Wace's Roman De Brut: A History Of The British (Text and Translation)

Weiss (Robinson College, Cambridge, UK) has written a prose translation, presented in side-by-side format, to the earliest vernacular history of England, much of it imaginary (this is the earliest chronicle of the King Arthur legend). A 30-page introduction gives the life of Wace, the context of his history, and an outline of the history and its protagonists. Weiss also recounts the life and career of Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose Latin history Wace here translated into Old French (completing it in 1155). Only corrections have been added to this revised edition of the 1999 translation. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Wace's Brut is an 1155 French verse rendering of Geoffrey of Monmouth's earlier Latin 'history' of Britain, from the time of Brutus, the eponymous founder, to the seventh century. Wace uses Geoffrey's stories, such as those of King Lear and King Arthur, with a lively inventiveness and originality, drawing on oral sources and his own knowledge of parts of Britain, imaginatively re-interpreting the material. This is the first complete English translation and is presented in parallel with the French text, enabling those who wish to have access to the original to do so easily. This new reprint has been revised by Judith Weiss, taking account of comments in reviews, with more than 350 individual changes to the translated text.