LA3AMON’S BRUT AND THE VERNACULAR TEXT: WIDENING THE CONTEXT

Abstract

Since nineteenth century, early Middle English text La3amon's Brut (c. 1189-1236) has been seen as a pivotal witness in story of re-emergence of written vernacular English after Norman Conquest of 1066.1 In current discussions of vernacular languages in medieval English literature however, text has been largely absent, even avoided. I hope to show that La3amon's Brut has much to offer current debates about Middle English and European vernacular writings of twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Rather than address linguistic concerns, this article will approach phenomenon of La3amon's early Middle English text through questions about material manuscripts. It will position a thirteenth-century manuscript of La3amon's Brut in comparison with contemporary Castilian vernacular manuscript production and will argue that London, British Library, Cotton MS Caligula A. ix may implicate late thirteenth-century imperial agendas in its production and readership, and as such material details of transmission of La3amon's history can open up new possibilities for what we have called of vernacular Middle English.For last decade, study of medieval vernacular literatures has been in an era of reassessment. We have seen energetic focus on AngloNorman vernacular writings, subfield made memorable by term the French of England, and in wider contexts of medieval European literature, we have seen coining of term vernacularity to enable comparative study across languages and cultures. In transnational European context, an older literary historical model of vernacular literature received from nineteenth and twentieth centuries involved a story of genius of Dante in elevating vulgar tongue to status of Latin for literary composition, with direct consequences for rise of humanism and individual. Charles W. Jones, for example, wrote in 1950 that Dante's De rnlgari eloquentia (The Illustrious Vernacular) presented universal concepts in idioms that had never yet been used for more than local or provincial exchange of thought.2 More recent intellectual interests with regard to vernacular languages have resisted linear narratives and look instead to reassess complexities of multilingualism and processes of vernacularization.Among recent transnational projects on medieval vernaculars, McKitterick and Binski in exhibition catalogue The Cambridge Illuminations assume creative coexistence of Latin literature and vernacular literature in twelfth century.3 Fiona Somerset and Nicholas Watson in The Vulgar Tongue (2003) posit that addressing sociolinguistic issues of medieval European vernaculars can foster interdisciplinary discussion between medievalists and scholars of modern.4 They advocate discovering intellectual relationships between widely separated situations by building comparatively from cultural particularity of specific language situations. William Crossgrove, writing on medieval scientific texts and arguing for greater scholarly collaboration across disciplines, also advocates specific case studies before building grand schemes. He poses question of how traced paths of a text reveal particular process of vernacularization in terms of what gets translated, when, and by whom.5 Paul Strohm critiques developmental literary historical narratives of and growth of vernacular languages, and he summarizes how these narratives work in field of Middle English: Such narratives - all of which possess some truth but also require some modification - include movement from a multi-lingual culture to primacy of English as a spoken and written language; a broad increase in literacy, and especially vernacular literacy; continued encroachment of writing upon domain of orality; and emergence of printing and appearance of printed book. …