Corrections and additions:
NENNIUS
(
NEMNIUS
,
NEMNIUUS
)
(
fl.
c.
A.D. 800
)
.
Nennius
is the traditional
author
of the early
Latin
compilation known as the ‘
Historia Brittonum
,’ which purports to give an account of
British
history from the time of
Julius
Caesar
to towards the end of the
7th cent. A.D.
In the preface he describes himself as a disciple of
Elvodugus
(
Elfoddw
)
(q.v.)
, who d. in
A.D. 809
, with the title of ‘
chief bishop
in the land of
Gwynedd
.’ We may infer that
Nennius
held the same more cosmopolitan views of Christian practice as his master; but apart from his own disclaimer to any literary or intellectual pretensions, to which his poor latinity and total lack of any critical acumen bear ample witness, virtually nothing further is known of him. It may be that he was a native of the eastern districts of
South Wales
, as the internal evidence of his work indicates. It is unlikely that the ‘
Liber Commonei
’ at
Oxford
(
Bodl. Auct. F. 4. 32
) was written by him personally, but a reference in it shows that his name and probably his work were known in
A.D. 820
. He is also mentioned by name in the ‘
Psalter of Cashel
’ by
Cormac mac
Cuilennain
(A.D.
836
-
908
). As for the work itself, the ‘
Historia Brittonum
’ in its fullest form comprises a preface and seventy-six sections or chapters, which can be grouped conveniently as follows (cf. the
Mommsen-Lot text
): (a) The Preface; (b)
The Six Ages of the World
, 1-6; (c)
The History proper
, § §7-56; (d)
The Anglo-Saxon Genealogies
, etc., § §57-65; (e)
Computations and the twenty-eight Cities of Britain
, § 66; (f)
The Marvels of Britain
, etc., § §67-76. With the exception of the preface all these sections are found together in only one
11th cent.
MS.,
B.M. Harl. 3859
, which also contains the text of the ‘
Annales Cambriae
’ and the
Welsh Genealogies
. In spite of much scholarly criticism the question of the original nature of the ‘
Historia Brittonum
’, and the extent of later accretions is still undecided. Broadly speaking, one school holds that most of the present material in the ‘
Historia Brittonum
’ was already extant in an earlier anonymous ‘
Volume of Britain
,’ which provided the basis for the Nennian and subsequent editions (compare the claims made for the ‘
Lebor Bretnach
,’ the
11th cent.
Irish
version of
Nennius
by
Gilla
Coemain
); others find sound reasons for holding that the Preface, most of § §7-56, the section on
the
Cities of Britain
, and some of the Marvels comprised the original work of
Nennius
himself,
c.
A.D. 796-800
, and that later
editors
or
copyists
incorporated other material according to their own special interests.
Nennius
himself tells us that he has made use of the chronicles of
Eusebius
,
Jerome
,
Isidore
, and
Prosper
, the annals of the
Romans
,
Irish
, and
Saxons
, and native tradition, including a ‘
liber beati Germani
.’ His debt to the ‘
De Excidio Britanniae
’ of
Gildas
(q.v.)
for events to
c. A.D. 540
is obvious, but the question of his knowledge and use of
Bede
depends on the view taken of the composition of the ‘
Historia Brittonum
.’ Whatever his sources, the resulting compilation is a travesty of sober history, though certain sections, e.g. the genealogies, are of considerable historical importance. The real value of
Nennius
's work, however, is in the material which it affords for the study of the Arthurian Legend and early
Celtic
literature and learning in general.
Bibliography:
-
Zimmer
,
Nennius vindicatus. Uber entstehung,
geschichte und quellen der Historia Brittonum
, Berlin,
1893
, Berlin,
1893
;
-
F. Lot
,
Nennius et l'Historia Brittonum Étude
critique, suivie d'une édition des diverses versions de ce
texte
, Paris, 1934
(Paris,
1934
; text —
Mommsen
's in
Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Auctores
antiquissimi
, 1877–1905
, tom. xiii, Berlin,
1894
);
-
A History of Wales
, i, 223-6;
-
Bulletin of the Board of Celtic
Studies
, xii, 380 ff.
Author:
Professor William Hopkin Davies, M.A., Aberystwyth
