Mavzu: British literature

Late medieval literature: 1066–1485[edit]

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.

Main article: Middle English literature

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]

Some works were still written in Latin; these include Gerald of Wales's late-12th-century book on his beloved Wales, Itinerarium Cambriae. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, Anglo-Norman literature developed, 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 Oïl literature.^[16]

Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 – c. 1155) was one of the major figures in the development of British history and of the popularity of 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; he also developed the Arthurian legend.^[17]) At 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.