SOURCE: York, Ernest C. “Wace's Wenelande: Identification and Speculation.” Romance Notes XXII, no. 1 (fall 1981): 112-18.

In the following essay, York attempts to identify the country Wace calls Wenelande in Le Roman de Brut.

When Wace wrote his account of Arthur's Scandinavian conquest, he added Rummaret of Wenelande to Geoffrey's list of kings and kingdoms that submitted to Arthur.¹ Ever since Le Roux de Lincy published his edition of Le Roman de Brut (1836-38), scholars have tried to solve the questions raised by these names: where Wace got them, who Rummaret is, and what country he meant by Wenelande. In 1941 Margaret Houck concluded from her study of Wace's sources that Wace derived the names from oral tradition, and this theory has been repeated without further addition through succeeding years.² Rummaret remains a nebulous figure, but with him this study is not concerned.

The identification of Wenelande has received wider...