Chronicles 1: The Historie of England | Page 8

(as before we haue said) after the name of the said Albion: because
he was established chiefe ruler and king thereof both by his grandfather Osiris and his
father Neptune that cunning sailour reigning therein (as Bale saith) by the space of 44.
yeares, till finally he was slaine in maner afore remembred by his vncle Hercules Libicus.
After that Hercules had thus vanquished and destroied his enimies, hée passed to and fro

thorough Gallia, suppressing the tyrants in euerie part where he came, and restoring the
people vnto a reasonable kinde of libertie, vnder lawfull gouernours. This Hercules (as
we find) builded the citie Alexia in Burgongne, nowe called Alize. Moreouer, by Lilius
Giraldus in the life of Hercules it is auouched, that the same Hercules came ouer hither
into Britaine. And this dooth Giraldus write by warrant of such Britons as (saith he) haue
so written themselues, which thing peraduenture he hath read in Gildas the ancient Briton
poet: a booke that (as he confesseth in the 5. dialog of his histories of poets) he hath
séene. The same thing also is confirmed by the name of an head of land in Britaine called
Promontorium Herculis, as in Ptolomie ye may read, which is thought to take name of his
arriuall at that place. Thus much for Albion and Hercules.
[Sidenote: Diuers opinions why this Ile was called Albion. Sée more hereof in the
discription.] But now, whereas it is not denied of anie, that this Ile was called ancientlie
by the name of Albion: yet there be diuers opinions how it came by that name: for manie
doo not allow of this historie of Albion the giant. But for so much as it apperteineth rather
to the description than to the historie of this Ile, to rip vp and lay foorth the secret
mysteries of such matters: and because I thinke that this opinion which is here auouched,
how it tooke that name of the forsaid Albion, sonne to Neptune, may be confirmed with
as good authoritie as some of the other, I here passe ouer the rest, & procéed with the
historie.
When Albion chiefe capteine of the giants was slaine, the residue that remained at home
in the Ile, continued without any rule or restraint of law, in so much that they fell to such
a dissolute order of life, that they séemed little or nothing to differ from brute beasts: and
those are they which our ancient chronicles call the giants, who were so named, as well
for the huge proportion of their stature (sithens as before is said, that age brought foorth
far greater men than are now liuing) as also for that they were the first, or at the least the
furthest in remembrance of any that had inhabited this countrie. For this word Gigines, or
Gegines, from whence our word giant (as some take it) is deriued, is a Gréeke word, and
signifieth, Borne or bred of or in the earth, for our fore-elders, specially the Gentiles,
being ignorant of the true beginning of mankind, were persuaded, that the first inhabitants
of any countrie were bred out of the earth, and therefore when they could go no higher,
[Sidenote: _Terræ filius_ what it signifieth.] reckoning the descents of their
predecessours, they would name him _Terræ filius_, The sonne of the earth: and so the
giants whom the poets faine to haue sought to make battell against heauen, are called the
sonnes of the earth: and the first inhabitants generally of euery countrie were of the
Gréekes called Gigines, or Gegines, and of the Latines [Sidenote: Aborigines.
_Indigenæ_.] Aborigines, and _Indigenæ_, that is, People borne of the earth from the
beginning, and comming from no other countrie, but bred within the same.
These giants and first inhabitants of this Ile continued in their beastlie kind of life vnto
the arriuall of the ladies, which some of our chronicles ignorantly write to be the
daughters of Dioclesian the king of Assyria, whereas in déed they haue béene deceiued,
in taking the [Sidenote: The mistaking of the name of Dioclesianus for Danaus.] word
Danaus to be short written for _Dioclesianus_: and by the same meanes haue diuers
words and names béene mistaken, both in our chronicles, and in diuers other ancient
written woorks. But this is a fault that learned men should not so much trouble

themselues about, considering the [Sidenote: Hugh the Italian. Harding. Iohn Rous_ out
of Dauid Pencair.] same hath bin alreadie found by sundrie authors ling sithens, as Hugh
the Italian, Iohn Harding, Iohn Rouse of Warwike, and others, speciallie by the helpe of
Dauid Pencair a British historie, who recite the historie vnder the name of Danaus and his
daughters. And because we would not any man to thinke, that the