IN BRITAIN LONG before our time there lived many powerful kings from whom nobles held their lands. What is now called England was then called Britain. Julius Caesar, who was bent on conquering, made a great effort to take it. Julius, the emperor of Rome, often came to conquer England with a fierce army, for he greatly desired the land. He came often with a large force, and often lost men, which left him heavy-hearted. Finally he conquered it by military might, with the help of Androgeus, a duke of Kent, as the Brut clearly tells. It relates how the Romans conquered it, received tribute, often suffered defeat, and subsequently lost the tribute. Whoever wants to know the story should read the Brut, and he will hear it there. (1–24)

I want to tell you a story well worth listening to. It is based entirely on the truth, for it is about the English kings: how at that time they held, divided, and ruled the land, and what happened to them. This history is much loved and well remembered by the English, by princes, dukes, and kings. That is, it was much loved by the English, great and small, until the Norman Conquest. When the Normans took the land the great histories composed in English survived and were translated for the people, who changed at that time, just as the languages did. Afterwards yet more stories were translated, such as the Brut, such as the story of Tristram, who suffered so much pain and sorrow, and of good King Aelof, who fought so much and so violently. These and many others that you can often hear are greatly loved by many people. These heroic tales, which were in English, have been translated into French. People in olden times had a very good custom: between them they remembered what had happened to them, committing all those events to memory, so that their successors often recounted them, improving them in the process. (25–62)

I want to tell you the history of the powerful and valiant king Waldef: how he was often betrayed, how he lost his two sons, taken away from him to foreign lands when they were very young, in which country each was brought up, how there was mortal war between them, how they eventually became good friends, and the many heavy misfortunes that befell them.