Professor Paul Russell

Professor of Celtic, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic

University of Cambridge

"So covert was his learning": Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Classical and Biblical Sources

While there has been considerable work on identifying quotations and allusions in Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae (though they are less easy to spot in the Vulgate than in the First Variant version), it is argued here through consideration of several case-studies that we should go beyond mere identification and consider the impact any given allusion might have had on those of Geoffrey’s audience who succeeded in spotting it. As part of this discussion, we also raise the question why Geoffrey sometimes makes it so difficult for his audience to be clear about the source of an allusion.