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It was subsequently translated into Anglo-Norman by Gaimar and Wace, and into English by Layamon. Philosophical writer, s. of Rev. Gilbert G., was ed. at Aberdeen, where he became Prof., first of Natural Philosophy, and afterwards of Divinity, and one of the ministers of the city. As a prof. he introduced various reforms.
"There was a priest in the land, who was named Layamon; he was son of Leovenath may the Lord be gracious to him! he dwelt at Ernley, at a noble church upon Severn's bank, good it there seemed to him near Radestone, where he books read.
It came to him in mind, and in his chief thought, that he would tell the noble deeds of the English; what they were named, and whence they came, who first possessed the English land, after the flood that came from the Lord.... Layamon began to journey wide over this land, and procured the noble books which he took for pattern.
Had we not already spoken of Layamon out of true order in following the story of Arthur, it is here that we should speak of him and of his book, The Brut. So, perhaps, it would be well to go back and read chapter vii., and then we must go on to the Metrical Romances. The three hundred years from 1200 to 1500 were the years of the Metrical Romances. Metrical means written in verse.
Layamon, therefore, not only confirms Geoffrey in some points, but it is clear, that, professing to follow Wace, he had independent access to the great body of Welsh literature then current. Sir F. Madden has put this matter very clearly, in his recent edition of Layamon.
Translated into English, 1st ed, I., H.M. Kennedy, New York, 1888, II., i., W.C. Robinson, 1893, II., ii., L.D. Schmidt, 1896. GEOFFREY GAIMAR, L'Estorie des Engles, ed. GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, Historia Regum Britanniae, ed. Translated, J.A. Giles, Six Old English Chronicles, London, 1896; S. Evans, London, 1903. LAYAMON, Brut, ed. with translation, Sir F. Madden, 3 vols, London, 1847.
III. We find that Geoffrey of Monmouth, Layamon, and other early British and Anglo-Saxon historians, and minstrels, on the one hand, transmitted to Europe the rudiments of its after romance, much of which, on the other hand, they drew from Wales.
Two fairy maidens bear the wounded king in a boat from the battle-field over the sea to Argante, the queen of Avalon, who will make him whole again. "And the Britons ever expect when Arthur shall return." Layamon, in fact, living as he did near the Welsh border, naturally shows familiarity with current Welsh tradition.
He them lovingly beheld, the Lord to him be merciful! Pen he took in fingers and wrote upon a book skin, And the true words set together, And the three books pressed to one." That, in words such as we use now, is how Layamon begins his poem. But this is how the words looked as Layamon wrote them: "An preost wes on leoden: lazamon wes ihoten. he wes Leouenaoes sone: lioe him beo drihte."
So those who came after him could trust him. Bede's History, you remember, was one of the books which Layamon used when he wrote his Brut, and in it we find many of the stories of early British history which have grown familiar to us.
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