ABSTRACT
In two previous chapters1 we traced the survival of the Old English literary tradition in its most prevalent form, religious pieces in prose and verse. It is now necessary to note its appearance also in three works not of a religious nature, the Proverbs of Alfred, The Owl and the Nightingale, and Layamon’s Brut. The first two of these we shall consider in the present chapter. Layamon’s Brut we shall merely recognize as belonging with them in time and secular character, but we shall postpone the further consideration of it until chapter VIII, where we can better indicate its place in the development of the Arthurian legend. There is the more reason for this since in spite of being written in English and being in verse and style the heir of Old English poetry, it derives its subject matter from a French source.
