History of English Literature
Lecture VIII 24th November 2010
Acculturation One culture appropriates another culture (Use of Arthurian myth as a sort-of-
propaganda by French Speaking upper classes of England)
8. Layamon's (Lawman's) Brut (late 12th c./early 13thc.)
a. Based on Wace and Geoffrey of Monmouth
b. the first work on Arthur in English and one of the first major works in English after the Conquest.
c. Mythicised presentation of the first rulers of England -incorporation of the myth of Arthur into
the English pantheon (ironic as historical Arthur  if he ever existed  defended his Christian
kingdom from pagan Anglo-Saxon invaders).
d. Layamon's comments on the body of Arthur (i.e. the myth) as ceaseless inspiration for poets.
e. The idea of Arthur as a perfect monarch  a possible answer to weaker English monarchy in late
12th/ early 13th c.
-The king by the grace of God,
-Defending the integrity of kingdom
-Holding to the just laws of his ancestors  the king as the distributor of justice,
-The king as a conqueror  subjugating other lands as a sign of royal power
f. Traces of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) literary technique of alliteration, elements of Anglo-Saxon
vision imagery in Brut.
The phenomenon of courtly love (fin amor/amour courtois)
in medival France and England.
Courtly love in chivalric romances.
Note : Templars were forbidden from shaving and taking baths.
1. Courtly literature in France and elsewhere.
a. Developing in the culture of the south  Aquitaine, Languedoc (now a French province, earlier
the name for the French dialect of the south).
b. Possible influences of Arabic culture and literature from the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus,
Andalusia).
c. French troubadours (in the south) and trouveurs, (in the north)  those who find/invent ways of
putting ideas and emotions into the language of poetry.
d. The court of Aquitaine as a centre of such culture in France  Count William of Aquitaine (1071-
1126, Guilhem le Troubadour), Eleanor of Aquitaine grandfather, as a famed poet.
e. Later (2nd half of the 12th c.) the court of Champagne (Countess Marie de Champagne, daughter of
Eleanor)  sponsoring both Chretien de Troyes and the culture of courtly love
f. Influences of such culture in England, Italy and Germany (courtly love poets called there
Minnesanger)