Medieval Sourcebook:
Gildas: from Concerning the Ruin of Britain
(De Excidio Britanniae)
Gildas Bandonicus, a British [i.e. Celtic] monk, lived in the 6th century. In
the 540s - in the most aggressive language - he set out to denounce the
wickedness of his times. He ended up being the only substantial source which
survives from the time of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain, and the best
source before the much more impressive work of the Venerable Bede [who completed
his Ecclesiastical History of the English People almost 200 years late in
731]. At any event, the Anglo-Saxons began arriving in the 470s, perhaps
imported as soldiers as Gildas suggests. For some time the British fought back
[the historic basis of the Arthurian myth], but by 600 the Anglo-Saxons had
control of most of what becomes 'England', and the Celtic peoples were pushed to
the hills of Wales and Scotland and across the English Channel to "Brittany".
Chapter 23.
Then all the councillors, together with that proud tyrant
Gurthrigern [Vortigern], the British king, were so blinded, that, as a
protection to their country, they sealed its doom by inviting in among them
(like wolves into the sheep-fold), the fierce and impious Saxons, a race hateful
both to God and men, to repel the invasions of the northern nations. Nothing was
ever so pernicious to our country, nothing was ever so unlucky. What palpable
darkness must have enveloped their minds--darkness desperate and cruel! Those
very people whom, when absent, they dreaded more than death itself, were invited
to reside, as one may say, under the selfsame roof. Foolish are the princes, as
it is said, of Thafneos, giving counsel to unwise Pharaoh. A multitude of whelps
came forth from the lair of this barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as they call
them, that is, in three ships of war, with their sails wafted by the wind and
with omens and prophecies favourable, for it was foretold by a certain
soothsayer among them, that they should occupy the country to which they were
sailing three hundred years, and half of that time, a hundred and fifty years,
should plunder and despoil the same. They first landed on the eastern side of
the island, by the invitation of the unlucky king, and there fixed their sharp
talons, apparently to fight in favour of the island, but alas! more truly
against it. Their mother-land, finding her first brood thus successful, sends
forth a larger company of her wolfish offspring, which sailing over, join
themselves to their bastard-born comrades. From that time the germ of iniquity
and the root of contention planted their poison amongst us, as we deserved, and
shot forth into leaves and branches. The barbarians being thus introduced as
soldiers into the island, to encounter, as they falsely said, any dangers in
defence of their hospitable entertainers, obtain an allowance of provisions,
which, for some time being plentifully bestowed, stopped their doggish mouths.
Yet they complain that their monthly supplies are not furnished in sufficient
abundance, and they industriously aggravate each occasion of quarrel, saying
that unless more liberality is shown them, they will break the treaty and
plunder the whole island. In a short time, they follow up their threats with
deeds.
Chapter 24.
For the fire of vengeance, justly kindled by former crimes,
spread from sea to sea, fed by the hands of our foes in the east, and did not
cease, until, destroying the neighbouring towns and lands, it reached the other
side of the island, and dipped its red and savage tongue in the western ocean.
In these assaults, therefore, not unlike that of the Assyrian upon Judea, was
fulfilled in our case what the prophet describes in words of lamentation: "They
have burned with fire the sanctuary; they have polluted on earth the tabernacle
of thy name." And again, "O God, the gentiles have come into thine inheritance;
thy holy temple have they defiled," &c. So that all the columns were
levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the
husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the
sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to
behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the
ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered
with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been squeezed
together in a press; and with no chance of being buried, save in the ruins of
the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts and birds; with reverence
be it spoken for their blessed souls, if, indeed, there were many found who were
carried, at that time, into the high heaven by the holy angels. So entirely had
the vintage, once so fine, degenerated and become bitter, that, in the words of
the prophet, there was hardly a grape or ear of corn to be seen where the
husbandman had turned his back.
Chapter 25.
Some, therefore, of the miserable remnant, being taken in
the mountains, were murdered in great numbers; others, constrained by famine,
came and yielded themselves to be slaves for ever to their foes, running the
risk of being instantly slain, which truly was the greatest favour that could be
offered them: some others passed beyond the seas with loud lamentations instead
of the voice of exhortation. "Thou hast given us as sheep to be slaughtered, and
among the Gentiles hast thou dispersed us." Others, committing the safeguard of
their lives, which were in continual jeopardy, to the mountains, precipices,
thickly wooded forests, and to the rocks of the seas (albeit with trembling
hearts), remained still in their country. But in the meanwhile, an opportunity
happening, when these most cruel robbers were returned home, the poor remnants
of our nation (to whom flocked from divers places round about our miserable
countrymen as fast as bees to their hives, for fear of an ensuing storm), being
strengthened by God, calling upon him with all their hearts, as the poet says,--
"With their unnumbered vows they burden heaven,"
that
they might not be brought to utter destruction, took arms under the conduct of
Ambrosius Aurelianus, a modest man, who of all the Roman nation was then alone
in the confusion of this troubled period by chance left alive. His parents, who
for their merit were adorned with the purple, had been slain in these same
broils, and now his progeny in these our days, although shamefully degenerated
from the worthiness of their ancestors, provoke to battle their cruel
conquerors, and by the goodness of our Lord obtain the victory.
Chapter 26.
After this, sometimes our countrymen, sometimes the enemy,
won the field, to the end that our Lord might in this land try after his
accustomed manner these his Israelites, whether they loved him or not, until the
year of the siege of Mount Badon [Note: Giles translates "Badonici montis" as
"of Bath-hill"], when took place also the last almost, though not the least
slaughter of our cruel foes, which was (as I am sure) forty-four years and one
month after the landing of the Saxons, and also the time of my own nativity. And
yet neither to this day are the cities of our country inhabited as before, but
being forsaken and overthrown, still lie desolate; our foreign wars having
ceased, but our civil troubles still remaining. For as well the remembrance of
such a terrible desolation of the island, as also of the unexpected recovery of
the same, remained in the minds of those who were eyewitnesses of the wonderful
events of both, and in regard thereof, kings, public magistrates, and private
persons, with priests and clergymen, did all and every one of them live orderly
according to their several vocations. But when these had departed out of this
world, and a new race succeeded, who were ignorant of this troublesome time, and
had only experience of the present prosperity, all the laws of truth and justice
were so shaken and subverted, that not so much as a vestige or remembrance of
these virtues remained among the above-named orders of men, except among a very
few who, compared with the great multitude which were daily rushing headlong
down to hell, are accounted so small a number, that our reverend mother, the
church, scarcely beholds them, her only true children, reposing in her bosom;
whose worthy lives, being a pattern to all men, and beloved of God, inasmuch as
by their holy prayers, as by certain pillars and most profitable supporters, our
infirmity is sustained up, that it may not utterly be broken down, I would have
no one suppose I intended to reprove, if forced by the increasing multitude of
offences, I have freely, aye, with anguish, not so much declared as bewailed the
wickedness of those who are become servants, not only to their bellies, but also
to the devil rather than to Christ, who is our blessed God, world without end.
For why shall their countrymen conceal what foreign nations round about now
not only know, but also continually are casting in their teeth?
Most of the Translation is from: Six Old English Chronicles. Ed. J. A.
Giles. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1848.)
Two chapters were translated by Alan Lupack [ALPK@db1.cc.rochester.edu] for
the Camelot Project(referenced in the main Sourcebook index), and where
this text, along with many others referring to Arthurian themes, is available.
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source
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Paul Halsall April 1996
halsall@murray.fordham.edu