How did Wace’s Roman de Brut influence Layamon’s Middle English Brut?

Wace’s Roman de Brut (1155) served as the primary source for Layamon’s Middle English Brut, composed around 1200. While Wace’s work was a romanticized, octosyllabic paraphrase of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae, Layamon utilized it to introduce the "matter of Britain"—the legends of Arthur and the Round Table—into the English language at a time when French and Latin dominated literature.123

Layamon’s adaptation significantly transformed the tone of the narrative. Whereas Wace’s version was characterized by its romanticized style and fanciful additions, Layamon’s Brut moved away from high chivalric treatment. Instead, Layamon employed approximately 16,000 long alliterative lines to provide a distinctly Germanic and heroic flavor, focusing on mass warfare and portraying Arthur as a traditional Germanic war leader. By directly imitating Wace’s chronicle, Layamon’s work became a landmark in the revival of English literature following the Norman Conquest.213