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Robert Wace, a monk from
Jersey, who lived in
the 12th Century AD, wrote Roman de Brut in 1155.
This is a Norman-French version of
Geoffrey
of Monmouth's History of the Kings of
Britain.
But he includes certain other important parts
of the Arthurian Tradition, including the
Round Table,
which he describes as a symbol of chivalry. His immediate source
appears to have been a variant, though unknown, version of
Geoffrey's History.
He seems to have borrowed heavily
upon Breton oral traditions about Arthur. Wace is one of the
authors w
ho bridges the English Channel, making Arthur well
known to a wider French and European audience.
As a boy, Wace was taken from
Jersey to live in Caen. He went on to complete his education at
a school in the Ile de France and later returned to Caen where
he wrote Roman de Brut, amongst many other works.
Wace himself seems to have been
well-travelled. He had visited Brittany and was acquainted with
south-western England, and he moved in high society.
His
Roman de Brut is dedicated, according to his English
translator Layamon, to the Queen of England, Eleanor of
Aquitaine. |
