Layamon

Layamon was a poet of the early 13th century, whose Brut (ca. 1200) was a history of England in verse (written in Middle English. Although based on an earlier work written in Norman-French by Robert Wace, Layamon's poem is remarkable for its abundant Anglo-Saxon vocabulary; the scholar Roger Loomis counted only 150 Romance words in the 32,200 lines. He describes himself in his poem as a priest, living at Areley Regis[?] near Bewdley[?] in Worcestershire. His poem provided inspiration for later writers, including Sir Thomas Malory.

External links:

• Brut (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?id=LayBruC&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/mideng-parsed&part=0) by Layamon (Cotton Caligula manuscript version)
• Brut (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?id=LayBruC&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/mideng-parsed&part=0) (Cotton Otho manuscript version)