Nennius of Britain

Nennius is a mythical prince of Britain at the time of Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain (55–54 BC). His story appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (1136), a work whose contents are now considered largely fictional. In Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey's Historia he was called Nynniaw.

For other uses of the name, see Nennius. "Crocea Mors" (Nennius's sword) redirects here.

In Geoffrey's story, Nennius is said to have fought Caesar in personal combat and taken his sword, which he used to kill many Romans. In the Tudor and Jacobean eras he became an emblem of British patriotism.

Geoffrey's account

The History gives the following account of Nennius's life: He was the third son of Heli and brother of Lud and Cassibelanus[3] (and according to Welsh sources, of Llefelys[4][lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]). He fought alongside Cassibelanus when Caesar invaded. He and his nephew Androgeus led the troops of Trinovantum (London) and Canterbury, when they encountered Caesar's own troops and Nennius faced Caesar in single combat. Caesar struck Nennius a blow to the head, but his sword got stuck in Nennius's shield. After they separated in the melée, Nennius threw away his own sword and attacked the Romans with Caesar's sword, killing many, including the tribune[5] Quintus Laberius Durus (whom Geoffrey erroneously names Labienus, confusing him with Titus Labienus).[6][7][8][lower-alpha 3]

According to Geoffrey, "everyone whom Nennius struck with the sword either had his head chopped off or else was so wounded as Nennius passed that he had no hope of ever recovering".[11] For the sword, Crocea Mors ("Yellow Death") had earned its name because no one escaped death who received a wound from it.[14][lower-alpha 4]

Fifteen days after the battle Nennius died of his head wound, and was buried at London (the "City of the Trinovantes"), near the North Gate. Caesar's sword, Crocea Mors, was buried with him.[18][lower-alpha 5]

Later versions

The Anglo-Norman writer Wace expands on the story of the fight in his book Roman de Brut (1155), in which there is detailed description of the combat. Caesar defeats Nennius, but his sword is stuck in Nennius' shield, and he is forced to retreat when Nennius' friends come to his aid. In this version, the loss of his sword is a humiliation that leads to Caesar's withdrawal and inspires rebellion in France.[23] Wace also embellished details not given by Geoffrey, adding that the name Crocea Mors was "stamped with letters of gold" on the upper part of the sword, next to the hilt.[24][lower-alpha 6]

The account of the event also occurs in the Middle English verse Brut (ca. 1190–1215) by Layamon,[25] which paraphrased Wace's work.[26] The Anglo-Norman French chronicle Scalacronica (c. 1363) by Thomas Grey also contains an account of the Julian invasion, largely derived from Wace, though the relevant text (in the Roman History section) was never published in past extracts;[27][lower-alpha 7] the work calls the sword Crochi Amour ("Crooked Love"), though this may be a scribal error.[28]

The Middle Welsh Brut y Brenhinedd (mid-13th century and later manuscripts) also translates the episode, expanded with Welsh-sourced material. Here Nennius is called Nynniaw[29] or Nynnyau[20] (also by various other spellings).[lower-alpha 8][lower-alpha 2] Some versions interpolate the story of Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys and add a fourth brother named Llefelys,[4] as already noted.

According to the Old Norse translation Breta sögur (Hauksbók copy, early 14th cent.), Nennius dies immediately the same night[lower-alpha 9], because the sword had been tainted with poison.[32][33]

Modern era

In the Tudor period Nennius became a patriotic symbol of British independence. In the poetry collection The Mirror for Magistrates Nennius is portrayed as an "inspirational lesson for future British people to defend their country from foreign invasion".[34] In the Parts Added to The Mirror for Magistrates, Nennius gives speech accusing Caesar of cheating by poisoning the sword-tip to deal him a shallow wound ("scarce he perced had the skin") whose venom nevertheless killed him ("my braynes it ranckle in") in fifteen days time.[33]

Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene Book II (1590) writes that Julius Caesar in slaying Nennius lost his sword which could still be seen,[35], i.e., the sword was being displayed for viewing during the Elizabethan era.[36] The artifact in question plausibly refers to the alleged sword Nennius took from Caesar, kept in the Tower of London, mentioned in the Anonymi Chronicon Godstovianum (15th cent.).[39]

Nennius also appears in plays in the Jacobean era, notably Jasper Fisher's Fuimus Troes and John Fletcher's Bonduca (c. 1613). In the former he embodies the fighting spirit of the Britons and is given the patriotic opening speech exhorting the people to resist invasion.[34] His funeral games after his fight with Caesar form the climactic point of the play. In the latter he is anachronistically portrayed as a contemporary of Boudica, acting as one of her generals.[40]

Explanatory notes
  1. The sources being the Brut y Brenhinedd, medieval Welsh versions of Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae.
  2. Technically speaking, Randell's paper is based on the prose tale Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys; however, the tale occurs as interpolations ("embedded narrative", Randell (2009), p. 268) into the Brut y Brenhinedd in the early manuscripts.
  3. This was an error made by Orosius,[9] and repeated by Bede.[7]
  4. Some modern scholars have conjectured that the naming was inspired by the "dreaded Yellow Plague (Pestis flava)".[8][15] The "Yellow Plague" (Welsh: dylyt melen) is elsewhere recorded in medieval Welsh literature, and the death of Maelgwn Gwynedd was ascribed to it.[16]
  5. According to the afroementioned Brut y Brenhinedd, the sword was named angeu coch "Red Death"[19] (angheu coch;[20] Aghev Coch[21]) or angeu glas "Pale Death/Blue Death"[19] (ageu glas [sic].[22])
  6. This, and the notion that the wound could be cured by no medicine are also found in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle (c. 1338): "it was writen on the hilt,/ lettres of gold burnissed bright, /þat "Crucia mors" þe suerd hight" (vv. 4449–4452).[24]
  7. And King, Andy, ed. (2005b). Sir Thomas Gray: Scalacronica, 1272-1363 which has been published since Nearing's paper clearly does not fill that lacuna.
  8. Nynniaw (MS. Dingestow Court; Book of Basingwerk); Nynnyaw (Peniarth 44, Llanstephan 1); Nynnaw (Peniarth 23); Nynhyaw (Red Book of Hergest).[30] Lexicographer Evans gives Nyniaw.[19]
  9. Rather than dying of the "head wound a fortnight later", as in Geoffrey.[31]

References
Citations
  1. Geoffrey of Monmouth & Griscom ed. (1929), p. 301: "Post illum successit heli filius eius.. hic tres generauit filios, lud, cabsibellaunum, nennium"
  2. Geoffrey of Monmouth & Giles tr. (1848) 3.20: "Heli's three sons; the first of whom, viz. Lud, gives name to the city of London".
  3. Geoffrey HRB III.xx.[1][2]
  4. Randell (2009), pp. 274–275, 277.
  5. Geoffrey of Monmouth & Giles tr. (1848) 4.3: "Cæsar is routed by Cassibellaun".
  6. Layamon (1847c). Madden, Frederic (ed.). Layamons Brut, Or Chronicle of Britain. Society of Antiquaries of London. 3: 334 (note to 1: 323, v. 7561).
  7. Russell, Miles (2017). The Historical Truth Behind the Myths. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing. Ch. 2 "Unlocking the Historiae", § Geoffrey of Monmouth and Caesar: the First Invasion. ISBN 9781445662756.
  8. Nearing (1949), p. 901.
  9. Nearing (1949), pp. 890, 894, 901.
  10. Geoffrey of Monmouth & Griscom ed. (1929), pp. 308–310.
  11. Geoffrey HRB IV.iii.[10][5]
  12. Geoffrey of Monmouth & Griscom ed. (1929), p. 311: "Erat nomen gladii crocea mors quia nullus euadebat uiuus qui cum illo uulnerbatu".
  13. Geoffrey of Monmouth & Giles tr. (1848) 4.4: "Nennius, the brother of Cassibellaun, being wounded in battle by Cæsar, dies".
  14. Geoffrey HRB IV.iv.[12][13]
  15. [[Albert Schulz|San-Marte (ps. Albert Schulz)]] (1854). Historia regum Britaniae: Mit literar-historischer Einleitung u. ausführlichen Anmerkungen, u. Brut Tysylio, altwälsche Chronik in deutscher Uebersetzung (in German). E. Anton. p. 255 (note to Buch 4, Kapitel 4).
  16. Wade-Evans, A. W. (1914). "The 'Picti' and 'Scotti' in the Excidium Brittaniæ". The Celtic Review. 9. p.321, n2. doi:10.2307/30070302. JSTOR 30070302.
  17. Geoffrey of Monmouth & Griscom ed. (1929), pp. 310–311.
  18. Geoffrey HRB IV.iv.[17][13]
  19. Evans, D. Silvan (1887). "angeu". Dictionary of Welsh Language: Geiriadur Cymraeg. Carmarthen: W. Spurrell & Son. p. 99.
  20. Parry, John Jay, ed. (1937). Brut y Brenhinedd: Cotton Cleopatra Version. Cambridge, Mass.: The Mediaeval Academy of America. pp. 73–74, fol. 36–36v.
  21. Roberts, Brynley F., ed. (1984) [1971]. Brut Y Brenhinedd: Llanstephan MS. 1 Version. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. p. 10, line 17; and p. 46 (note to line 17).
  22. Evans, J. Gwenogvryn; Rhys, John, eds. (1890). The Text of the Bruts from the Red Book of Hergest. Vol. 2. Oxford. p. 85.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  23. Suerbaum, Almut (2009). "Chapter 22. The Middle Ages". In Griffin, Miriam (ed.). A Companion to Julius Caesar. Wiley. p. 327. ISBN 9781444308457.
  24. Nyffenegger, Nicole (2014). "4. Negotiating authority". Authorising History: Gestures of Authorship in Fourteenth-century English Historiography. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 156. ISBN 9781443868419.
  25. Layamon (1847a). Madden, Frederic (ed.). Layamons Brut, Or Chronicle of Britain. Society of Antiquaries of London. 1: 323–326, vv. 7558–7673.
  26. The full title of the Madden's edition Layamon (1847a) is: Layamons Brut, Or Chronicle of Britain; a Poetical Semi- Saxon Paraphrase of the Brut of Wace
  27. Nearing (1949), p. 919 and n65.
  28. Nearing (1949), pp. 919–920.
  29. Randell (2009), passim, standardized spelling used trhoughout the paper.
  30. Randell (2009), pp. 274–275: Table 2: Narrative Variations in the Number of Sons.
  31. Nearing (1949), p. 900.
  32. Black, Russell C. (2014). Breta sögur from AM 544 4to: an Edition and Translation (PDF) (Ph.D.). University of Washington. pp. 40–41. hdl:1773/26445. 45v, lines 6-12: "Ivlii en er þeir hofþv lengi barz þa mottvz þeir ivlius & nenivs broðir casibellanvs.. do hann sam nottvm siþar þviat sverðit var eitr hert" (They fought each other a long time before Julius met Nennius, Cassibellaunus's brother... [Nennius] died in the same night because the sword was tempered with poison)
  33. Cf. Nearing (1949), p. 926, where the 15th century poetry The Mirror for Magistrates (infra) and the sögur both alludes to use of poison. The poetry gives "But thou hadste bathde thy sword in poyson all", etc.
  34. Curran, John, Roman Invasions: The British History, Protestant Anti-Romanism, and the Historical Imagination in England, 1530-1660, University of Delaware Press, 2002, p.167.
  35. Faerie Queene, II.x.9: "was charged heauily / Of hardy Nennius, whom he yet did slay / But lost his sword, yet to be seene this day".
  36. Nearing (1948), p. 403.
  37. Nearing (1948), pp. 403–404.
  38. Nearing (1949), p. 923, n73.
  39. Nearing,[37][38] citing/quoting from Hearne, Thomas ed. (Oxon., 1716), Guilielmi Roperi Vita D. Thomae Mori equitis aurati, lingua anglicana contexta..: "Nennius frater Cassibulani regis eripuit gladium vel sicam de manu Julii, quae sica in hunc diem custoditur in turri London" (sg. Bbv).
  40. Jowitt, Claire, Voyage Drama and Gender Politics, 1589-1642: Real and Imagined Worlds, Manchester University Press, 2003, p.107.
Bibliography
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