What is "layamon"

Layamon or Laghamon (; ) - spelled Laȝamon or Laȝamonn in his time, occasionally written Lawman - was a poet of the late 12th/early 13th century and author of the Brut, a notable work that was the first to present the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in English poetry.

J. R. R. Tolkien valued him as a transmitter of early English legends in a fashion comparable to the role played with respect to Icelandic legend by Snorri Sturluson.