Having come to an end of our survey of Wace's surviving works, it may be concluded that the most salient feature of his oeuvre is the consistency of his approach. The five characteristics of the poet's religious works listed in the conclusion to Part I apply equally to both the Roman de Brut and virtually all of the Roman de Rou. These characteristics were:

1. The use of more than one source.

In the case of the hagiographical poems, it could be argued that the plurality of sources used by Wace was dictated by the agenda his patron(s) wished him to fulfil. His brief was never merely to transpose into French a Latin original, it would seem, but to produce an up-to-date version of the legends or Lives, taking account of all the information scattered in all available sources. In the simplest case, La Vie de sainte Marguerite, this led to a narrative based on one main source, into which relevant elements from a second version of the legend were seamlessly woven. With La Vie de saint Nicolas, which is essentially a compendium of miracles, the approach is more compilatory, but with a discrimination and selectiveness not usually connected with compilation. Wace used more than two sources here, showing that his work was intended to be an entirely new redaction of the Life of the saint. Finally, La Conception Nostre Dame is a highly complex piece of writing, gathering together an impressive number of sources in what is a completely new, independently thought-out account of the Life of the Virgin.

The evidence of the Roman de Brut, where such research would not seem to have been necessary, shows that the gathering of material related to the subject to be treated was a routine stage in Wace's preparation. He thus studied both the text authored by Geoffrey of Monmouth, known as the vulgate version of the Historia Regum Britanniae, and its revised (or Variant) version, by an anonymous redactor.