The poem begins with the destruction of Troy and the flight of "Æneas the duke" into Italy. Brutus, a great-grandson of Æneas, gathers his people and sets out to find a new land in the West. Then follows the founding of the Briton kingdom, and the last third of the poem, which is over thirty thousand lines in length, is taken up with the history of Arthur and his knights. If the _Brut_ had no merits of its own, it would still interest us, for it marks the first appearance of the Arthurian legends in our own tongue. A single selection is given here from Arthur's dying speech, familiar to us in Tennyson's _Morte d'Arthur_. The reader will notice here two things: first, that though the poem is almost pure Anglo-Saxon,[50] our first speech has already dropped many inflections and is more easily read than _Beowulf_; second, that French influence is already at work in Layamon's rimes and assonances, that is, the harmony resulting from using the same vowel sound in several successive lines: And ich wulle varen to Avalun: And I will fare to Avalun, To vairest alre maidene, To fairest of all maidens, To Argante there quene, To Argante the queen, Alven swithe sceone. An elf very beautiful. And heo seal mine wunden And she shall my wounds Makien alle isunde, Make all sound; Al hal me makien All whole me make Mid haleweiye drenchen. With healing drinks. And seothe ich cumen wulle And again will I come To mine kiueriche To my kingdom And wunien mid Brutten And dwell with Britons Mid muchelere wunne. With mickle joy. Aefne than worden Even (with) these words Ther com of se wenden There came from the sea That wes an sceort bat lithen, A short little boat gliding, Sceoven mid uthen, Shoved by the waves; And twa wimmen ther inne, And two women therein, Wunderliche idihte. Wondrously attired. And heo nomen Arthur anan And they took Arthur anon And an eovste hine vereden And bore him hurriedly, And softe hine adun leiden, And softly laid him down, And forth gunnen lithen. And forth gan glide.