Brutus (not the "et tu Brute" one, but the grandson of Aeneas of Troy) was, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, I think, the founder of "Britain" back in the Bronze Age. He accidentally killed his father in a hunting accident and was exiled from Italy. He roamed the eastern Mediterranean for a while having Adventures, then was told by the Goddess Diana to go and found a kingdom in what became Britain.
He is supposed to have landed in Totnes, Devon, and if he had stayed there, the geography of Britain might have looked different, but he founded Trinovantium where London now stands, and there was a temple to Diana somewhere near where the Tower of London is now, although whether it was there in the bronze age I don't know.
I write this as a rubaiyat because I love the Omar Khayyam one. The rhythm is intriguing. I've also rhymed all the third lines of each stanza to make it tidy. I am a bit worried that it is a rather florid form and using it to tell a story like this might sound like a Kipling pastiche.
I've just been reading "The Blood of the Isles" by genetecist Brian Sykes, and he thinks from DNA evidence that it is highly likely that some ancestors of the British did journey from the eastern Med.
Wikipedia: "Brutus of Troy"
BRUTUS IN EXILE
Cursed be the fingers that drew back the bow
cursed be the hands that let the bowstring go
and cursed be these eyes that saw my father fall
as my mistimed arrow sought the hunted doe.
Banished from Italy, that I loved well
with no-one on the headland to bid farewell.
My ship’s sails billowed with the salt sea squall
and took me into exile on the ocean swell.
We disembarked one evening at an island town
with a temple to Diana in her golden gown.
I rested for a moment in her shadowed hall
and thought I heard her beckon me as I lay down.
She spoke of a country in the distant west,
jewelled with mists and all in greenwoods dressed;
of a kingdom established there to rule it all
to be mine for the asking, by the Goddess blessed.
Through the Pillars of Hercules we made our way
then northwards, buffeted on waves of grey
until on a riverbank we made landfall
and built there our campfire in the dying day.
My grandfather told me of the siege of Troy,
of the city of gold he lived in as a boy,
and I built New Troy within this city wall
and its shrine of Diana will be all my joy.
May its race of princes ever earn their crowns
and the sun never set upon its empire’s bounds
May it stand forever, though its neighbours fall
and the name of Brutus there no longer sounds.
|
hi
Written by maipenrai (784 comments posted) 26th February 2008 | | tried to google your guy, can you give me any tips on how to find anything on him, sounds intersting | No worries...
Written by Koobla (8 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | Your worries about being Kipling like are, for me, unfounded, it's not florid but nicely unerstated language for this form. The repetition and alliteration are very effective, love the first two stanzas... 'salt sea squall.' The last line of the third stalls the rhythm a bit for me. And the last line seems a bit lumpy, 'stretched' for the rhyme.
But the overall narrative works really well and, like maipenrai says, makes you wonder who the guy is and makes you want to know more. |
Written by fellpony (1658 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | | interesting topic, and one largely passed over by modern poetry. I haven't pursued the Brutus tale myself, but Sykes' theory about eastern Mediterranean blood in British people could equally well be explained by traders, or the many Roman military auxiliaries who were posted here for long periods of service over their centuries of occupation: even in Northern England there are inscriptions citing troops from Asturia: the north coast of Spain; Batavia: the region close to the mouth of the Rhine, in the south of the Netherlands; Frisia: Holland; Gaul: Celtic France between the Seine and the Garonne rivers; Germania: Germany; Pannonia: parts of Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Switzerland and Austria; Sarmatia: between the Vistula River [Poland] and the Caspian Sea; the steppes of Ukraine, Georgia, possibly northeastern Turkey and Iran; Tungria: the middle stretch of the river Meuse in modern Belgium. |
Written by Josie (2825 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | | You've had a lot said about the content of your poem, so I will look at other aspects: Your rhyming interests me. It is a strange rhyming pattern: aabc - ie, two rhyming lines and two lines that don't rhyme. I have never heard of this. Have you seen it anywhere else? You start off your poem with four good iambic beats, but occasionally this flounders a little. It is a popular form with English poetry, but I think you need to improve on some of the lines. Words such as "disembark" make this rhythm difficult for you, and I know only too well the problem of trying to get round this. I think you could well improve this, but I commend you on your subject material and the excellent start to the poem. | Rubai Tuesday
Written by Brett (884 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | When you submitted it, of course today is wednesday. Being a lover of ancient history and myth, and the rubai, I enjoyed this enormously. I can't see where the previous reviewer gets her aabc from? Your rhyming structure is undoubtedly the Rubyiat's aaba, though I did find metrically it read more like a ballad. Being only familiar with the western translations by Fitzgerald whose are of course in pentametre. Only a minor quibble, but who am I to judge such an enjoyable piece.
'and the name of Brutus there no longer sounds.'
Nice.
All the best
Brett |
Written by Veronica_Milvus (704 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | The fourth line is supposed to rhyme with 1 and 2, the third is the odd one out! Omay Khayyam's first stanza goes:
Awake! for morning in the bowl of night
Has flung the stone that put the stars to flight
And Lo! The hunter of the east has caught
The Sultan's turret in a noose of light.
Fellpony - agreed, we Brits are all ultimately from the East. As well as Sykes book there is also one called "The Origins of the British" by Steven Oppenheimer. They talk about the same thing, although do not cross reference each other so the two guys might have fallen out. They cite two lines of migration that have been used repeatedly through prehistory - one from the balkans via northern Europe, over the (dry) North Sea) to Eastern Britain and one via France and Spain to western Britain and Ireland.
I am not sure the beats are supposed to be strictly iambic - if you look at the Khayyam example it seems to have a little skip in the middle of each line, kind of:
ta tum tum tiddle-iddle tum ta tum! |
Written by fellpony (1658 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | Good old Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth... where does history begin and fiction end? Fellpony - agreed, we Brits are all ultimately from the East. As well as Sykes book there is also one called "The Origins of the British" by Steven Oppenheimer. They talk about the same thing, although do not cross reference each other so the two guys might have fallen out. They cite two lines of migration that have been used repeatedly through prehistory - one from the balkans via northern Europe, over the (dry) North Sea) to Eastern Britain and one via France and Spain to western Britain and Ireland.
Agreed, but again, the theory goes too far if it says we are ALL from the East. There are also genetic links with the Basque country and all the Atlantic seaboard. The truth is we Brits are a gang of mongrels, me as much as anyone (being half Lancastrian and the rest a mix of Irish, German and French.)
Iambic - you're right, the Rubaiyat is not strictly iambic. Your lines are syllabically about right but the metrical feet you've used vary from that of the Rubaiyat. |
Written by Veronica_Milvus (704 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | Fellpony, thanks for your comments.
oh no - I have trod on my own metrical feet... I might need to look that up too.
I think the Atlantic seaboard Brits came from further east originally... Interestingly the Venerable Bede (MUCH later) talks about the "British" in the west and the "English" in the East of Britain, who spoke different languages - I'm really enjoying learning some history.
I'm Scots / Lincolnshire so probably mostly from the Norse side... a Viqueen perhaps! |
Written by Fledermaus (3448 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | Before I join the discussion, first a few words on the poem: I liked it a lot. Especially the rhyme, which was very original and skillfully applied. It's perhaps an existing form, but then, to put your story in a classical shape is even more brilliant.
OK, now joining the discussion of the origins of the Britons 
Lebor Gabala Erenn traces the roots of the Gael back to Adam and Eve and claims the Irish came via Greece and Spain (Galicia) in Ireland. A nice story, but pure myth of course.
Others have tried to link them to Phoenicia and claimed that Fenian came from Phoenician. This theory was particularly popular in the 1800s. There is evidence that the Carthaginians traded with the British Isles, but it doesn't seem there was any grand scale colonization.
another theory I heard is that the people of Britain and Ireland originally came from North Africa and are related to the people from the Baque country (probably the same theory Sue mentions above).
Yet the fact is that Britain always had a very small population till the late Middle Ages, and thus any small group of invaders may have had a huge impact. Think of the Celts, the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans.
It's a fascinating thing, as no-one really knows who lived in Britain before 'the Celts' (who may themselves just have been Celtified natives).
| Bede
Written by Fledermaus (3448 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | | As for British in the west and English in the east: That's because the Anglo-Saxons invaded from the east and it took them about 400 years to conquer the whole of England. |
Written by Veronica_Milvus (704 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | The Spain / Ireland link is supported by the DNA evidence!
Both the books I mention above are very readable and Bryan Sykes especially so.
There is apparently evidence of an invasion of Phoenician copper miners in Abergele. Yup, in Wales. |
Written by Veronica_Milvus (704 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | Fledermaus - apparently the Angles and Saxons were just one of several waves of migration from that corner of Europe, the others being prehistoric.
And did they really conquer the whole of Britain? aha!
I will pick up the threads of this discussion at www.livejournal.com where I am also veronica_milvus. |
Written by Fledermaus (3448 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | There is most probably some connection between Spain and Ireland. The question is just, how long ago? Neo-lithic times (as the North-Africa theory claims), the time of the Celts (as Lebor Gabala claims) or even later (Spanish armada etc)...
As for Britain, indeed, wave after wave of invaders: First this unknown people that erected stonehenge (and maybe others before them), then the Celts or Britons (maybe also in different waves), then the Gael (in Scotland), then the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings, the Normans... Even the Dutch (william III)...
A most fascinating history, and it must be one of the reasons why the British are so good at merging elements from different cultures. |
Written by Veronica_Milvus (704 comments posted) 27th February 2008 | All three of those dates I think would represent waves of immigration to Britain.
"So good at merging elements" That's kind of you. We seem to have a few links with the Freisians too - virtually the same language, I understand! | Never mind the history...
Written by patterjack (1328 comments posted) 30th June 2008 | I am very much pro the form !! As you know !
patterjack |
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