Arthur's kingdom, and is besieging the queen in one of her castles. Lancelot and Gawain go at once to her aid, and nothing is heard of the lady whose hand was to have been the reward of the venture. But, as I have noted above, there is no sign that Lancelot knew anything of the promised guerdon; his conduct is therefore more intelligible and less unchivalrous than in the _lai_. The special points of contact with the _Tristan_ story are these: (_a_) The nature of the animal, which is undoubtedly in both cases a dragon. (_b_) The hero undertakes the adventure unsolicited. Tristan lands in Ireland, hears of the dragon's ravages and goes off secretly to slay it. He has no thought of winning Iseult for himself. In both versions of the _lai_ the lady herself invites the adventure. (_c_) The character of the traitor: in both _Tristan_ and _Morien_ he is represented as being too cowardly to dare the feat himself but as watching his opportunity to rob a brave man of the fruit of his valour. In the _lai_ variants 'opportunity makes the traitor'; in these two versions the traitor is on the watch for his opportunity. (_d_) In both cases he is attracted to the spot by the death-cry of the monster. The appearance of Gawain, on the other hand, the death of the traitor, and the fact that it is the _foot_ and not, as it should be, the _head_, which is cut off, clearly show the influence of the _lai_. The ending is, of course, unsatisfactory, and it is curious that the writer, who in the details noted above clearly shows a knowledge of the excellent and complete version of the _Tristan_ legend, should not have finished his story more in accordance with that tale. It is not impossible that the original adventure as contained in the _Morien_ poem _was_ the stag adventure, and that the compiler of the Dutch _Lancelot_, who evidently possessed an extensive collection of Arthurian documents, knowing that he was going to relate the story later on, purposely altered the earlier portion more in accordance with the dragon adventure of the Tristan tale, retaining the later portion for the sake of the rôle played by Gawain, who is one of his heroes, and who, it is scarcely necessary to say, does not appear in the _Tristan_ legend. Unfortunately we have no other version of the _Morien_ save that of the Dutch _Lancelot_, so the question must remain undetermined; all we can say with certainty is that the adventure as there related is combined from two distinct variants of the same original _motif_. An interesting feature of the _Morien_ story is that it shows the _Lancelot_ legend influenced by the _Tristan_ at a point practically unconnected with the central _motif_ of that story, the loves of Tristan and Iseult.