Editing Nennius (section)

==Debate regarding his life and works==
The Prologue, in which Nennius introduces his purpose and means for writing the ''British History'', first appears in a manuscript from the twelfth century.  The prologues of all other manuscripts, though only included marginally, so closely resemble this first prologue that William Newell claims they must be copies. "The preface has evidently been prepared by someone who had before him the completed text of the treatise. It appears in the first instance as a marginal gloss contained in a MS. of the twelfth century;' under ordinary conditions, the chapter would unhesitatingly be set aside as a forgery."<ref>Newell, William Wells. "Doubts Concerning the British History Attributed to Nennius." ''PMLA''. 20.3 (1905): 622–72.</ref> He counters Zimmer's argument by reasoning that the Irishman responsible for the "superior" Irish translations might have added his own touches, further claiming that if a Latin version of the ''Historia'' had been available in the 12th century, it would have been replicated in that language, not translated.

David N. Dumville argues that the manuscript tradition and nature of the Prologue in particular fail to substantiate the claim that Nennius was the author of ''Historia Brittonum''.  In his argument against Zimmer, he cites a textual inconsistency in the Irish translation regarding a place called Beulan, concluding that "we must admit to ignorance of the name of [the ''Historia's''] ninth-century author."<ref>Dumville, D. N.  ''Histories and Pseudo-histories of the Insular Middle Ages''. Aldershot: Variorum, 1990.</ref>