Layamon's Brut and the Anglo-Norman Vision of History

Layomon's Brut is a twelfth-century historical poem that includes the first account of King Arthur in English. Kenneth Tiller argues that Layamon uses the history of the ancient Britons to inspire the post-Conquest Anglo-Saxons to resist the suppression and marginalization of their language and to take an active role in writing English history.

 

Presenting history in the context of post-colonial translation theory, Tiller argues for a centrol role for the figure of King Arthur in the development of English history and historiography.