§ 1.5 From the beginning of the world to the flood, 2,242 years.
From the flood to Abraham, 942 years.
From Abraham to Moses, 640 years.
From Moses to David, 500 years.
36§ 2. From David to Nebuchadnezzar are 569 years.
From Adam to the transmigration to Babylon are 4,879 years.
§ 3. From the transmigration to Babylon to Christ 566.
From Adam in fact to the Passion of Christ are 5,228 years.
§ 4. From the Passion of Christ are completed 796 years.
From His Incarnation are 831 years.6
§ 5. The first age of the world, then, from Adam to Noah.
The second from Noah to Abraham.
The third from Abraham to David.
§ 6. The fourth from David to Daniel.
The fifth from Daniel to John the Baptist.
The sixth from John to the Judgement, wherein our Lord, Jesus Christ, will come to judge the living and the dead, and the world by fire.
§ 7. The Island of Britain, called from a certain Brutus,7 a Roman consul. Situated towards the west, 37 it extends from the south-west to the north, being eight hundred miles in length, two hundred in breadth. In it are twenty-eight cities and innumerable headlands, with countless strongholds8 made of stones and brick. And in it dwell four nations, the Scots, the Picts, the Saxons, and the Britons.
§ 8. It has three large islands, one of which lies over against the Armoricas, and is called Inis Gueith,9 Wight; the second is situated in the middle of the sea between Ireland and Britain, and is called by its name Eubonia, that is Manau, Manaw, Man; the other is situated in the extreme limit of the circle of Britain beyond the Picts and is called Orc, Orkney. So in an ancient proverb it is said, when reference is made to judges or kings, ãHe judged Britain with its three islands.ä10
§ 9. In it are many rivers, which flow to all parts, that is to the east, to the west, to the south, to the north, but nevertheless there are two rivers excelling the other rivers, the Thames and the Severn, as it were two arms of Britain, along which formerly vessels were borne in the conveyance of riches for the sake of commerce.11
The Britons formerly filling it from sea to sea judged it.12
§ 10. If anyone would wish to know at what time 38 after the Flood this island was inhabited,13 I have found an account of this in twofold form.
In the annals of the Romans it is written thus: Æneas, after the Trojan war, came with his son Ascanius to Italy, and, having vanquished Turnus, took to wife Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus, son of Faunus, son of Picus, son of Saturn; and after the death of Latinus he obtained the kingdom of the Romans or Latins — but Ascanius14 built Alba — and afterwards married a wife, and she bore him a son named Silvius. And Silvius married a wife and she was pregnant. And it was told Æneas that his daughter-in-law was pregnant, and he sent to Ascanius his son, that he should send his magus, magician, to examine the wife to search what she held in her womb, whether male or female. And the magician examined the wife and returned. It was on account of this prediction that the magician was slain by Ascanius, for that he said to Ascanius that the woman held in her womb a male, ãand he will be filius mortis, a son of death, because he will slay his father and his mother, and he will be hated of all men.ä So it happened; the woman died at his birth, and the son was nurtured and was called by the name Britto.
After a long interval, in accordance with the prediction of the magician, while he was playing with others, he slew his father with the shot of an arrow, not of design but by accident. And he was driven from Italy and was arminilis.15 And he came to the islands of the Tyrrhene Sea and was driven out by the Greeks on account of the death of Turnus, whom Æneas had slain. And he arrived among the Gauls, and there founded the city of the Turoni, which is 39 called Turnis, Tours. And afterwards he arrived in this island, which took a name from his name, to wit, Britain, and he filled it with his own stock, and he dwelt there. From that day Britain has been inhabited even to this day.
§ 11. Æneas reigned three years over the Latins. Ascanius reigned thirty-seven years. After whom Silvius, the son of Æneas, reigned twelve years, Postumus thirty-nine years, from whom the kings of the Albani are called Silvii, whose brother was Britto. When Britto was reigning in Britain, Eli the priest was judging in Israel, and at that time the Ark of the Covenant was seized by the aliens. Postumus his brother was reigning among the Latins.16
§ 12. After an interval of many years, not less than eight hundred, the Picts17 came and occupied the islands which are called Orcades, the Orkney Islands, and afterwards from the islands devastated many regions and occupied them in the northern part of Britain, and there they remain, holding a third part of Britain to this day.18
40§ 13. Much later came the Scots19 from parts of Spain to Ireland. First came Partholomus20 with a thousand persons, both men and women, and they increased to four thousand persons, and there came a pestilence upon them, and in one week they all perished, and there remained not even one of them. Second came Nimeth to Ireland, a son of Agnomen, who is reported to have navigated on the sea for a year and a half, and afterwards took port in Ireland with his vessels broken, and there abode for many years, and again set sail with his followers and returned to Spain. And afterwards came three sons of a soldier of Spain21 with thirty keels with them and with thirty wives in every keel, and there they remained for the space of one year. And afterwards they saw a glassy tower in the midst of the sea, and they used to see persons on the tower and sought to speak to them, and never did they reply. And after one year they hastened to attack the tower with all their keels and with all their women, except one keel which was broken in shipwreck, wherein were thirty men and 41 so many women. And the other ships sailed to attack the tower, and when all had disembarked on the shore which was about the tower, the sea overwhelmed them and they were drowned, and none of them escaped. And from the household of that keel which was left owing to the wreck the whole of Ireland was filled even to this day. And afterwards they arrived by degrees from parts of Spain and held very many regions.
§ 14. Much later came Damhoctor22 and dwelt there with all his kin to this day.
In Britain, Istoreth son of Istorinus held Dalrieta23 with his followers. Builc24 with his followers held the island of Eubonia, Man, and others round about. The sons of Liethan25 obtained in the region of the Demeti, Dyfed, and in other regions, that is Guhir, Gower, and Cetgueli, Kidwelly, until they were expelled by Cunedda and by his sons from all British districts.26
§ 15. If anyone would wish to know when or at what time Ireland was uninhabited and waste, thus have the most learned of the Scots informed me. When the children of Israel came through the Red Sea, the Egyptians arrived and pursued them and were drowned, as is read in the Law. There was a nobleman of Scythia among the Egyptians with a great house-host, 42 and he was driven from his kingdom, and was there when the Egyptians were drowned, and went not forth to pursue the people of God. Those who survived took counsel to expel him, lest he should attack and seize their kingdom, because their strong men had been drowned in the Red Sea; and he was expelled. And he for forty-two years wandered in Africa; and they came to the altars of the Philistines through the Lake of the Salt-pits, and came between Rusicada and the mountains of Azaria, and came by the river Malva and crossed over through Maritana to the Pillars of Hercules; and they sailed the Tyrrhene Sea and arrived as far as Spain, and dwelt there for many years and increased and multiplied exceedingly and their race was multiplied exceedingly. And afterwards they came to Ireland after a thousand and two years from when the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, and to the regions of Da[l]rieta in the time when Brutus was reigning among the Romans, from whom the consuls began to be, then the tribunes of the people and the dictators. And the consuls again obtained the republic for four hundred and forty-seven years, which had formerly been lost to the kingly dignity.27
The Britons arrived in Britain in the third age of the world; the Scots obtained Ireland in the fourth. But the Scots, who are in the west, and the Picts from the north were wont to fight with one mind and in one onset against the Britons unceasingly 28 because the Britons were wont to be without arms.29
And after a long interval of time the Romans obtained the monarchy of the whole world.30
1 See Introduction, pp. 7-8.
2 Nenniusâs book is to consist of excerpts from previous writers.
3 illius. Note the distinction between Britannia, i.e. Wales, and Britannia, i.e., the Island of Britain.
4 librarii. The word librarius yielded the Welsh llyfrawr (W. C. O., 208-210).
5 §§ 1-6, although supposed to be taken from ancient Irish sources, are omitted in the Irish translation, having doubtless become obsolete in this old form.
6 As 796 years of the Passion were completed, the current year was A. P. 797. By adding 32 we arrive at 829 as the current year of the Incarnation. If this is correct, the computist would appear to have written DCCCXXXI in error for DCCCXXIX. But see § 16.
7 Jerome, the Year of Abraham, 1507, says that ãat Rome after the kings were ended, consuls began to be from Brutusä (C. M., 147, n 1).
Absurd as the descent of the Welsh from Brutus may seem to a modern, yet it was an effective way of conveying the fact that the Welsh were Romans as well as Britons, in short, that they were Romano-Britons, or ãWelshä as the English rightly styled them. For ãthe Anglo-Saxon Wealh, plural Wealas (Walas) was doubtless used by the Teutonic invaders, as it was used on the Continent, to denominate those who lived under Roman jurisdiction and spoke the Latin language. Welsch-land is the German word for Italy, and Welschnuss, like our English Walnut, is the nut growing on Romance soil. Fick thinks it was anciently the term applied to the Volcæ, a Celtic people on the French shore of the Mediterranean, but in historic times it meant Roman pure and simpleä (McClure, 142, n. 1). The name of the Volcæ survives in Welsh as gwalch, ãhawk,ä whence Gwalchmai, ãthe Hawk of May,ä and Gwalch-hafed, ãGalahad.ä
8 For these two statements as to Britainâs position and extent and its 28 cities, etc., see Loss of Britain (a), with this striking difference, that the cities in Nennius still exist, whereas in the Loss they are all overthrown and uninhabited .
9 Ynys Wyth in Welsh, from Vectis, the ancient name of Wight.
10 äBritannia with its three islandsä yields no sense if by Britannia is meant the Island of Britain. It is the author of the Loss of Britain who confuses the island with Roman Britain as, too, with the Britannia of the west, i.e. ãWelsh-land,ä from Man to Wight (including Anglesey).
11 The description of the two rivers is almost word for word from the Loss (a).
12 That the Britons, i.e. the Welsh, occupied the whole Island of Britain is a notion taken from the Loss.
13 The Loss (b) begins with the time when the island was first inhabited.
14 The MSS. H and K erroneously read Æneas for Ascanius. Jerome (C. M., 150, n. 1) says that ãbefore Æneas there reigned in Italy Ianus, Saturnus, Picus, Faunus, Latinusä; also ãAscanius, son of Æneas, built the city of Albaä; and that ãAscanius brought up Silvius Postumus his brother, the son of Æneas by Lavinia.ä
15 Some would read ab Italiæ terminis fugit, ãfled from the bounds of Italy.ä
16 Silvius Postumus (sone of Æneas and father of Britto) becomes here two persons, Silvius and Postumus, father and son, with Britto as the latterâs brother. The particulars In this section are based on Jerome (C.M., 153, notes).
17 The Picts, so far from having entered Britain centuries after the Britons, as the Loss (k) and Nennius would have us believe, were ãthe earliest inhabitants of these islands whom we can with tolerable certainty regard as Celtsä (OâRahilly, 8). They are first mentioned under the name of Picts about A.D. 296, in a panegyric which speaks of the Picts and the Irish as being the only enemies with whom the Britons had to deal prior to the landing of Julius Cæsar in 55 B.C. Their name Picti seems to be a Latin translation of Pritenes (explained as meaning ãfiguredä), itself from Priteni or Pretani.
That the Picts formerly lived beyond Pentland Firth and entered Britain from due north to attack the Britons is a notion derived from the Loss (k). Bede (i, 1) supposed they came from Scythia.
18 I.e. Pictland, in Welsh Prydyn, north of Clyde and Forth, or as the Welsh would say, ultra montem Bannauc, ãbeyond Mount Bannauc,ä one of the heights near Bannockburn in Stirlingshire (Life of St. Cadog, § 26).
19 The Scotti appear for the first time in history under this name in the account by Ammianus Marcellinus (xx, 1) of an invasion of Roman Britain by the Picts and Scots in A.D. 360.
ãFrom the seventh century onwards a succession of learned men in Ireland busied themselves with recording, arranging, and inventing the history of the past. The culmination of their labours is seen in the treatise known as ÎLebor Gábalaâ ä (OâRahilly, 27-8). ãAccording to this compilation the conquerors of Ireland after the Flood were successively: (1) Partholón, (2) Nemed, (3) the Fir Bolg, etc., (4) the Tuatha Dé Danann, and, lastly, (5) the sons of Míl Espáine, i.e. the Goidelsä (ib.,, 28). Nennius has drawn from some early form of this Irish work.
20 Partholóon mac Sera, ãBartholomæus, son of the Syrian.ä This first invasion is ãa learned invention, suggested in part by Isidore, but mainly by a gloss of St. Jeromeâsä (OâRahilly, 28).
21 I.e. Míl Espáine. The name is a borrowing pf the Latin miles, soldier. Scotta, his wife, is merely the Latin for ãIrish-woman.ä The names of his three sons, Eremón, Eber, and Ir, ãwere apparently suggested by different forms of the name of Ireland. Spain was selected as the country from which the invaders came for no better reason than that the Irish literati fancied that there existed a close connexion between the names Hibernia and Iberiaä (OâRahilly, 30).
22 dam octor in Irish signifies a group of eight persons, here apparently treated as a personal name.
23 Dalriada, otherwise Argyll. The Irish Nennius says they occupied the Orkneys.
24 Builc, i.e. Builg, whence Fir Bolg, ãmen of the Bolg,ä i.e, Belgi and Belgæ, pre-Scottic invaders of Ireland who, after their defeat at Mag Tuired in Co. Sligo, fled to various islands, Arran (or Aran), Islay, Man, Rathlin, etc. (OâRahilly, 7, 8, 20).
25 Liethan, in Welsh Llwydon, as in llu ewur llwydon, ãthe host of Efwr Llwydonã (ãBlack Book of Carmarthen,ä fo. 54), which Efwr may well be he of Dinefwr (anglice Dynevor), ãthe Fort of Efwr,ä which was afterwards the stronghold of the Welsh kings of ãthe Southä in the heart of Ystrad Tywi. The three cantrefs of this last, wherein Gower and Cedweli lay, were annexed in the eighth century by Seisyll, King of Ceredigion (see Pedigree 26, and Phillimore in Owenâs Pem., II, 385). Nennius distinguishes the two districts named from Dyfed.
26 Cunedda is remembered at Allt Cunedda near Kidwelly. See 80, 101, 113.
27 Jerome, Year of Abraham, 1507. ãAfter the kings were ended, consuls first began to be at Rome from Brutus, then tribunes of the people and dictators, and again consuls obtained the republic for nearly 464 years up to Julius Cæsar, who first seized sole rule.ä
28 The unceasing joint-attacks of Picts from the north and of Scots from the north-west did not begin, according to the Loss (k) until after Britain was exposed to their raids by reason of Maximusâs revolt in 383.
29 That the Britons were unarmed is also from the Loss (k).
30 From the Loss (c).