'Everything made by hand perishes': The cycle of entropy in Wace's 'Roman de Brut'

This thesis takes a deeper look at the 12th century Anglo-Norman poet-historian Wace's Roman de Brut, a vernacular verse chronicle based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regnum Britanniae. Contemporary historians and literary scholars tend to view Wace's work as a continuation of past tradition, modernizing Geoffrey's work to bring it more in line with the interests of the Angevin nobility. This thesis attempts to correct that view, by examining Wace's views of history as a cycle of entropy and the translatio imperii as a mechanism of decay. Focusing on the voyage of Brutus and the Trojans to Britain, Wace's portrayal of the protagonist and his actions are examined as allegories for both Henry II and William the Conqueror, centering on the idea that Wace is primarily a historian, teaching lessons about the nature of history and humanity through the legendary history of Geoffrey of Monmouth.