Beves dede a gret fighting—
Swich bataile ded never non
Cristene man of flesch and bon—
Of a dragoun thar beside,
That Beves slough ther in that tide;
Save Sire Lancelet de Lake
He faught with a furdrake [fiery dragon],
And Wade dede also
And never knightes boute thai to.’[63]
This allusion is the more interesting as, saving in the case of Morien, to which I have already referred, I have nowhere found this special feat attributed to Lancelot; certainly it does not occur in the whole extent of the Prose Lancelot, nor is it ever alluded to in that romance. Yet, if my theory of the evolution of the Lancelot legend be correct, such a combat ought certainly, at one time, to have formed part of his story. The evidence of this Anglo-Norman romance, supported as it is by the independent testimony of Morien, is therefore especially welcome; I am inclined to think that it strongly increases the probability of a definitely insular version of the story, differing in some respects from the continental, having existed at the time the ‘Sir Bevis’ was written.