They
saw around them many wicked things. They saw men fighting for
the mere love of fighting. They saw men following pleasure for
the mere love of pleasure. They saw men who were strong oppress
the weak and grind down the poor, and so they told the story of
the Quest of the Holy Grail to try to make them a little better.
With every new writer the story of Arthur grew. It seemed to
draw all the beauty and wonder of the time to itself, and many
stories which at first had been told apart from it came to be
joined to it. We have seen how it has been told in Welsh, in
Latin, and in French, and, last of all, we have it in English.
The first great English writer of the stories of Arthur was named
Layamon. He, too, was a priest, and, like Wace, he wrote in
verse.
Like Wace, Layamon called his book the Brut, because it is the
story of the Britons, who took their name from Brutus, and of
Arthur the great British hero. This book is known, therefore, as
Layamon's Brut. Layamon took Wace's book for a foundation, but
he added a great deal to it, and there are many stories in
Layamon not to be found in Wace.
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