Arthurian Chronicles: Roman de Brut Paperback – November 3, 2006

This is really the first part of a book translated by Mason. The second is the more lengthy story by Layamon.Kindle has broken it into 2 books, so the introductory material is only in this part.For a fairly short book Wace includes a substantial portion of the story of Arthur. Starting with his grandfather Constantine, he works through the machinations of the traitor Vortigern, the vengeance and crowning of Ambrosius and Urher, the bringing of Stonehenge to England by Merlin and the glorious achievements of Arthur before he is betrayed by Mordred ( here described as his nephew, not bastard son).There is much that is not here that is commonplace to the saga, such as Lancelot not even being mentioned, and nothing of the grail. But that stuff came later with the rise of the genre known as romance.Here the story still has more of an epic feel with plenty of battles. The text reads in a straight forward fashion, like a history similar to Geoffrey of Monmouth's great book. But there are some lovely poetic touches, especially in the speeches.

Arrived on time and in great condition!