Author of the Historia Brittonum, ADc. 800, a principal source for the post-Roman period. Much of the Historia attributed to Nennius has been described as having ‘all the historical reliability of fairy-stories’. Nennius' reference to Arthur may well fall into this category. Nennius himself wrote in his preface: ‘coacervavi omne quod inveni’ (‘I have made a heap of everything I have found’). The result of Nennius' efforts is a well-intentioned but sometimes bizarre account of Britain in the 5th and 6th cents.
A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.