Before Norman's denial, answer shortly (4)
I believe the answer is:
anon
'shortly' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'before norman's denial answer' is the wordplay.
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'norman's denial' becomes 'non' ('no' in French, as spoken in Normandy).
'answer' becomes 'a' (abbreviation eg in Q and A).
'non' after 'a' is 'ANON'.
(Other definitions for anon that I've seen before include "Of unknown identity, in short" , "before long" , "Nameless (abbr.); soon" , "Soon - unknown author (abbr)" , "Writer unknown" .)