LAYAMON. — English ecclesiastic of the 13th century, whose name is a variant of Lawman (man of law).
He is the author of the first English poem on the legendary origins of British history (up to 689), largely derived from Mommouth’s Historia regum Britanniae in Wace’s Norman version. The poem, in alliterative verse, possesses considerable literary merit, but is important above all as an Arthurian source; alongside the history of Arthur, it also recounts the history of Lear and the history of Cymbeline. L. also made use of Breton and Norman sources.
BIBL.: Le Roux de Loney, Le roman de Brut par Wace, Rouen 1836–38; L.'s Brut, edited by F. Madden, 3 vols., London 1847. Augusto Guidi