Publisher's Synopsis
In this study, Professor Asher shows how 16th century historians and poets were irrisistibly drawn to the myths and legends of the glorious druids and the great celtic past in their writings. He describes how the 7th century Chronical of Fredegar, giving the Franks a Trojan ancestry, became a standard preface to any French history, while the acknowledged forgeries of Annius of Viterbo, were at first simply reproduced without comment. Obsessed with the origins of the French nation and heavily influenced by the prevailing nationalism of the age, early 16th century French writers were largely uncritical of their highly spurious sources. However, as "National Myths" explains, as the Renaissance progressed so did the historians' desire to replace fiction with fact.
