Layamon

Layamon, an early English poet "of whom little is known, was the son of Leuca or Leovenath, and was a priest at Ernly, on the bank of the Severn. He flourished during the 12th century, and his poem of Brut d'Angleterre is valuable as showing the transition of Anglo-Saxon to the English of Chaucer and the beginning of a unity of interest between the English and Celtic elements of the country. His poem was founded upon Wace, and there are two texts extant which show a remarkable absence of French-derived words.