Layamon's Brut and the March of Wales: Merlin, his Prophecies, and the Lex Marchia

This study explores Layamon's engenderment of cultural unification for the explicit purposes of an Anglo-Welsh cultural resistance to the Norman overlords in the March of Wales. In essence, I examine some of the most important cultural signifiers in medieval English and Welsh culture and the methods by which the poet adapts and grafts them together to form a culturally amalgamated text—neither explicitly English nor Welsh but yet simultaneously both - and the political implications of this amalgamation. Though Laymon's methodology emanates from multiple aspects of the text, I have concentrated here on what I feel are the most explicit manifestations of this theme: Merlin, his prophecies, and the Law of the March.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Department dc:contributor.department

English

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Helbert, Daniel Glynn

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Mosser, Daniel W.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Eska, Charlene M.
• Tiller, Kenneth J.

• Prophecy
• British History
• Layamon
• Merlin
• Norman Conquest
• "March of Wales"
• March Law
• Middle Ages
• Lex Marchia
• cultural unification
• Middle Welsh
• medieval historiography
• Lazamon
• Lawman
• Middle English
• revolution

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Dc Identifier Other

etd-04222011-182828

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/76961