Geoffroy de Monmouth

L Brutus discovers the Sea-girt Isle

niG, long ago a child was born in Italy
of whom the wise men of that land
prophesied many things. They declared
that Brutus, for that was the name he bore,
was born to great sorrow, but that, after many
adventures in strange lands, he would win his
way to great honour. Brutus was a descendant
of JEneas, the hero who fought so valiantly in
the Trojan war, and while he was quite a young
child many stories were related to him about
the noble ^neas and the other heroes of his
race. How he loved to listen to these stories !
They filled his heart with pride, and made him
long for the day when he would be a man, so