Layamon facts for kids

Layamon, also known as Laghamon, was an English poet who lived around the late 1100s and early 1200s. He wrote a very important poem called the Brut. This poem was the first to tell the famous stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table in the English language. Before Layamon, these stories were mostly written in French.

Even famous writers like J. R. R. Tolkien thought Layamon was important. Tolkien believed Layamon helped share old English legends. This was similar to how Snorri Sturluson shared Icelandic legends.

Layamon's Life and Impact

Layamon wrote in his poem that he was a priest. He lived in a place called Areley Kings in Worcestershire, England. His poem had a big effect on how history was written in England during the Middle Ages. It also helped shape Arthurian literature, which is the collection of stories about King Arthur.

Layamon's work later inspired many other writers. These included Sir Thomas Malory, who wrote Le Morte d'Arthur, and Jorge Luis Borges.

The Brut Poem

Layamon's most famous work is a long poem called Brut. He wrote it around the year 1190. The poem is named after Brutus of Troy, who was a mythical founder of Great Britain.

The Brut poem is very long, with 16,095 lines. It tells the entire history of Britain, from its mythical beginnings. Layamon based his poem mostly on an earlier French poem. This French poem was called Roman de Brut by Wace. Wace's poem was also inspired by Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae.

However, Layamon's Brut is much longer than these earlier works. It includes a much bigger section about the life of King Arthur. Layamon added new details to the Arthurian legends. For example, he wrote about the birth of Merlin. He also described how the Round Table began. Layamon even added details about Arthur's journey by ship to Avalon. There, an elf-queen was supposed to heal him.

The poem is written using a mix of styles. It uses alliterative verse, which was common in Old English poetry. It also uses rhyme, which was influenced by Wace's French poem. This mix of styles was later used in other Middle English poems.

How Layamon's Name is Spelled

Over time, people have spelled Layamon's name in different ways. Some common spellings include "Layamon," "Lazamon," or "Lawman."

Experts at Brown University have studied the original texts. They say that the spelling "Layamon" might not be the most accurate. In one old manuscript, his name is spelled 'Laȝamon'. The third letter, 'ȝ', is called a "yogh". In another old manuscript, his name is spelled 'Laweman' or 'Loweman'.

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