[Sidenote: Story of Brutus.] As the Romans insisted that their city owed its existence to the descendants of Aeneas, so the French kings Dagobert and Charles the Bald claimed to belong to the illustrious Trojan race. The same tradition appeared in England about the third century, and from Gildas and Nennius was adopted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is from this historian that Wace drew the materials for the metrical tale of Brutus (Brute), the supposed founder of the British race and kingdom. This poem is twenty thousand lines long, and relates the adventures and life of Brutus, the great-grandson of Aeneas.
At the time of Brutus' birth his parents were frightened by an oracle predicting that he would be the cause of the death of both parents, and only after long wanderings would attain the highest pitch of glory. This prophecy was duly fulfilled. Brutus' mother, a niece of Lavinia, died at his birth. Fifteen years later, while hunting, he accidentally slew his father; and, expelled from Italy on account of this involuntary crime, he began his wanderings.
In the course of time Brutus went to Greece, where he found the descendants of Helenus, one of Priam's sons, languishing in captivity. Brutus headed the revolted Trojans, and after helping them to defeat Pandrasus, King of Greece, obtained their freedom, and invited them to accompany him to some distant land, where they could found a new kingdom.
Led by Brutus, who in the mean while had married the daughter of Pandrasus, the Trojans sailed away, and, landing on the deserted island of Leogecia, visited the temple of Diana, and questioned her statue, which gave the following oracle:
"'Brutus! there lies beyond the Gallic bounds
An island which the western sea surrounds,
By giants once possessed; now few remain
To bar thy entrance, or obstruct thy reign.
To reach that happy shore thy sails employ;
There fate decrees to raise a second Troy,
And found an empire in thy royal line,
Which time shall ne'er destroy, nor bounds confine.'"
GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH (Giles's tr.).
Thus directed by miracle, Brutus sailed on, meeting with many adventures, and landed twice on the coast of Africa. The Pillars of Hercules once passed, the travelers beheld the sirens, and, landing once more, were joined by Corineus, who proposed to accompany them.
Brutus then coasted along the shores of the kingdom of Aquitaine and up the Loire, where his men quarreled with the inhabitants. He found himself involved in a fierce conflict, in which, owing to his personal valor and to the marvelous strength of Corineus, he came off victor in spite of the odds against him.
In this battle Brutus' nephew, Turonus, fell, and was buried on the spot where the city of Tours was subsequently built and named after the dead hero. After having subdued his foes, Brutus embarked again and landed on an island called Albion. Here he forced the giants to make way for him, and in the encounters with them Corineus again covered himself with glory.
We are told that the first germ of the nursery tale of Jack the Giant Killer is found in this poem, for Corineus, having chosen Corinea (Cornwall) as his own province, defeated there the giant Goëmagot, who was twelve cubits high and pulled up an oak as if it were but a weed. Corineus, after a famous wrestling bout, flung this Goëmagot into the sea, at a place long known as Lam Goëmagot, but now called Plymouth.
[Sidenote: The founding of London.] Brutus pursued his way, and finally came to the Thames, on whose banks he founded New Troy, a city whose name was changed in honor of Lud, one of his descendants, to London. Brutus called the newly won kingdom Britain, and his eldest sons, Locrine and Camber, gave their names to the provinces of Locria and Cambria when they became joint rulers of their father's kingdom, while Albanact, his third son, took possession of the northern part, which he called Albania (Scotland).