Page:Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie Vol. 5.djvu/111



In two manuscript copies of the 'Historia Brittonum ', namely the Vatican MS. Reginae no. 1964, of the XIth Century (Mommsen's M), and the Paris MS. no. 11108, of the XIIth (Mommsen's N), the Acts of St. Germanus are followed immediately by certain notes about Vortigern and his descendants, and the victories over the Saxons gained by Arthur the Gwledig. In all other MSS. of the 'H. B.' which are complete a Life of St. Patrick comes between the genealogical matter and the list of Arthur's battles. This difference of treatment, in conjunction with other reasons, is believed to afford ground for supposing that this list was originally a separate piece and this view has been adopted by Dr. Mommsen, who has given it a place to itself in his edition of the 'H. B.' (pp. 199 — 201), and a distinctive title, to wit — ''IV. Arthuriana''. The piece is a very interesting one and naturally provides the material for the various attempts that have been made from time to time to fix the Position on the map of Britain of the Arthurian battlefields. But all attempts made hitherto are open to the very serious objection that in no case can the printed texts on which they rely be regarded as authoritative. The manuscripts of the portion of the 'H. B.' we are considering differ widely from each other with respect to the names of the battlefields, and the recovery of the true forms of these names has not been attempted yet in a scientific manner.

The date of the piece is not unimportant and it would really seem to have been composed originally before A. D. 687