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Nicolay Yakovlev
Wolfson College, University of Oxford
Email: nicolay dot yakovlev at wolfson dot ox dot ac dot uk
Currently Layamon's Brut is often considered to be written in a kind of rhythmical prose more akin to the saints' lives of the Katherine Group or the Old English homiletic tradition than to the stricter metres of either rhymed or alliterative writings in Middle English. However, a comparison with the metre of most Alliterative Revival poems, as described in recent metrical studies, suggests that Layamon is following the same basic model of the alliterative long line. Most of the differences between his metre and, for example, that of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight concern the distribution of certain rhythmical patterns between the two half-lines.
While the successful application of a rigid metrical system suggests a different kind of metrical and rhythmical affiliations for the Brut, the system also makes it possible to observe a substantial number of linguistic and textual regularities. So, in spite of the well-known significant variation (both phonological and morphological) in the spelling of Caligula A.ix, the main witness turns out to be very consistent with regard to writing the correct number of syllables as required by the metre. The particular types of punctuation errors made by the scribe suggest that at least on occasions he paid attention to the rhythm of what he was copying. Similarly, the revised verses in the second witness, Otho C.xiii, show that the reviser was careful to employ an identical metrical system that was, however, marginally closer to the long-line metre of late Middle English.