The age of chivalry Author:Thomas Bulfinch Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE MYTHICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The illustrious poet, Milton, in his History of England, is the author whom we chiefly follow in this chapter. ... more » According to the earliest accounts, Albion, a giant, and son of Neptune, a contemporary of Hercules, ruled over the island, to which he gave his name. Presuming to oppose the progress of Hercules in his western march, he was slain by him. Another story is that Histion, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, had four sons, — Francus, Roma- nus, Alemannus, and Britto, from whom descended the French, Roman, German, and British people. Rejecting these and other like stories, Milton gives more regard to the story of Brutus, the Trojan, which, he says, is supported by " descents of ancestry long continued, laws and exploits not plainly seeming to be borrowed or devised, which on the common belief have wrought no small impression ; defended by many, denied utterly by few."The principal authority is Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose history, written in the twelfth century, purports to be a translation of a history of Britain brought over from the opposite shore of France, which, under the name of Brittany, was chiefly peopled by natives of Britain, who from time to time emigrated thither, driven from their own country by the inroads of the Picts and Scots. According to this authority, Brutus was the son of Silvius, and he of Ascanius, the son of ./Eneas, whose flight from Troy and settlement in Italy will be found narrated in " The Age of Fable." Brutus, at the age of fifteen, attending his father to the chase, unfortunately killed him with an arrow. Banished therefor by his kindred, he sought refuge in that part of Greece where Helenus, with a band of Trojan exiles, had become established. But Heleuus was now dead, and the desc...« less