§ Manuscripts of Bevis

The primary text is generally considered to be the Auchinleck manuscript.
    The National Library of Scotland which owns the manuscript has a digitized version up on its site^*1.

    An easier to read version with normalized spelling and annotations (glossary and notes) is found on the Camelot Project site^*2.

    Within the site is given the breakdown of Bevis texts, provided by Russell A. Peck in Cinderella Bib. - Sources & Analogues, citing Flanagan, Sarah Patricia. The Male Cinderella in English Metrical Romance. MA Thesis. Providence: Brown University, 1931 as his source.

[Bevis - "A" group of texts]:

• Cambridge University Library Ff.2.38, fols 102r-133r (1450-1500); "C" [Camelot Project abbr.]
• Caius Cambridge 175, fols 131v-156r (1400-1450); "CC"
• BL Egerton 2862, fols 45v-94r, 96v-96r (1375-1400); "E"
• Advocates 19.2.1 (Auchinleck), fols 176v-201v (ca. 1330)."A"
• Naples, Royal Library XIII.B.29, pp. 23-79 (ca. 1457). "N"

[Bevis - "B" group of texts]:

• Chetham 8009, fols 122v-187r (1450-1500); "M"
• Trinity Cambridge 117 (fragment), fols 149-152 (1400-1500);
• Wynkyn de Worde, Westminster 1500 (STC no. 1987); (only 2 leaves survive)
• R. Pynson, London, ca. 1503 (STC no. 1988); (oldest surviving complete printed ver.)
• W. Copland, ca. 1565 (STC no 1989). (William Copland also printed Guy)

In the list above, I have appended the manuscript abbreviation I've seen employed by the Camelot Project Team (Herzman et al.), but beware that it differs from Kölbing's abbreviations.

    Eugen Kölbing edited a critical edition^*3 based on the six complete handwritten manuscripts and the oldest complete printed edition (Pynson's). This has now been placed online by Michigan U.'s Corpus of ME Prose & Verse.
    This online version has the complete set of image's from Kölbing's volume, and though the preface etc. has apparently not been OCR'd, there is a complete transcription of the Bevis texts themselves.
    In Kölbing's printed volume, each page is split into top and bottom. The "A" group being the "top text," the "B" group being the bottom text, and a separater in the middle. The major text variations are footnoted (separate footnote sections for the top text and bottom text).
    For the top text ("A" group) the primary text is the Auchinleck text. Because the Caius text varies significantly from the Auchinleck, they are footnoted in large text blocks at a time. in footnote. But only about half of the original Caius text survives.
    For the "bottom text" ("B" group) The primary text is "M." (Chetham ms.), and variants in other texts being noted in footnotes. Here, most of the variants are from Pynson's printed book (designated "O.").
Kölbing's manuscript abbreviations are as below (caution:inconsistent with Project Camelot)

A. = Auchinleck ms. fol. 176a-201a (<1327);
E. Caius College No.175, fol.131a-156b. (2nd half 14c.);
S. Ms. of the Duke of Sutherland, fol.45-94, fol.96 (end 14c.);
[=(now Brit. Library Egerton 2862).]
N. Royal Library of Naples, Ms. XIII B, 29, fol. (15c.);
C. Cambridge, paper ms. FF. 2, 38 (old number 690), fol. 102b-133b
L. Douce Fragments, No. 19. Two leaves of the oldest printed edition.
M. Chetham Library, Manchester Ms. 8009, fol. 122a-187b.
O. Pynson, 1503 publication. "old printed copy".
.

§ Aroundight

    The mention of Lancelot's sword Aroundight does not occur in the primary Auchinleck text. But it occurs in the Caius ms. variant as noted by Ellis^*1.
    It turns out taht the sword-name also occurs in the other variant edited by Kölbing, although they have wildly different spelling. This new find has now been supplemented on my Aroundight page.

§ Lancelot in a catalog of dragon-slayers

Although Aroundight is not found in the Auchinleck ms., the inclusion of Lancelot in a catalog of dragon-slayers is found in both the Auchinleck and the Caius 175, viz.:

: ――   Sir Launcelot du Lake Fought with the brenning drake4: Guy of Warwick, I understand, Slew a dragon in Northumberland; But such a dragon was never seen As Sir Bevis slew, I wene. 4 Burning dragon. See an account of this adventure in Malory's Morte Arthur, lib. xi. cap. i. —Sir Bevis, SEEMR, vol.2, , ed. George Ellis, pp.264-5

Þat Beues slouʒ þer in þat tide Saue sire Launcelet de Lake; He fauʒt wiþ a fur drake, And Wade dede also, 2430 & neuer kniʒtes boute þai to. Gij a Warwik, ich vnderstonde, Slouʒ a dragoun in Norþhomberlonde. — Sir Beues of Hamtoun, Auchinleck ms.,

§ Anglo-Norman origins

The website Arthuriana A2Z Arondight in provides a tantalizing hint that "The sword belonging to 'Lancelot du Lac' in Norman romance," yet the description is woefully lacking in detail. Nevertheless this "Norman romance" must indeed be Bevis. Ellis says there is

"not .. sufficient authority for considering this romance to be founded on Saxon tradition. It is a translation from the Anglo-Norman".

And this opinion is generally held. But another problem with the way the Arthuraiana A2Z source phrases this is that it almost suggests the mention of Arondight is to be found in the surviving Anglo-Norman text^*3 even though that is not the case. To quote from the Introduction to Bevis written by the Herzman team:

Bevis' battle with the dragon which likens him to St. George, the patron saint of England, and the descriptive urban war in London, for example, do not appear in the Anglo-Norman version.

These are precisely the two passages/scenes in which Lancelot is mentioned in the Middle-English metrical romances, thus mention of Lancelot is also lacking in the surviving AN version, as Langlois^*3 can attest.

§ Drayton, Polyolbion ii

In the "B group" (Chetham ms.), Iosyan (Kölbing, p.46) supplied Bevis with the sword Morglay as well as armor and the horse Arundel:

:

Luckily there is an online quote of it at: Drayton's 2nd song, Hampshire etc 1613

:

The great Armenian King made noble Bevis Knight:

And having raised pow'r, Damascus to invade,

330 The General of his force this English hero made.

Then, how fair Josian gave him Arundell his steed,

And Morglay his good sword, in many a gallant deed

Which manfully he tried. …