Land and Language in Layamon's Brut

Sponsoring Organization(s)

International Lawman's Brut Society

Organizer Name

Kenneth Tiller

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Virginia's College at Wise

Presider Name

Kenneth Tiller

Paper Title 1

Counting on Corineus

Presenter 1 Name

Timothy J. Nelson

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of Arkansas-Fayetteville

Paper Title 2

Warring Brothers, Inheritance, and the Land in Layamon's Brut

Presenter 2 Name

Lesley Jacobs

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Brown Univ.

Paper Title 3

A Ditch Wondrously Deep: The Ditch as a Technology in Layamon's Brut

Presenter 3 Name

Gail Berlin

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania

Start Date

12-5-2018 10:00 AM

Session Location

Schneider 1145

Description

The papers in this session offer new approaches to land and its relation to language in Layamon’s Brut and in analogous English historical texts. The first presenter, Timothy Nelson, examines the role of Corineus, the first Duke of Cornwall, in the founding, shaping, and naming of Britain in the Brut and in other vernacular adaptations of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae. Emphasizing Layamon’s position near the Welsh borders, Lesley Jacobs’ study focuses on Welsh issues of partible inheritance and fraternal strife on Layamon’s presentation of father-son relationships and of brothers. Gail Berlin examines the technological significance of ditches in the Brut. Collectively, these papers provide insight into the poetic and rhetorical weight of Layamon’s depictions of the British land and into how the land itself influences his presentation of British history.

Kenneth Tiller