《不列颠人的历史》(拉丁語:Historia Brittonum,英語:The History of the Britons)是一部历史学著作,成书于公元830年左右,有若干个校订本,互有差别。这本书旨在将当时大不列颠的不列颠居民与更早期的历史联系起来。书中描写了威尔士与英格兰的历史,但缺乏足够可靠的资料来源。一般认为书的作者是威尔士僧侣内尼厄斯。
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根据书中第十六章的一段记载时间的文字,历史学家的主流观点认为《不列颠人的历史》一书是为了当时的威尔士统治者,格温内思王国的国王Merfyn Frych ap Gwriad(公元825-844年在位)而作,成书于其在位的第4年,大约在公元828年与830年之间[1][2]。
如同用不规则的石头胡乱堆砌而成的石头堆,……(这本书)就史学艺术方面而言,实在是一个糟糕的例子,但这些缺陷也自有其优点。我们可以查看石堆中的每一块石子,在某些时候还能追溯到它们开采的地方,查明它们的年岁与坚固程度。 like a cairn of stones, uneven and ill-fitting… as an example of the historian's art it is atrocious. But it has the virtue of its defects. We can see the individual stones of the cairn, and in some cases we can trace the parent rock from which they came, and establish its age and soundness.[3]
^Dumville, "Some aspects of the chronology." 439-45.
^Higham, King Arthur: Myth Making and History (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2002).
^Leslie Alcock, Arthur's Britain: History and Archaeology AD 367-634 (London: Penguin, 1971), p. 32.
^Stated in many of his publications, for example in the "Introduction" to his The Historia Brittonum: 3 The 'Vatican' Recension (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1985). This needs to be more precise