Poet and priest, thought to have lived at Areley Kings, Worcestershire, WC England, UK. He wrote (c.1200) an alliterative verse chronicle, Brut, a mythical history of England from the landing of Brutus to the final Saxon victory in 689. His source was Wace's Brut d'Angleterre, and Brut was important in English versification as the first considerable poem written in Middle English. It is also notable for giving for the first time in English the story of Arthur, as well as those of Lear and Cymbeline.
1215) is a history of England in verse written in early Middle English. Although based on the earlier Roman de Brut written in Anglo-Norman by Wace (incorrectly known as Robert Wace), itself based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, the poem is itself the first historiography written in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Many scholars believe the language of the poem to be intentionally archaised, rather than indicative of the Middle English commonly written and spoken during Layamon's lifetime. His poem provided inspiration for numerous later writers, including Sir Thomas Malory and Jorge Luis Borges, and had an impact on medieval history writing in England. Written in a loose alliterative style, and sporadically deploying rhyme, as well as a caesural pause between the hemistichs of a line, it is perhaps closer to the rhythmical prose of Ælfric of Eynsham than verse per se. Especially in comparison with later alliterative writings such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Piers Plowman, Laȝamon's alliterating verse is difficult to analyse, seemingly avoiding the more formalised styles of the later poets.
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