to have been published perhaps as early as 1530—see 1530 in poetry). In three of the manuscripts, only a fragment of the story survives: Oxford, University College MS 14 Naples MS 13 B 9 (dated to 1457) Gray's Inn MS 20 (dated to 1350) A complete or nearly complete version of Sir Isumbras is found in these manuscripts: Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College MS 175 (mid-fifteenth century) Lincoln Cathedral MS 91, the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript (c. 1440) British Library MS Cotton Caligula A ii (second half of the fifteenth century) National Library of Scotland Advocates MS 19.3.1 (late-fifteenth century) Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 61 (late-fifteenth century) Bodleian Library MS Douce 261 (1564) Plot (This plot summary is based upon the version of the poem found in Gonville and Caius College Cambridge MS 175, a missing folio supplied by British Library Cotton Caligula A ii.) Sir Isumbras lives a comfortable life; he is a generous nobleman with a young family, a beautiful, loving wife and enjoys a respected position in society. However, his failure to think about his Christian duties causes God to tell him that he grown too proud. The message is delivered, curiously, by a speaking bird. (This resembles the way that Sigurd is warned by the birds to kill Regin in the Saga of the Volsungs when he is splashed by the juice from the dragon's heart as it cooks and can immediately understand their language. Similarly, Canace is able to understand the lament of a lady-falcon in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tale from the Squire.) Sir Isumbras is riding in his forest early one morning when a bird in the branches above him begins to talk. It tells him that one of two things must happen, and that he can choose his fate: either he can be wealthy in his youth and impoverished in his old age, or the other way around. Sir Isumbras, with no hesitation, chooses to have wealth in his old age, since: “In yowthe I may ryde and go, I elde I may noght do so, My lymes wyll wex unwelde.” ("In youth I can run about and ride a horse, but in old age I won’t be able to do any of these things because my limbs will be crippled." ) Immediately, Sir Isumbras's horse falls down dead beneath him, his hawks and hounds flee away in startled fright and a boy comes