The Man in the Mirror: Adam USK, Self-reflection Through Vaticination

The chronicle of Adam Usk (c.1352–1430), a secular Welsh clerk, priest, and canon lawyer, is replete with vatic material. Written in uneven stages from 1401 to 1421, with lapses during difficult periods in Adam's life, the chronicle boasts an unusual and reflective first-person
 narration complicated by the relationship with prophecy and portents. It forms a multi-layered text: a performatively chronological personal history subject to revision and reassessment reimagined through integrating vatic material into it. This article examines Adam's work, proposing that
 his use of prophetic material facilitated a self-reflective work rather than one focused on narratives of legitimation.