Layamon's Brut
"Layamon's Brut" by Layamon is a Middle English alliterative verse poem written between 1190 and 1215. Spanning over 16,000 lines, this epic chronicles a fictionalized history of Britain from its mythical founder Brutus of Troy through the Early Middle Ages. Written by an English priest in deliberately archaic Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, the work features an expanded section on King Arthur's life and exploits. It stands as the first major historical work composed in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, preserving Britain's legendary past during an era dominated by French literature.