SOURCE: "The Home of the Beves Saga," Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (PMLA), Vol. XVII, No. 2, 1902, pp. 237-46.

In the essay reprinted below, Hoyt contends that the Bevis saga is of Anglo-Saxon derivation, not French or German. To support his argument, he calls attention to important parallels between the Bevis story and the tale of King Horn—an early-thirteenth-century English romance of indigenous origin.

The question of the original home of the Beves saga has often been discussed, but no satisfactory conclusion has been reached. The conjectures regarding it have been various, but as yet unconvincing.

Amaury Duval¹ places the scene of the story in France at Antonne, but without giving definite grounds for this supposition. Turnbull² and Kölbing³ both adopt this view without argument. Pio Rajna⁴ was the first to suggest a Germanic home for the saga, locating Hanstone (Hamtoun) on the continent...