British literature

Late medieval literature: 1100­1500

The linguistic diversity of the islands in the medieval pe­riod contributed to a rich variety of artistic production, and made British literature distinctive and innovative.^[16]

Works were still written in Latin and include Gerald of Wales's late-12th-century book on his beloved Wales, Itinerarium Cambriae, and following the Norman Con­quest of 1066, Anglo-Norman literature developed in the Anglo-Norman realm introducing literary trends from Continental Europe, such as the chanson de geste. How­ever, the indigenous development of Anglo-Norman lit­erature was precocious in comparison to continental Oil literature.^[16]

Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 - c. 1155) was one of the major figures in the development of British history and the popularity for the tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae (His­tory of the Kings of Britain) of 1136, which spread Celtic motifs to a wider audience. Wace (c. 1110 - after 1174), who wrote in Norman-French, is the earliest known poet from Jersey, also developed the Arthurian legend.^[17]) At

Sir Bedivere casts King Arthur's sword Excalibur back to the Lady of the Lake. The Arthurian Cycle has influenced British literature across languages and down the centuries.

great works of English literature along with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight during the Middle Ages.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late-14th-century Middle English alliterative romance. It is one of the better-known Arthurian stories, of an established type known as the “beheading game”. Developing from Welsh, Irish and English tradition Sir Gawain highlights the importance of honour and chivalry. “Preserved in the same manuscript with Sir Gawayne were three other po­ems, now generally accepted as the work of its author, including the intricate elegiac poem, Pearl.^[19]

the end of the 12th century, Layamon in Brut adapted Wace to make the first English language work to use the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Ta­ble. It was also the first historiography written in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

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