Layamon is a true-born Saxon, and his Brut is professedly a patriotic epic. Taking up the fabulous history of Geoffrey of Monmouth written in a dignified, rhetorical Latin style, and the Anglo-Norman Brut of Wace, so redolent of the courtly French romance, he infuses into them the darker and more sturdy Teutonic spirit. He is proud of Arthur, whose story he thoroughly saxonizes. He praises him into the ideal British king. He not only adds freely to his originals for the mysterious glamour with which the French romancers had enshrouded Arthur's name, he substitutes a robust manliness, well worthy of his countrymen's veneration. Thus, instead of connecting him only with such enchantresses as Morgan le Fay, Layamon places his hero in the company of the elves, who so characteristically belong to the general stock of the Teutonic saga. The elves presided at the birth of the king, welcomed him into the world, and presented him with various gifts:

þe time co þe wes icoren :

pa wes Arthur iboren.

Sone swa he com an eorthe:

aluen hine iuengen.

heo bigolen þat child :

mid galdere swithe stronge.

hed 3eue him mihte :

to beon bezst alre cnihten.

heo zeuen him an other þing:

His arms, his "burne, or cuirass of steel, and Caliburn his sword had been wrought for him by elvish smiths:

And he warp on him :

one brunie of stele.

þat makede an haluis smiþ :
mid his wise crafte...
Caliburne his sweord:

he sweinde bi his side.

hit was i-wroht in Auylun:

mid witfolle crafte. 2

1 Brut. MS. Cott. Calig., A. IX. ll. 19, 253-269. "The time came that was chosen, then was Arthur born. So soon as he came on earth elves took him; they enchanted the child with magic most strong; they gave him might to be the best of all knights; they gave him another thing, that he should be a rich king; they gave him the third, that he should live long; they gave to him the prince virtues most good, so that he was most generous of all men alive. This the elves gave him, and thus the child thrived. (Ib.). - Brut. MS. Cott. Otho, c. XIII. ll. 21,130-141. "And he threw on him a burny of steel that an elvish smith made, with his wise craft... Caliburn his sword, he hung by his side; it was wrought in Avalon, with witful craft. " (Ib.).

At his passing away, Arthur declared he would repair to Avalon, the island of the "elf most fair," Argante, who would "make him hale" and entertain him till he returned to his beloved British kingdom:

And ich wulle uaren to Avalu:

to uairest alre maidene.

to Argante pere quene:
aluen swithe sceone.

& heo shal mine wunden:

makien alle isunde.

al hal me makien:

mid haleweige drechen.

And seothe ich cumen wulle :

to mine kineriche.

and wunien mid Brutten :

mid muchelere wunne. 1

Argante is of course Morgan le Fay, and these several episodes may be directly borrowed from French romance: their colouring is however distinctly Saxon. They bring home to us the national import of the priest-poet's work, and how, on the banks of the Severn at least, people, early in the XIIIth century, were already beginning to recover from the effects of the foreign conquest.

1 Brut. M.S. Cott. Calig., A. IX. ll. 28,610-622. "And I will fare to Avalun, to the fairest of all maidens, to Argante, the queen, an elf most fair, and she shall make my wounds all sound; make me all whole with healing draughts. to my kingdom, and dwell with the (Ib.).

And afterwards I will come

Britons with mickle joy."

Finally, let us mention The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, by William Langland, another Saxon epic, as perhaps we might call it, which, although written about a century and a half after the Brut, still preserved all its homely vigour. Here, amidst the intricate allegories of a Dream, a device no doubt imitated from the Roman de la Rose, comes out in bold relief the sturdy personality of an unsophisticated countryman, who earns his living by chanting psalms and requiems for hire, who speaks his mind bluntly and gives free vent to all his discontents, who on the other hand firmly believes in the supernatural, as the first lines of his work testify :

...Bote in a Mayes morwnynge on Maluerne hulles Me bi-fel a ferly1 a feyrie' me thouhte;

I was weori of wandringe and wente me to reste
Vndur a brod banke bi a bourne syde...3

But Langland is a thorough, if somewhat restless and indignant, Christian, who sees in life a constant struggle between man's natural passions and the will of God, between the social forces and his own conscience; who expresses, by means of his allegorical personifications, his thoughts on religion and the Church, on Truth and Falsehood, on the Deadly Sins, as Envy, Covetise, Gluttony, all ministers to the foul fiend; who besides associates

A wonder. A strange thing of fairy origin.-3 The Vision... A. Prologue, ll. 5-8.

the elves haunting the hills with the wicked little imps of Hell, the poukes, as he calls them :

...ne helle pouke hym greue,

Neither fuyr, nother flod ne be a-fered of enemye; ...ne brynge ous out of daunger,

Fro the poukes poundfalde...

Crist is hus name

That shal delyuery ous som day out of the deueles

[powere; 2

Thenne palle3 ich a-downe the pouke with the thridde [shoryere,

The which is Spiritus sanctus...5

These several allusions, this scheme of expressing the most earnest and sacred beliefs by means of the commonest superstitions, go a long way to prove how persistently the Teutonic elves had been haunting people's minds, how deftly also they had been adapted to the changes of thought, the old, deep-rooted popular belief only developing in harmony with the new ideal of the time, and the personal temper of each writer.

III

When the Metrical Romances, which were in such high favour in France during the XIIIth and XIVth centuries, came over to England, they met with distinct success. The supernatural elements

1

1 lb. C. Passus, 16, ll. 164-65.—' Ib. C. Passus 19, ll. 281-84.' I knock, I strike.- Prop.- Ib. C. Passus 19, ll. 50-51.