Was never the man born nor never the lady chosen
Who knoweth of the sooth of Arthur to say more.
But erstwhile there was a wizard Merlin called.
He boded with words the which were sooth
That an Arthur should yet come the English to help."

You see by this last line that Layamon has forgotten the
difference between Briton and English. He has forgotten that in
his lifetime Arthur fought against the English. To him Arthur
has become an English hero. And perhaps he wrote these last
words with the hope in his heart that some day some one would
arise who would deliver his dear land from the rule of the
stranger Normans. This, we know, happened. Not, indeed, by the
might of one man, but by the might of the English spirit, the
strong spirit which had never died, and which Layamon himself
showed was still alive when he wrote his book in English.







Chapter VIII THE BEGINNING OF THE READING TIME

WE are now going on two hundred years to speak of another book
about Arthur. This is Morte d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory.

Up to this time all books had to be written by hand. But in the
fifteenth century printing was discovered. This was one of the