Layamon finished his book towards the end of the twelfth century
or the beginning of the thirteenth. Perhaps he sat quietly
writing it in his cell when the angry barons were forcing King
John to sign the Magna Charta. At least he wrote it when all
England was stirring to new life again. The fact that he wrote
in English shows that, for Layamon's Brut is the first book
written in English after the Conquest. This book proves how
little hold the French language had upon the English people, for
although our land had been ruled by Frenchmen for a hundred and
fifty years, there are very few words in Layamon that are French
or that are even made from French.

But although Layamon wrote his book in English, it was not the
English that we speak to-day. It was what is called Early
English or even sometimes Semi-Saxon. If you opened a book of
Layamon's Brut you would, I fear, not be able to read it.

We know very little of Layamon; all that we do know he tells us
himself in the beginning of his poem. "A priest was in the
land," he says:

"Layamon was he called.
He was Leouenathe's son, the Lord to him be gracious.
He lived at Ernleye at a noble church
Upon Severn's bank. Good there to him it seemed
Fast by Radestone, where he books read.
It came to him in mind, and in his first thoughts,
That he would of England the noble deeds tell,
What they were named and whence they came,