Geoffrey Gaimar facts for kids
Geoffrey Gaimar was a historian who lived around the 1130s. He was an Anglo-Norman, meaning he was from England but spoke a type of French. His main job was to translate old stories and historical records from Old English into Anglo-Norman French.
His most famous work is called L'Estoire des Engleis, which means History of the English People. He wrote it between 1136 and 1140. This history was a very long poem, made up of 6,526 lines that rhymed.
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Geoffrey Gaimar: A Medieval Historian
What He Wrote
Geoffrey Gaimar wrote a long history that told the story of England. He started with ancient times and went all the way up to the reign of King William II (who died in 1100).
The English History (L'Estoire des Engleis)
L'Estoire des Engleis begins with a short mention of King Arthur. Arthur's actions even affect the story of Havelok the Dane, which Gaimar included in his work. Most of the first 3,500 lines of this history are translations from a version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Later parts come from other sources, both Latin and French, that we don't know much about today.
The Lost British History
Gaimar also said he wrote a version of the Brut story. This was a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's famous history, Historia Regum Britanniae, into Anglo-Norman poetry. A lady named Constance, who was married to a landowner in Lincolnshire, asked him to write it.
If Gaimar's Brut (also known as L'Estoire des Bretuns, or History of the Britons) really existed, it was written before Wace's more famous Roman de Brut (around 1155). However, no copies of Gaimar's Brut have survived. It seems Wace's later version became much more popular and replaced Gaimar's. Some historians think Gaimar's Estoire des Bretuns might have just been a short summary of the early parts of Geoffrey of Monmouth's book. This could explain why Wace's full translation became so much more well-known.
It's important to know that Gaimar didn't write two completely separate histories. The History of the Britons and the History of the English were actually just the first and second parts of one very long history he planned to write. This big project started with the story of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece.
Interestingly, only the second part, which covered the Anglo-Saxon period, was copied and passed down by later scribes. They often used it as a continuation of Wace's work. One scribe in the late 1200s gave this part the title Estoire des Engles. The idea of a "lost L'Estoire des Bretuns" was a name given by historians in the 1800s.
The Havelok Story
A version of the story of Havelok the Dane appears at the beginning of L'Estoire des Engles. This story was likely placed between the history of the Britons and the history of the English, acting as a bridge between them.
Unlike other versions of the Havelok legend, Gaimar's story connects Havelok to King Arthur. In Gaimar's telling, Arthur is responsible for destroying the Danish kingdom that Havelok would later inherit. Gaimar also mentions a sword called Calibur (Excalibur). This shows that Gaimar knew about the legendary history written by Geoffrey of Monmouth even before Wace's Brut became popular.
See also
