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Layamon's Brut
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<p>Layamon's <i>Brut</i> (ca. 1190 – 1215), also known as <i>The Chronicle of Britain</i>, is a <a href="/facts/Middle_English/dj1wHvwd">Middle English</a> <a href="/facts/Alliterative_verse/ElXUR9ry">alliterative verse</a> poem compiled and recast by the English priest <a href="/facts/Layamon/VWAMLyIe">Layamon</a>. Layamon's <i>Brut</i> is 16,096 lines long and narrates a fictionalized version of the history of Britain up to the <a href="/facts/Early_Middle_Ages/9FrTq3rt">Early Middle Ages</a>. It was the first work of history written in English since the <i><a href="/facts/Anglo-Saxon_Chronicle/vub2M2h7">Anglo-Saxon Chronicle</a></i>. Named for <a href="/facts/Great_Britain/TNgGQRPj">Britain</a>'s mythical founder, <a href="/facts/Brutus_of_Troy/dMDjLUy4">Brutus of Troy</a>, the poem is largely based on the <a href="/facts/Anglo-Norman_language/GmwkRAzQ">Anglo-Norman French</a> <i><a href="/facts/Roman_de_Brut/lcrjNnpK">Roman de Brut</a></i> by <a href="/facts/Wace/VQ40R6U8">Wace</a>, which is in turn a version of <a href="/facts/Geoffrey_of_Monmouth/yMVqeVR3">Geoffrey of Monmouth</a>'s <a href="/facts/Latin/pM3Kge85">Latin</a> <i><a href="/facts/Historia_Regum_Britanniae/BU5ldaDX">Historia Regum Britanniae</a></i>. Layamon's poem, however, is longer than both and includes an enlarged section on the life and exploits of <a href="/facts/King_Arthur/JDyRQ8gx">King Arthur</a>. It is written in the <a href="/facts/Alliterative_verse/ElXUR9ry">alliterative verse</a> style commonly used in <a href="/facts/Middle_English/dj1wHvwd">Middle English</a> poetry by <a href="/facts/Rhyming_Chroniclers/05AgR4gd">rhyming chroniclers</a>, the two halves of the alliterative lines being often linked by rhyme as well as by alliteration. </p><p>Like the earlier Latin works, it is now regarded as valueless as history. It gives the history of the <a href="/facts/Britons/xn7cqlzV">Britons</a>, largely ignoring the <a href="/facts/Anglo-Saxons/qWLes0LP">Anglo-Saxons</a>. Its narrative ends with the Welsh king <a href="/facts/Cadwallon_ap_Cadfan/W9gkc1Wt">Cadwallon ap Cadfan</a>, who died in 634. </p>