BRUT, Roman de, a poem in eight-syllable verse, composed by Robert Wace, but indirectly modeled upon a legendary chronicle of Brit tany, entitled 'Brut y Brenhined) (Brutus of i Brittany) discovered in Armorica by Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, and translated into Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Wace presented his poem to Eleonore of Guyenne in 1155, and it was translated into Anglo-Saxon by Layamon.
The poem relates that after the capture of Troy by the Greeks d'Eneas came to Italy with his son, Ascanius, and espoused Lavinia, daugh ter of King Latinus, who duly presented a son to him. This son, as well as Ascanius, succeeded to the throne, which devolved at last upon Sil vius, son of Ascanius, who became the father of Brutus, from whom the 'Roman' takes its name. Brutus slew his father with a misdi rected arrow and fled. First he went to Greece, where he delivered the Trojan captives; next he conquered the Armorican Isles, to which he gave the name of Britain. Afterward he made war upon the King of Poitou and founded the city of Tours, which he named in honor of his son. From Poitou he returned to the Armori can Isles, overcoming the giants in possession, and renamed it Britain. He founded the city
of London and reigned long and gloriously there.
The narrative now concerns itself with the descendants of Brutus. The adventures of Lear, of Belin, of Brennus who voyaged to Italy, of Cassivellaunus who so bravely resisted Caesar, of all the bellicose chiefs who opposed the dominion of the Roman emperors, are minutely related. King Arthur, however, is the real hero of the 'Roman de Brut.' Arthur per forms prodigies of valor, is the ideal knight of his order of the Round Table, and finally de parts for some unknown region, where it is implied he becomes immortal, and never desists from the performance of deeds of valor. In this portion of the narrative figure the en chanter Merlin, the Holy Grail, or chalice in which were caught the last drops of the Saviour's blood as he was taken from the cross, Lancelot of the Lake, Tristan and his unhal lowed love, Perceval and his quest of the Holy Grail. The became unprecedentedly popular and it was publicly read at the court of the Norman kings. The British Museum holds the two manuscripts of his work.