Havelok the Dane - A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln
Whistler, Charles W. (Charles Watts), 1856-1913
English
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Below is a summary of Havelok the Dane - A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln
Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln.
By Charles W. Whistler
If any excuse is needed for recasting the ancient legend of Grimthe fisher and his foster-son Havelok the Dane, it may be found inthe fascination of the story itself, which made it one of the mostpopular legends in England from the time of the Norman conquest, atleast, to that of Elizabeth. From the eleventh to the thirteenthcenturies it seems to have been almost classic; and during thatperiod two full metrical versions --- one in Norman-French and theother in English --- were written, besides many other shortversions and abridgments, which still exist. These are givenexhaustively by Professor Skeat in his edition of the English poemfor the Early English Text Society, and it is needless to do morethan refer to them here as the sources from which this story isgathered.
These versions differ most materially from one another in namesand incidents, while yet preserving the main outlines of the wholehistory. It is evident that there has been a far more ancient,orally-preserved tradition, which has been the original of thefreely-treated poems and concise prose statements of the legendwhich we have. And it seems possible, from among the manyvariations, and from under the disguise of the mediaeval forms inwhich it has been hidden, to piece together what this original mayhave been, at least with some probability.
We have one clue to the age of the legend of Havelok in thestatement by the eleventh-century Norman poet that his tale comesfrom a British source, which at least gives a very early date forthe happenings related; while another version tells us that theking of "Lindesie" was a Briton. Welsh names occur, accordingly, inseveral places; and it is more than likely that the old legendpreserved a record of actual events in the early days of theAnglo-Saxon settlement in England, when there were yet marriagesbetween conquerors and conquered, and the origins of Angle and Juteand Saxon were not yet forgotten in the pedigrees of the many pettykings.
One of the most curious proofs of the actual British origin ofthe legend is in the statement that the death of Havelok's fatheroccurred as the result of a British invasion of Denmark for KingArthur, by a force under a leader with the distinctly Norse name ofHodulf. The claim for conquest of the north by Arthur is very old,and is repeated by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and may well haveoriginated in the remembrance of some successful raid on the Danish
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