LAYAMON

Layamon: translation

(12th century)

Layamon is the author ofThe Brut, an English redaction of WACE’s Old FrenchRoman de Brut, chronicling the history of the legendary kings of Britain from the time of the founding of Britain by Brutus, great-grandson of the Trojan Aeneas, until the time of Cadwalader and the ultimate victory of the Saxons. Like Wace and his source, GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH’sHISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE, Layamon includes a long section on the exploits of King ARTHUR. Thus Layamon’sBrutis the first English-language version of the Arthurian legend, and one of the most important texts in early Middle English literature.

Virtually nothing is known about Layamon’s life. He says in his prologue that he was a priest, son of Leovenath, who lived in the village of Ernly on the Severn River, near Redstone Rock. His village has been identified as modern-day Areley Kings, some 10 miles from Worcester. Apparently Layamon had visited other parts of England, for he mentions traveling widely in his prologue. Judging from his text, he seems to have known southern and southwestern England and southern Wales fairly well.

In his prologue Layamon refers to Eleanor, who “was” Henry II’s queen. This would suggest a date for the text after 1189, the year Henry died, and more likely after 1204, the year that Eleanor died. Despite his reference to Eleanor, though, Layamon seems to have been writing not for a courtly audience but for an audience familiar with English and with the traditions of pre-conquest poetry. Thus Layamon writes with a deliberate attempt to use English vocabulary, even archaic English vocabulary, whenever possible. He also writes ALLITERATIVE VERSE, though he seems to have been only vaguely familiar with Old English poetic style: His lines imitate the half-lines of Old English meter, but often are too long and only occasionally follow the strict formulas of Old English prosody.Often, he uses rhyme and assonance as well, which would have been derived purely from French poetry. It seems likely that Layamon’s acquaintance with the Old English alliterative tradition was through oral sources.

It is possible that he made some use of both oral and written sources that have not survived, but he refers explicitly in his prologue to three sources: an English book by BEDE that is almost certainly the Old English translation of Bede’sEcclesiastical History of the English People; a Latin text by Saints Albin and Augustine of Canterbury that has never been identified and likely no longer exists; and Wace, whom he calls a “French clerk.” Layamon’sBrutis twice as long as Wace’s poem, and differs in a number of ways. For one thing Layamon omits much of the material Wace had included to appeal to a French courtly audience, such as his interest in courtly love. But Layamon adds material that reflects an earlier, more brutal warrior society. When Arthur is told of how Guenevere has betrayed him with Modred, for example, Sir Gawain vows to have the queen torn apart by horses: “Lord God, Ruler of judgments, Protector of all the earth, why has my brother Modred wrought this evil? Today, here before these retainers, I disown him; God willing, I will kill him. I myself will hang him highest of all outlaws. Under God’s law, I will have the queen torn asunder by horses.While I live I will never know happiness until I have avenged my uncle well.” (Bzdyl 1989, 251)

Here the violent aspect of Layamon is clear, as is his debt to the old Germanic virtues of loyalty to one’s lord and taking vengeance for a wrong. Layamon also adds far more dialogue and more concrete detail to the incidents described by Wace. There are more than 500 direct speeches in Layamon’sBrut, as opposed to only about 160 such speeches in Wace. Further, Layamon shows a significant interest in the supernatural and especially in prophecy, suggesting an underlying belief that actions in this world are controlled by fate. Just before news comes of the queen’s betrayal, for example, Layamon gives Arthur a prophetic dream in which he sits astride a great hall, but is dashed down by the actions of Modred and the queen. Prophecy also underlines much of Merlin’s part in Layamon’s story: After the last battle, when Arthur has been carried off to Avalon, Layamon says this: The Britons believe that Arthur is still alive and dwells in Avalon with the fairest of all elves. They still look to when Arthur will return. No man nor woman can say truly more of Arthur except what the prophet Merlin himself once said—and his words are true: an Arthur will yet come to help the English. (Bzdyl 1989, 254)

Note here Layamon’s reference to “the English.” One difficult question in dealing with Layamon is why, when he does so much in his poetry to emulate the warrior society and English poetic style of the Anglo-Saxons, he nevertheless stresses the villainy of the Saxons in the Arthurian story. But the above quotation gives us an answer: Layamon’s loyalty was to the land of Britain, and he supported the native inhabitants of the island against invaders. All who live on the island are English, he seems to say.

Layamon’s poem survives in two manuscripts: Cotton Caligula A.ix and Cotton Otho C.xiii. Both were produced between 1250 and 1325. The Caligula text is generally considered to be closer to Layamon’s original, since it includes more archaic language and more English vocabulary. It is written in an early South West Midland dialect. Layamon remains an important writer because of his introduction into English of the Arthurian legend. He also demonstrates that an alliterative tradition of some sort survived, probably orally, after the Norman Conquest. And finally Layamon is interesting to read in his own right, because of his many dramatic scenes of vivid detail and lively dialogue.

■ Layamon.Brut. Edited by G. L. Brook and R. F. Leslie. 1963. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.

■ ———.Layamon’s Brut: A History of the Britons. Translated by Donald G. Bzdyl.Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Vol. 65. Binghamton: State University of New York at Binghamton, 1989.

■ Le Saux, Françoise.Layamon’s“Brut”:The Poem and Its Sources. Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K.: Boydell and Brewer, 1989.