Overview

The Origin of the Giants: The First Settlers of Albion presents the Anglo-Norman poem Dez Grantz Geanz in a new bilingual edition by J.S. Mackley. Composed between c.1250 and 1334 and preserved in British Library MS Cotton Cleopatra D.ix, this remarkable work offers the earliest account of Albina and her sisters-figures exiled from Greece who become the founders of Albion and the mothers of the race of giants later defeated by Brutus of Troy. The detailed introduction situates the poem within the literary and historical development of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and Wace's Roman de Brut, tracing how medieval writers re-imagined Britain's origins through Trojan legend, Biblical myth, and moral allegory. The volume also explores the transmission of the text through Anglo-Norman and Latin adaptations, and its relationship to concepts of monstrosity, exile, and divine punishment in the Book of Enoch and Beowulf. This bilingual presentation (original text with parallel translation) brings together the foundational myths of Albina, Gogmagog, and Brutus, revealing how a story of pride, exile, and transformation became a key element of England's mythic identity. Scholarly yet accessible, this edition provides modern readers with a definitive guide to one of the most significant and least known narratives in the medieval Brut tradition.

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9781917130080

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