Layamon's story conforms essentially to an early type
of Celtic fairy-mistress story, according to which a valorous hero, in
response to the summons of a fay who has set her love upon him, under
the guidance of a fairy messenger sails over seas to the otherworld,
where he remains for an indefinite time in happiness, oblivious of
earth. It is easy to see that the belief that Arthur was still living,
though not in this world, might gradually take shape in such a form as
this, and that his absence from his country might be interpreted as
his prolonged sojourn in the distant land of a fairy queen, who was
proffering him, not the delights of her love, but healing for his
wounds, in order that when he was made whole again he might return "to
help the Britons." Historic, mythical, and romantic tradition have
combined to produce the version that Layamon records. Geoffrey of
Monmouth (xi. 2), writing in the mock role of serious historian and
with a tendency to rationalisation, says not a word of the wounded
king's possible return to earth. Wace, with characteristic caution,
affirms that he will not commit himself as to whether the Britons, who
say that Arthur is still in Avalon, speak the truth or not. Here, as
in the story of the Round Table, it is Layamon who has preserved for
us what was undoubtedly the form that the belief had already assumed
in Celtic story, through whatever medium it may have passed before it
reached his hands.
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