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Studies in Philology STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY Volume Summer, Number The Legend of Havelok the Dane 6859 STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY / 100:3 / sheet 3 of 160 and the Historiography of East Anglia by Scott Kleinman THE STORY AND ITS SOURCES HE story of Havelok the Dane appears to have been well known in eastern England from the twelfth century to the end of the Middle Ages.The earliest Anglo-Norman version occurs in Geof- T 1 frey Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis. The plot can be summarized as follows: During the reign of Arthur’s nephew Constantine, the Danish king Adelbriht, who has conquered Norfolk and the land from Colchester to Holland in Lincoln- shire, marries Orwain, the sister of King Edelsi, a Briton, who rules Lincoln and Lindsey and the land from Humber to Rutland. Their daughter Argentille be- comes the ward of her uncle after the death of her parents, and Edelsi marries her off to a scullion called Cuaran in an attempt to disinherit her. This Cuaran turns out to be Haveloc, the son of Gunter, the hereditary king of Denmark who was slain by King Arthur for withholding tribute. Haveloc discovers his lin- eage, returns to Denmark, and takes back the throne from one Odulf, who has occupied it illegitimately. He then invades England and forces Edelsi to sur- render Argentille’s heritage. When Edelsi dies soon afterwards, Haveloc and Argentille rule his kingdom for twenty years. 1 Geoffrey Gaimar, L’Estoire des Engleis, ed. Alexander Bell, Anglo-Norman Text Society – (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, ), ll. –. Translations from this and other non- English texts are my own. © The University of North Carolina Press Tseng 2003.6.17 07:26 Havelok and the Historiography of East Anglia The story is best known today from the fourteenth-century Middle En- 2 glish poem Havelok the Dane. The poem differs from Gaimar’s account in the names of its characters and many details of plot, as the following summary shows: King Athelwold of England dies, leaving his daughter Goldeburgh in the hands of Earl Godrich of Cornwall. Meanwhile, King Birkabeyn of Denmark dies, leav- ing Havelok in the hands of his seneschal Godard, who orders the fisherman Grim to kill the young prince. Instead, Grim sails to England and raises Havelok in Grimsby. Havelok eventually takes a job in the kitchens at Lincoln Castle, where Godrich, thinking Havelok is a commoner, marries him to Goldeburgh in order to disinherit her. When Havelok’s royal heritage is revealed, he goes to 6859 STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY / 100:3 / sheet 4 of 160 Denmark, defeats Godard, and then returns to England and defeats Godrich to become king in both countries. There are also a number of shorter versions of the story or references to Havelok in a variety of sources, which will be surveyed below. It was once thought that some or all the extant texts derived from a common source, probably an earlier poem in Anglo-Norman French, but this 3 view has been convincingly disproved by Alexander Bell. Today these variations are usually treated as corruptions or confusions of accounts similar to one of the two main versions or as variants that developed in folk tradition. It is also generally assumed that the Havelok legend has its origins in historical events before the Norman Conquest, but that it has been so modified by centuries of retelling that only a few details of the original story remain in the extant versions. The strongest evidence for a pre-Conquest origin to the story is the name Havelok itself, along with the nickname Cuaran used by Gaimar. This nickname was also ap- plied to the tenth-century Norse king Ólafr Sigtryggson, and since Ólafr is frequently rendered Abloyc in Welsh sources, many have concluded that the Havelok story ultimately goes back to a tale about Ólafr Sig- tryggson that passed at some point through a Celtic-speaking area of Britain, probably Cumbria. That said, there is little other resemblance between the life of the historical Ólafr and the legendary Havelok, so the story as we have it is clearly a great deal removed from any historical 4 account of the Norse king. 2 3 Havelok the Dane, ed. G. V. Smithers (Oxford: Clarendon Press, ). Le Lai d’Haveloc and Gaimar’s Haveloc Episode, ed. Alexander Bell, Publications of the University of Manchester, French Series (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, ), –. For the belief that there was a common French original for all known ver- sions, see the critique by E. K. Putnam, ‘‘The Lambeth Version of Havelok,’’ PMLA ():4 –. For the relationship between the names of Havelok and Ólafr Sigtryggson, see Smith- Tseng 2003.6.17 07:26 Scott Kleinman Some commentators have attempted to connect other characters in the story with historical figures and the plot with various historical sce- narios before the Norman Conquest. The most recent and elaborate of such theories is by Max Deutschbein, who sees Ólafr Sigtryggson as the focal point for stories about several historical scenarios having to do with Scandinavian activity in England and concludes that this was a story about the struggles between the Anglo-Saxons and the Scan- 5 dinavians for control of the north of England and Mercia. However, such attempts to trace the extant versions of the story back to histori- cal episodes have met with some skepticism. This is in part because no scenario has emerged as more convincing than the others, and in part 6859 STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY / 100:3 / sheet 5 of 160 because the names of the characters in the story are not always related to the historical figures with whom they have been connected. Hence, when Kenneth Sisam considered the various theories of Deutschbein and others in his revision of W.W. Skeat’s edition of Havelok the Dane,he concluded that ‘‘if these divergent views point to any result, it is that the Havelok story corresponds to no history at all. Popular romances must 6 not be taken too seriously, even when they contain historical names.’’ Sisam’s comment recognizes the prevalent assumption today that 7 Havelok the Dane is more popular romance than history. This perspec- tive is heavily influenced by comments by Robert Mannyng in the s. ers, Havelok, lv. There is extensive discussion of Ólafr Sigtryggson’s history in Alfred P. Smyth, Scandinavian York and Dublin, vols. (Dublin: Templekieran Press, ), vol. , ch. It seems unlikely that Gaimar associated the name Haveloc with Ólafr Sigtryggson since he does not mention Haveloc when he encounters Anlaf Cwiran in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is true that in connection with the Danish invasions of the s he mentions a ‘‘geune Sidroc / qui fud le parent Haveloc’’ (ll. –), but the reference is to Earl Sidroc (Sigtryggr) the Young, who died in battle in , not to the father of Ólafr Sigtryggson. On the possible reasons for Gaimar’s mention of Haveloc here, see Bell, L’Estoire,n.tol.: ‘‘Whether, as Gross suggests, Gaimar, in need of a rime to Sidroc (line ), recalled the name of the Danish king whose story he had told at length much earlier or whether the name5 refers to some other person is an unsolved puzzle.’’ Max Deutschbein, Studien zur Sagengeschichte Englands (Cöthen: O. Schulze, ). For earlier discussions, see The Ancient English Romance of Havelok the Dane, ed. Frederick Madden for the Roxburghe Club (London, ) and Harald E. Heyman, Studies on the Havelok-Tale (Upsala: Wretmans Tryckeri, ). A more recent discussion by Hans Mat- ter in Englische Gründungssagen von Geoffrey of Monmouth bis zur Renaissance, Anglistische Forschungen6 (): v– (at –), has little to add. The Lay of Havelok, ed. W. W. Skeat, d ed., rev. Kenneth Sisam (Oxford: Clarendon Press, ; reprint with corrections, ), xxvi. Smithers provides little discussion of the issue7 in his more recent edition. Recently, Nancy Mason Bradbury has argued influentially that the story itself has its origins in oral tradition. See Bradbury, ‘‘The Traditional Origins of Havelok the Dane,’’ Studies in Philology (): –. Tseng 2003.6.17 07:26 Havelok and the Historiography of East Anglia Coming across a reference to Havelok in his source, Langtoft’s Chronicle, he remarks: Bot I haf grete ferly þat I fynd no man þat has writen in story how Hauelok þis lond wan .................. Bot þat þise lowed men vpon Inglish tellis, right story can me not ken, þe certeynte what spellis. Men sais in Lyncoln castelle ligges it a stone þat Hauelok kast wele forbi euerilkone, & it þe chapelle standes þer he weddid his wife, Goldeburgh þe kynges douhter, þat saw is it rife, 6859 STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY / 100:3 / sheet 6 of 160 & of Gryme, a fisshere, men redes it in ryme þat he bigged Grymesby, Gryme þat ilk tyme. 8 (.–, –) Mannyng’s implication that Havelok was well known through local landmarks and the tales of ‘‘lowed men’’ has encouraged the view that Havelok’s ‘‘right story’’ had already been so modified through oral 9 transmission and folk tradition as to now be untraceable. The view that Havelok the Dane was a popular tale has also prompted critics to re- sist the presence of topical references from the reigns of Edward I and Edward II in the story.Thus Thorlac Turville-Petre dismisses the possi- bility that some names in the English poem contain topical references from the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. Instead, he suggests that the names and titles that may appear topical are merely intended to sound old and authentic. He points out that they are ‘‘familiar in En- glish history and reasonably ancient,’’ so that they ‘‘help to build up an impression of an England of geographical range and familiar institu- 10 tions.’’ So, too, Ananya J.
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