Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- A note on quotations and translations
- Introduction
- 1 The rhetoric of confidence in the prologues to Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 2 The legendary history of Britain in Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 3 Legends of English heroes: Engel, Havelok, Constance
- 4 Representations of the Norman Conquest in Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 5 Family chronicles
- Conclusions
- Appendix: Two extracts from the Scalacronica: texts and translations
- Bibliography
- Index
- YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS: PUBLICATIONS
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- A note on quotations and translations
- Introduction
- 1 The rhetoric of confidence in the prologues to Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 2 The legendary history of Britain in Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 3 Legends of English heroes: Engel, Havelok, Constance
- 4 Representations of the Norman Conquest in Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 5 Family chronicles
- Conclusions
- Appendix: Two extracts from the Scalacronica: texts and translations
- Bibliography
- Index
- YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS: PUBLICATIONS
Summary
Adam, le premer homme qe unques fust, entendi et savoit bien de trois choses qe fussent a vener. C'est assavoir de deus jugementz par lesquels Dieux voleit le monde ajuger: le premer jugement par eve, qe vint en le tenps Noe; l'autre jugement par feu. Encontre cels deus jugementz il fist deus piliers: l'un de marbre, encontre l'eve; et l'autre de tighel ou de tai, encontre le feu. En lesquels pielers il escrit tote manere art, qe cels qe venissent aprés lui purroient savoir le cours de siecle et lui avoir plus frechement en memorie.
Adam, the first man that ever was, knew and understood well three things that were to come. That is, he knew of the two judgements by which God wished to judge the world: the first judgement by water, which came in the time of Noah; the other judgement by fire. To guard against these two judgements he made two pillars: one of marble, against the water, and the other of tile or of clay, against the fire. On these pillars he wrote all kinds of knowledge, so that those who came after him could know the course of the world, and to recall the knowledge more clearly in his own memory.
With this beginning to its prologue, the Mohun Chronicle starts to make the case for its own existence. Written in the 1330s or 1340s for a noble family from Somerset, apparently by the abbot of a small Cistercian monastery, the text is an abridgement of various earlier historical works. Through these opening lines, it situates itself in a tradition of writings which act to preserve the sum of human knowledge.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Reimagining History in Anglo-Norman Prose Chronicles , pp. 1 - 25Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013