengist, Vortigern, and people we know from Monmouth’s HRB.

It is rather short and straight to the point. There are also a very few fun stories in it. So… Let’s begin this reading journey!

Nennius begins the HB by introducing himself and registering the date as the year 858 A.D. under the reign of King Mervin of the Britons. He mentions he used several sources to do his work. And thus, he starts with the History of the Britons.

The first thing Nennius does is establish a chronology. He starts with Adam down to the reign of Edmund, King of the Angles (who is on his fifth year) 946 years after the incarnation of Christ. He further goes on to mention several important Roman emperors, who probably ruled over Britain. In addition, he gives a brief description of Britain, gives a list of 33 ancients cities and mentions that the inhabitants of Britain are the Scots, the Picts, the Saxons and the Britons (there’s descriptions of the regions of each inhabitant).

He also mentions Partholomus as having come from Spain. But that his expedition failed, and they died (Monmouth says the opposite). A second expedition from Spain is partly successful, since a large majority die because of some strange phenomena in the sea. Nennius says that a lot of people keep coming from Spain and they also live in parts of Britain. There's more mention on the origins of different countries too and important people.

Afterwards, he establishes that Britain takes its name from a Roman consul called Brutus. Apparently, this consul is a descendant of none other than the famed Aeneas of Troy. There’s a whole genealogy and everything. Interestingly, this addition was the author’s own invention done for the kid of his master, Priest Beulan (which is adorable). Here’s the quote (from John Morris’ 1980 translation):

After finishing the narration for the benefit of young Samuel (who seems to have been a Greek-Roman mythology fan), Nennius mixes world events with biblical knowledge. He also establishes that Brutus was a descendant of Noah. In addition, he mentions King Belinus, King Lucius, King Maximus, among others (all of them which appear in HRB). His approach is more simple unlike Monmouth who expands more into it and adds further fictionalized events.

Now this is where things start to get familiar, because after Maximus is mentioned, the reign of Vortigern starts. Naturally, Hengist, Horsa and their Saxons boy band make their appearance. We all know this story since it is partly similar to HRB. However, Monmouth excluded the most hilarious part of the narrative.

Because, you see, Vortigern has his own stalker extraordinaire. His name? St. Germanus. This man preaches the Gospel, and he's known for his ministry and miracles. For instance, on one occasion he wanted to talk to the tyrant King Benlli, but he's rejected. One of the king's servants welcomes him instead and brings him to his home. The next day, St. Germanus asks again for an audience with the king, but to no avail.

He and his men go back to the king's servant who is giving them lodging and he tells the dude to bring out his friends and family because the city is going to burn down. The man gets his nine sons out of the city ASAP and brings them home that is outside the gates of the city. St. Germanus prays, and the city is burnt down with everyone in it. The next day after the burning down of the city, St. Germanus tells the servant that he and his posterity will be kings. This dude is called Catel Drunluc and he and his family rule over Powys to this day.

The point is that during Vortigern’s reign, St. Germanus is around. And as we know, the Saxons are living it up and taking advantage of Vortigern (because he’s married to the daughter of Hengist). What isn't mentioned however is that Vortigern also marries his own daughter and has a son with her (his name is Faustus, btw). St. Germanus doesn't like this and lectures Vortigern about it, so Vortigern tells his daughter to say that St. Germanus is the father of the child. Naturally, the man proceeds to adopt said child right there and there. 🤣 This pisses Vortigern off and makes him leave.

And that’s how the first four and a half parts of the Historia Brittonum ends.

Lesson? Don’t accuse someone else of being the father of your child, lest he adopt your child himself and takes custody of him.

[tiodolma]

i like that vortigern's incest son has a name XD

and that ambrosius did give lands to one of vortigern's sons at some point

He had three sons: the eldest was Vortimer, who, as we have seen, fought four times against the Saxons, and put them to flight; the second Categirn, who was slain in the same battle with Horsa; the third was Pascent, who reigned in the two provinces Builth and Guorthegirnaim,(1) after the death of his father. These were granted him by Ambrosius, who was the great king among the kings of Britain. The fourth was Faustus, born of an incestuous marriage with his daughter, who was brought up and educated by St. Germanus. He built a large monastery on the banks of the river Renis, called after his name, and which remains to the present period.(2)

[tiodolma]

then the basketball boy, Ambrose is like.. "look, the place you wanted to build a tower has a pool with two snakes always fighting. Those snakes signify you and your enemies. also FYI this land is mine. You have no right to this place. I own it lol"

President Vortigern: "why who are you"

Ambrose: "bruh my dad is the Roman Consulate jfc."

President Vortigern: "oh ok this city is now yours. sheesh."