Name Geoffrey Gaimar | Books Estoire des Engleis | |
Geoffrey Gaimar (flourished 1136-37), also written Geffrei or Geoffroy Gaimar, was an Anglo-Norman chronicler. Gaimar's lasting contribution to medieval literature and history was as translator from Old English to Anglo-Norman. His L'Estoire des Engleis, or "History of the English People", written between 1136–40, was a chronicle in octosyllabic rhymed couplets running 6,526 lines long.
Overview of his work
The L'Estoire des Engleis opens with a brief mention of King Arthur, whose actions affect the plot of the interpolated tale of Havelok the Dane. That aside, most of the first 3,500 lines are translations out of a variant text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and subsequent portions from other (Latin and French) sources that remain unidentified.
Gaimar claims to have also written a version of the Brut story, a translation of the chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae into Anglo-Norman verse, which was commissioned ca. 1136 by Constance, wife of Ralph FitzGilbert, a Lincolnshire landowner. Constance appears to have been implicated in the writing process. Gaimar's translation, if it existed, antedated Wace's Norman Roman de Brut (ca. 1155), but no copy of Gaimar's Brut (aka L'Estoire des Bretuns) has survived, being completely superseded by the latecomer. Ian Short argues that Gaimar's Estoire des Bretuns was no more than a short epitome of the pre-Arthurian section of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, which might explain why Wace's later full translation of the text became more popular and ultimately superseded Gaimer's version.
To be clear, Gaimar did not create two separate and distinct chronicles, and the two estoires were merely the former and latter sections of a long running history starting from the Argonauts' quest of the golden fleece to the reign of William II "Rufus" (d. 1100) that Gaimar set out to write. Gaimar's scheme was greatly expanded in scope from the translation work on Geoffrey of Monmouth, the former part, that the patron requested. Ironically, it was solely the latter part covering the Anglo-Saxon period that was transmitted by later copyists, as a continuation to Wace. The scribe of one such copy, in a late 13th-century manuscript (B.L. Royal 13 A xx i), dubbed the portion with the title Estoire des Engles.
The so-called "lost L'Estoire des Bretuns" ("History of the Britons") was an expedient term coined by 19th-century commentators.
A version of Havelok the Dane occurs at the beginning of L'Estoire des Engles, which must have originally been interpolated in-between the history of the Britons and the history of the English, serving as a bridge. Unlike the Middle-English version of the legend, Gaimar's version connects Havelok to King Arthur (making Arthur responsible for destroying the Danish kingdom that Havelok was to inherit). Add to this the mention of the sword Caliburc (Excalibur), demonstrating Gaimar's knowledge of Galfridian legendary history that predated the advent of Wace's Brut.