Havelok the Dane

  Produced by Martin Robb.

  Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln.

  By Charles W. Whistler

  PREFACE.

  If any excuse is needed for recasting the ancient legend of Grim thefisher and his foster-son Havelok the Dane, it may be found in thefascination of the story itself, which made it one of the most popularlegends in England from the time of the Norman conquest, at least, tothat of Elizabeth. From the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries itseems to have been almost classic; and during that period two fullmetrical versions---one in Norman-French and the other in English---were written, besides many other short versions and abridgments, whichstill exist. These are given exhaustively by Professor Skeat in hisedition of the English poem for the Early English Text Society, and itis needless to do more than refer to them here as the sources from whichthis story is gathered.

  These versions differ most materially from one another in names andincidents, while yet preserving the main outlines of the whole history.It is evident that there has been a far more ancient, orally-preservedtradition, which has been the original of the freely-treated poems andconcise prose statements of the legend which we have. And it seemspossible, from among the many variations, and from under the disguise ofthe mediaeval forms in which it has been hidden, to piece together whatthis original may have been, at least with some probability.

  We have one clue to the age of the legend of Havelok in the statement bythe eleventh-century Norman poet that his tale comes from a Britishsource, which at least gives a very early date for the happeningsrelated; while another version tells us that the king of "Lindesie" wasa Briton. Welsh names occur, accordingly, in several places; and it ismore than likely that the old legend preserved a record of actual eventsin the early days of the Anglo-Saxon settlement in England, when therewere yet marriages between conquerors and conquered, and the origins ofAngle and Jute and Saxon were not yet forgotten in the pedigrees of themany petty kings.

  One of the most curious proofs of the actual British origin of thelegend is in the statement that the death of Havelok's father occurredas the result of a British invasion of Denmark for King Arthur, by aforce under a leader with the distinctly Norse name of Hodulf. The claimfor conquest of the north by Arthur is very old, and is repeated byGeoffrey of Monmouth, and may well have originated in the remembrance ofsome successful raid on the Danish coasts by the Norse settlers in theGower district of Pembrokeshire, in company with a contingent of theirWelsh neighbours.

  This episode does not occur in the English version; but here an attackon Havelok on his return home to Denmark is made by men led by oneGriffin, and this otherwise unexplainable survival of a Welsh name seemsto connect the two accounts in some way that recalls the ancient legendat the back of both.

  I have therefore treated the Welsh element in the story as deserving amore prominent place, at least in subsidiary incidents, than it has inthe two old metrical versions. It has been possible to follow neither ofthese exactly, as in names and details they are widely apart; but to onewho knows both, the sequence of events will, I think, be clear enough.

  I have, for the same reason of the British origin of the legend,preferred the simple and apposite derivation of the name of "Curan,"taken by the hero during his servitude, from the Welsh Cwran, "awonder," to the Norman explanation of the name as meaning a "scullion,"which seems to be rather a guess, based on the menial position of theprince, than a translation.

  For the long existence of a Welsh servile population in the lowlands ofLincolnshire there is evidence enough in the story of Guthlac ofCrowland, and the type may still be found there. There need be littleexcuse for claiming some remains of their old Christianity among them,and the "hermit" who reads the dream for the princess may well have beena half-forgotten Welsh priest. But the mediaeval poems haveChristianized the ancient legend, until it would seem to stand insomewhat the same relationship to what it was as the German "NiebelungenLied" does to the "Volsunga Saga."

  With regard to the dreams which recur so constantly, I have in the caseof the princess transferred the date of hers to the day previous to hermarriage, the change only involving a difference of a day, but seemingto he needed, as explanatory of her sudden submission to her guardian.And instead of crediting Havelok with the supernatural light bodily, ithas been transferred to the dream which seems to haunt those who have todo with him.

  As to the names of the various characters, they are in the old versionshardly twice alike. I have, therefore, taken those which seem to havebeen modernized from their originals, or preserved by simpletransliteration, and have set them back in what seems to have been theirfirst form. Gunther, William, and Bertram, for instance, seem to bemodernized from Gunnar, Withelm, and perhaps Berthun; while Sykar,Aunger, and Gryme are but alternative English spellings of the northernSigurd, Arngeir, and Grim.

  The device on Havelok's banner in chapter xxi. is exactly copied fromthe ancient seal of the Corporation of Grimsby,[1]which is of the date of Edward the First. The existence of this isperhaps the best proof that the story of Grim and Havelok is more than aromance. Certainly the Norse "Heimskringla" record claims an oldernorthern origin for the town than that of the Danish invasion ofAlfred's time; and the historic freedom of its ships from toll in theport of Elsinore has always been held to date from the days of its founder.

  The strange and mysterious "blue stones" of Grimsby and Louth are yet inevidence, and those of the former town are connected by legend withGrim. Certainly they have some very ancient if long-forgottenassociations, and it is more than likely that they have been brought as"palladia" with the earliest northern settlers. A similar stone existsin the centre of the little East Anglian town of Harleston, with adefinite legend of settlement attached to it; and there may be others.The Coronation Stone of Westminster and the stone in Kingston-on-Thamesare well-known proofs of the ancient sanctity that surrounded suchobjects for original reasons that are now lost.

  The final battle at Tetford, with its details, are from the Norman poem.The later English account is rounded off with the disgrace and burningalive of the false guardian; but for many reasons the earlier seems tobe the more correct account. Certainly the mounds of some greatforgotten fight remain in the Tetford valley, and Havelok is said tohave come to "Carleflure," which, being near Saltfleet, and on the roadto Tetford, may be Canton, where there is a strong camp of what isapparently Danish type.

  Those who can read with any comfort the crabbed Norman-French and EarlyEnglish poetic versions will see at once where I have added incidentsthat may bring the story into a connected whole, as nearly as possibleon the old Saga lines; and those readers to whom the old romance is newwill hardly wish that I should pull the story to pieces again, to nopurpose so far as they are concerned. And, at least, for a fairly freetreatment of the subject, I have the authority of those previous authorswhom I have mentioned.

  In the different versions, the founder of Grimsby is variously describedas a steward of the Danish king's castle, a merchant, a fisher, and inthe English poem---probably because it was felt that none other wouldhave undertaken the drowning of the prince---as a thrall. Anotherversion gives no account of the sack episode, but says that Grim findsboth queen and prince wandering on the shore. Grim the fisher iscertainly a historic character in his own town, and it has not been hardto combine the various callings of the worthy foster-father of Havelokand the troubles of both mother and son. A third local variant tellsthat Havelok was found at Grimsby by the fisher adrift in an open boat;and I have given that boat also a place in the story, in a different way.

  The names of the kings are too far lost to be set back in their place inhistory, but Professor Skeet gives the probable date of Havelok and Grimas at the end of the sixth century,
with a possible identification ofthe former with the "governor of Lincoln" baptized by Paulinus. I have,therefore, assumed this period where required. But a legend of this kindis a romance of all time, and needs no confinement to date and place.Briton and Saxon, Norman and Englishman, and maybe Norseman and Dane,have loved the old story, and with its tale of right and love triumphantit still has its own power.

  Stockland, 1899

  Chas. W. Whistler

  CHAPTER I. GRIM THE FISHER AND HIS SONS.

  This story is not about myself, though, because I tell of things that Ihave seen, my name must needs come into it now and then. The man whosedeeds I would not have forgotten is my foster-brother, Havelok, of whomI suppose every one in England has heard. Havelok the Dane men call himhere, and that is how he will always be known, as I think.

  He being so well known, it is likely that some will write down hisdoings, and, not knowing them save by