Layamon's Brut
| Language | en |
|---|---|
| First published | 2004-12-08 |
| Rights | Public domain in the USA. |
| Gutenberg ID | #14305 |
Description
"Layamon's Brut" by Layamon is a Middle English alliterative verse poem written between 1190 and 1215. Spanning over 16,000 lines, this epic chronicles a fictionalized history of Britain from its mythical founder Brutus of Troy through the Early Middle Ages. Written by an English priest in deliberately archaic Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, the work features an expanded section on King Arthur's life and exploits. It stands as the first major historical work composed in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, preserving Britain's legendary past during an era dominated by French literature. (This is an automatically generated summary.)