[180] Gildas, "De Excidio Britanniæ," ed. J. Stevenson, English Historical Society, 1838, 8vo; Nennius, "Historia Britonum," same editor, place, and date.
[181] His "Historia" was edited by Giles, London, 1844, 8vo, and by San Marte, "Gottfried von Monmouth Historia regum Britanniæ," Halle, 1854, 8vo. Geoffrey of Monmouth, or rather Geoffrey Arthur, a name which had been borne by his father before him (Galffrai or Gruffyd in Welsh), first translated from Welsh into Latin the prophecies of Merlin, included afterwards in his "Historia"; bishop of St. Asaph, 1152; died at Llandaff, 1154. See Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," vol. i. pp. 203 ff.
[182] Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," vol. i. p. 210.
[183] "Quidam nostris temporibus, pro expiandis his Britonum maculis, scriptor emersit, ridicula de eisdem figmenta contexens, ... Gaufridus hic dictus est.... Profecto minimum digitum sui Arturi grossiorem facit dorso Alexandri magni." "Guilielmi Neubrigensis Historia," ed. Hearne, Oxford, 1719, 3 vols. 8vo, "Proemium"; end of the twelfth century.
[184] "Le Roman de Brut," ed. Le Roux de Lincy, Rouen, 1836-38, 2 vols. 8vo. Cf. P. Meyer, "De quelques chroniques anglo-normandes qui ont porté le nom de Brut," Paris, 1878, "Bulletin de la Société des Anciens Textes français."
[185] The oldest poem we have in which the early songs on Tristan were gathered into one whole was written in French, on English soil, by Bérou about 1150. Another version, also in French verse, was written about 1170 by another Anglo-Norman, called Thomas. A third was the work of the famous Chrestien de Troyes, same century. We have only fragments of the two first; the last is entirely lost. It has been, however, possible to reconstitute the poem of Thomas "by means of three versions: a German one (by Gotfrid of Strasbourg, unfinished), a Norwegian one (in prose, ab. 1225, faithful but compressed), and an English one (XIVth century, a greatly impaired text)." G. Paris, "La Littérature française au moyen âge," 2nd ed., 1890, p. 94. See also "Tristan et Iseut," by the same, Revue de Paris, April 15, 1894.
Texts: "The poetical Romances of Tristan in French, in Anglo-Norman, and in Greek," ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1835-9, 3 vols. 8vo.—"Die Nordische und die Englische Version der Tristan-Sage," ed. Kölbing, Heilbronn, 1878-83, 2 vols. 8vo; vol. i., "Tristrams Saga ok Isoudar" (Norwegian prose); vol. ii., "Sir Tristram" (English verse).—"Gottfried von Strassburg Tristan," ed. Reinhold Bachstein, Leipzig, 1869, 2 vols. 8vo (German verse).
[186] "Inferno," canto v.
[187] The following analysis is mainly made after "Tristan et Iseult, poème de Gotfrit de Strasbourg, comparé à d'autres poèmes sur le même sujet," by A. Bossert, Paris, 1865, 8vo. Gotfrit wrote before 1203 (G. Paris, "Histoire Littérarie de la France," vol. xxx. p. 21).