ABSTRACT
Lawman was a priest at Areley Church near Redstone (north of Worcester) on the River Severn. His name, which is often modernized as Layamon (in the manuscript of The Brut it is spelled LaƷamon, Laweman, Loweman), means “man of law.” His father’s name was Leovenath. Otherwise, we know nothing of him. His Brut is, however, a distinguished achievement reflecting the strength of the native English tradition in the West Country, which was later to produce other great poets, such as Langland. Lawman’s Brut is derived from Wace’s Anglo-Norman poem the Roman de Brut, which Wace had dedicated to Queen Eleanor in 1155. The Roman de Brut was itself a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s prose History of the Kings of Britain, composed in Latin (ca. 113839–). Geoffrey’s pseudohistory was written primarily for learned clerics; Wace addressed his poem to the members of the court of King Henry II; Lawman aimed at his rural English audience, whose culture evidently still remained relatively unaffected by the Norman Conquest.
