Articles on History and Texts about Vortigern

Vortigern Studies has the internet's most comprehensive treatment of Britain's history from the end of the Roman era to Arthurian times. Edited by Robert M. Vermaat, this unique website focuses primarily on the person of Vortigern and the enigmatic earthwork called Wansdyke. It features narrative histories, original source documents and important texts, extensive bibliographies, reading lists, informative articles by guest writers, maps, polls and more.

Vortigern Studies Index

History and Texts

The foundations of Vortigern Studies are based not only in the sources, but also in their use. Here we find discussions about texts and the historical interpretations.

Also, I have printed the relevant parts of the sources about Vortigern, from Gildas to Gibbon. The text of the sources dealing specifically with Vortigern are in this section, but the text of the sources dealing with British history of the 4-6th centuries can be found in the Sources section.

However, to avoid confusion all texts are shown in both sections.

This picture, from the 9th-century Book of Kells, probably shows St. Matthew. The Opening Words of St. Matthews's Gospel, folio 29r.

Current Contents:

General Articles

Testis Unus, testis Nullus, a discussion of the sources
Forty Years of Fear. Facts and fiction in chapter 66 of the Historia Brittonum (This article is published in The Heroic Age Issue 2, december 1999)
Saints on the move: Vortigern, Foirtgirn, Gurthiern
More Saints on the move: Catigern/Kentigern, Modrun, Tegiwg
Texts on Vortigern, quotations in Latin from the sources
The Damnatio Memoriae: Why was Vortigern's memory to be erased?
The Genealogies, a discussion

English translations of the sources

Texts of sources mentioning Vortigern:
- Gildas - De Excicio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of the Britains) Book II.13-26.
- Bede - Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (History of the English Church and People) Book I.11-17, 22.
- 'Nennius' - Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) 31-49, 66.
- The Pillar of Elise
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - years 381-601 AD.
- Geoffrey of Monmouth - Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) Book VI.1-8, 10-19, Book VII, 1-2.
- William of Malmesbury - Chronica Gentis Anglorum (Historia Regum Britanniae) Book I.1.
- The Vita sancta Gurthierni
- Edward Gibbon - The History of the Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire - Vol. 3. Chapter XXXVIII - Part 4-5.

Texts of other sources of Vortigern's Age:
- The Notitia Dignitatum - The British section
- The Cursus of Victorius - years 367-497 AD.
- The text of the Vita sancta Germani
- Zosimus - Historia Nova Book VI.
- The Annales Cambriae

Related Guest Articles

Dark Rooms and Dry Straw: Historiography of the Middle Ages 400-1200, by Sheila Brynjulfson
Sub-Roman Britain - an Introduction, by Chris Snyder
A Clerical Portrait of Vortigern?, by Michael Veprauskas