Texts in Middle English (as opposed to French or Latin) begin as a trickle in the 13th Century,
with works such as the debate poem “The Owl
and the Nightingale” (probably composed
around 1200) and the long historical poem
known as Layamon's “Brut” (from around the
same period). Most of Middle English
literature, at least up until the flurry of literary
activity in the latter part of the 14th Century, is
of unknown authorship.