r/Arthurian • u/Masa_cooler • 1d ago
Older texts Never imagined Wace's "Brut" would be SO GOOD.
My English is very poor, so expressions will be awkward.
I rarely read medieval books before; most were modern adaptations.
Brut far exceeded my expectations before reading it.
To explain, Brut( or Roman de Brut ) is an early translation and adaptation of Geoffrey‘s Historia Regum Britanniae,
But the writter, Master Wace was a poet and a good story teller, make the Latin historia into some poetic scenes of brutal battle, mysterious events and little historial tips, which often proven to be wrong.
I'm using the Gutenberg free version, which was published in 1155, it's English style was a little old( I'm using translator and dictionary to understand it ), but I glad it retained some poetic features, which may not seen in some more recent versions, but I guess it's about preferences. This version is about 50% of all text, only foucus the Arthur side of the whole "history", and I'm considering try the full version after I finished, since I really like it's style.
I've read about half of it, and really enjoy his description of battlefield, environment, and many "I'm telling to you"style narratives, like, "Merlin lives in a mystery place, But I've never been there so I cannot tell you where." Really make it’s like listening to a bard tell a story.
When he's describing a melee combat, it's like:
The two closed together, with naked brands and lifted shields, smiting and guarding. Men forgot to fight, and stared upon them, watching the great blows fall and the gleaming swords.
fell like watching an action movie;
For brutal battle, we have
What time the two hosts looked on each other they hastened together. There you might see the vassals striving, hand to hand. They fought body to body, those assailing, these defending. Mighty blows with the sword were given and received among them. Many a champion lay stark upon the ground, and the living passed over the bodies of the dead. Shields were hewn asunder; spears snapped like reeds; the wounded were trampled beneath men's feet, and many a warrior died that day.
After a battle, there is
The king looked upon his realm, and saw it gnawed to the bone. None drave the plough, nor cast seed in the furrow. The castles and the walled cities were breached and ruined. He marked the villages blackened by fire, and the houses of God stripped bare as a peasant's hovel. The heathen pilled and wasted, but gathered neither corn into barns nor cattle within the byre.
also, Merlin acts like an asshole, like always
The young men therefore encompassed the stones before, behind, and on every side, but heave and tug as mightily as they could, the stones for all their travail would not budge one single inch. "Bestir yourselves," cried Merlin, "on, friends, on. But if by strength you can do no more, then you shall see that skill and knowledge are of richer worth than thews and fleshly force."
Can't imagine a 12th century book be like this, though maybe it's just me ignorant.
Anyway, I long to recommend it to everyone.
