Wace and Layamon

Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine

Round Table section (p. 107) Pur les nobles baruns qu'il out, Dunt chescuns mieldre estre quidout, Chescuns se teneit al meillur, Ne nuls n'en saveit le peiur, Fist Arthur la Roünde Table Dunt Bretun dient mainte fable. Illuec seeient li vassal Tuit chevalment e tuit egal; A la table egalment seeient E egalment servi esteient; Nul d'els ne se poeit vanter Qu'il seïst plus halt de sun per. Because of the noble lords that he had around him, each of whom considered himself the best and of whom none could have said who was the least good, Arthur created the Round Table, about which the Britons/Bretons tell many stories. The noblemen used to sit at it, all at favoured places, and all equal. They were seated at the table as equals, and were served their food as equals; none of them could boast that he had a seat of higher dignity than his companion

Winchester Round Table (ca. 1275)

Bwrdd Arthur, Isle of Anglesey (Iron Age fort)

Caerleon, Amphitheater

Round Table Henge Penrith. Lake District

Beowulf, ll Hwæt, we Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, Hu ða æþelingas ellen gefremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum weorðmyndum þah, Oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs god cyning!

Beowulf (Seamus Heaney translation) So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness. We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns. There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes, a wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes. This terror of the hall-troops had come far. A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on as his powers waxed and his worth was proved. In the end each clan on the outlying coasts beyond the whale-road had to yield to him and begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.

Table-Men, Sennen (Cornwall)

A prest was in londe. Laweman. was hote. he was Leucais sone. lef him beo Driste. He wonede at Ernleie wid þan gode cniþte. uppen Seuarne. merie þer him þohte. faste bi Radistone þer heo bokes radde. Hit com him on mode. & on his þonke. þat he wolde. of Engelond þe ristnesse telle. wat þe men hi-hote weren. and wan[e]ne hi comen. þe Englene lond ærest afden. after þan flode. þat fram God com. þat al ere acwelde. cwic þat hit funde. bote Noe and Sem. Iaphet and Cam. and hire four wifes. þat mid ham þere weren. There was a priest in the land; Layamon was he called. He was Leovenath's son; the Lord be gracious to him; He dwelt at Earnley, at a noble church, Upon Severn shore,-good there he thought it,- Quite near to Redstone; he read there his service book. It came to his mind and into his serious thought, To relate of the English their noble deeds, What they were called and whence they had come, Who first did possess the land of the English, After the flood, which came from the Lord, And did destroy all things that it found alive, Except Noah and Shem, Japhet and Ham, And their four wives who were with them in the ark. Layamon, Brut, ll. 1-13

Layamon manuscript (two dragons)