Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/103

 was Christianised from Rome; but the missionaries of the Irish and the Cymry Christianised the north and west of England. Through their monasteries they taught the Teutons the Gospel and the arts of peace. From these monasteries in the north and west came the germ of the national literature of England. From these monasteries, founded by Celtic missionaries from Iona, sprung Caedmon, the father of English poetry, and Bede, the father of English history. The dominant impulse for the first great wave and movement of national English literature came from the Celt. Arthur, in his struggle for the freedom, homes, and independence of the Cymry, is the hero and inspiration of early English literature. The Arthurian legends, nursed among the hills of Wales and Cornwall and the dales of Brittany, were first published in England by Gruffydd ap Arthur, better known as Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh priest. His Celtic fancy quickened the whole literary community. His quick wit and lively imagination shocked the solid Saxon monks. One of them, William of Newburgh, points