#Introduction:# The priest Layamon, son of Leovenath, served the church at Ernley (Arley Regis) on the Severn near Radestone, ‘sel þar him þuhte.’ There it came into his mind that he would tell of the noble deeds of the English, and journeying wide over the land he got the noble books, Bede’s History in English, the Latin text of the same, which he ascribes to S. Austin and S. Albin, and the history which a French clerk made. Such is the poet’s account of his authorities, but of the two first he made no use, Wace’s metrical version of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Britonum was his main source. This he greatly amplified out of his legendary store and from other sources, writing in epic style and a somewhat archaic diction derived from the older English literature, and investing the whole with the charm of his imaginative and descriptive powers. But Imelmann maintains that, apart from some insignificant details, Wace was his only source, not indeed the text as we have it in Le Roux de Lincy’s edition, but a later lost redaction enlarged from an intermediate version which blended the original Wace with the first part of Gaimar’s Chronicle. Layamon wrote in the early years of the thirteenth century, and finished his book before 1205 A.D. This extract gives ll. 13785-14382 in Madden ii. pp. 152-177: it corresponds to Wace (W) 6860-7168. The references are to the older text of L, unless O is prefixed. 1. #Vnder ðan#, meanwhile; OE. #under þām#, where the prep. means among: ‘Entretant,’ W. Comp. ‘Under þis,’ SK 1858; ‘vnder þat,’ R. of Gloucester 116/11. L has also ‘Vnder þan ilke þinge,’ 29849, ‘Wnder þon,’ 6433. #tiðende# is OWScand. tíðindi: #tydinge# in O is OE. #tīdung#: see Björkman, 167. #vortiger# is from W: the OE. form is #Wyrtgeorn#. 5. #Alse hit weoren#, to all appearance: usually with swulc in L, ‘heo leopen ut of þan wuden[;] swulc hit deor weoren,’ 12828, 3070, 11571. For hit comp. 1/10. Kempes, champions, in O is a characteristic toning down of Kinges in C, but comp. L 25301. 6. #wiðuten#, not counting. #scipen monnen# is probably a scribal mistake for scipmonnen. #þer wiðinnen#, in the ships. 7. #þis#: _sing._ like þet 1/10 note: so too at 110/278, and with Hit, 110/271. #færeste#: ‘Od biax viaires et biax cors,’ W 6863. 8. #ꝥ--mare#: a typical comment, comp. ‘hire cheap wes þe wrse,’ L 385; ‘his hap wes þe betere,’ id. 4894, 816, 3857, &c.