No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
Scholarly interest in self-conscious authorial claims about translation can make it easy to overlook just how little concern many translators display about their choice of language, and how comfortably Latin and vernacular coexist in manuscripts of Anglo-Norman and Middle English texts. In this essay I examine the Latinity and vernacularity of several works in the Brut tradition: the Historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace’s Roman de Brut, LaƷamon’s Brut, the Anglo-Norman prose Brut chronicle, and Robert Mannyng’s Story of England. I consider the role that Latin plays in their manuscripts, as well as the evidence for what their authors and scribes thought appropriate or necessary for a vernacular work. I then suggest how this evidence may affect our own views about the motivations behind, audience for, and significance of vernacular translation in England, as well as the possible role of the Brut tradition in the spread of vernacular literacy.
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.