The two manuscripts of the early Middle English chronicle La amon's Brut British Library MS
Cotton Caligula A ix and British Library MS Cotton Otho C xiii display marked differences in
their use of vocabulary. Whereas the vocabulary of the Caligula manuscript is consciously
archaising the lexicon of the Otho text is more modern. This study of the lexical fields
'hero' 'warrior' and 'knight' in the Brut chronicle investigates both the backward orientation
of the Caligula Brut towards Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry and the supposed orientation of the Otho
Brut towards the newly emerging genre of the Middle English romance. The results highlight the
creative use of Old English models in both manuscripts and disprove the hypothesised close link
between the Otho Brut and the romance genre.
