CONTENTS.

CONTENTS.Titlepage.The engraving represents the seal of Great Grimsby, described in § 19 of the Preface, p. xxi.Preface.§ 1.The former edition of 1828.§ 2.The present edition.§ 3.Plan of this edition.§ 4.Notices of the story by Early Writers: the longer French Version.§ 5.The shorter French Version.§ 6.Peter de Langtoft (1307).§ 7.Rauf de Boun (1310).§ 8.A Brief Genealogy, Herald’s Coll. MS. (ab. 1310).§ 9.Metrical Chronicle (ab. 1313).§ 10.Robert of Brunne (1338); ed. Hearne.§ 11.Robert of Brunne; Lambeth MS.§ 12.French Prose “Brute” (1332).§ 13.English Prose “Brute,” MS. Harl. 2279.§ 14.Gray’s Scala Cronica (ab. 1360).§ 15.Eulogium Historiarum (1366).§ 16.Henry de Knyghton (1395); Warner (1586); Webster (1617).§ 17.Danish traditions.§ 18.Lincolnshire traditions.§ 19.Seal of Great Grimsby.§ 20.Sketch of the French “Lai.”§ 21.Gaimar’s abridgment.§ 22.Sketch of the English Lay.§ 23.Possible date of Havelok’s reign.§ 24.Story of “Edwin of Deira.”§ 25.On the names “Curan” and “Havelok.”§ 26.Description of the MS.§ 27.Grammatical forms in the Poem.§ 28.On the metre.§ 29.On the final-e, &c.iEmendations, &c.livThe lay of Havelok1Notes to “Havelok”87Glossarial Index105Index of Names157PREFACE.§ 1.TheEnglish version of the Lay of Havelok, now here reprinted, is one of the few poems that have happily been recovered, after having long been given up as lost. Tyrwhitt, in his Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer, has a footnote (No. 51) deploring the loss of the Rime concerning Gryme the Fisher, the founder of Grymesby, Hanelok [readHavelok] the Dane, and his wife Goldborough; and Ritson, in his Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy—(vol. i. p. lxxxviii. of his Metrical Romanceës)—makes remarks to the same effect. It was at length, however, discovered by accident in a manuscript belonging to the Bodleian library, which had been described in the old Catalogue merely asVitæ Sanctorum, a large portion of it being occupied by metrical legends of the Saints. In 1828, it was edited for the Roxburghe Club by Sir F. Madden, the title-page of the edition being as follows:— “The Ancient English Romance of Havelok the Dane, accompanied by the French Text: with an introduction, notes, and a glossary, by Frederick Madden, Esq., F.A.S. F.R.S.L., Sub-Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, London. W. Nicol, Shakspeare Press,MDCCCXXVIII.” This volume contains a very complete Introduction, pp. i-lvi; the English version of Havelok, pp. 1-104; the French text of the Romance of Havelok, from a MS. in the Heralds’ College, pp. 105-146; the French Romance of Havelok, as abridged and altered by Geffrei Gaimar, pp. 147-180; notes to the English text, pp. 181-207; notes to the Frenchtext, pp. 208-210; and a glossary, &c., pp. 211-263. But there are sometimes bound up with it two pamphlets, viz. “Remarks on the Glossary to Havelok,” by S. W. Singer, and an “Examination of the Remarks, &c.,” by the Editor of Havelok. In explanation of this, it may suffice to say, that the former contains some criticisms by Mr Singer (executed in a manner suggestive of an officious wish to display superior critical acumen), of which a few are correct, but others are ludicrously false; whilst the latter is a vindication of the general correctness of the explanations given, and contains, incidentally, some valuable contributions to our general etymological knowledge, and various remarks which have proved of service in rendering the glossary in the present edition more exactly accurate.1§ 2.Owing to the scarcity of copies of this former edition, the committee of the Early English Text Society, having first obtained the approval of Sir Frederic Madden, resolved upon issuing a reprint of it; and Sir Frederic having expressed a wish that the duty of seeing it through the press should be entrusted to myself, I gladly undertook that responsibility. He has kindly looked over the revises of the whole work,2but as it has undergone several modifications, it will be the best plan to state in detail what these are.§ 3.With respect to the text, the greatest care has been taken to render it, as nearly as can be represented in print, an exact copy of the MS. The text of the former edition is exceedingly correct, and the alterations here made are few and of slight importance. Sir F. Madden furnished me with some, the results of a re-comparison, made by himself, of his printed copy with the original; besides this, I have myself carefully read the proof sheets with the MS.twice, and it may therefore be assumed that the complete correctness of the text is established. It seems to me that this is altogether the most important part of the workof aTextSociety, in order that the student may never be perplexed by the appearance of words having no real existence. For a like reason the letters þ and ƿ (the latter of which I have represented by an italicw) have now been inserted wherever they occur, and the expansions of abbreviations are now denoted by italics. For further remarks upon the text, see the description of the MS. below, § 26. Sidenotes and headlines have been added, but the numbering of the lines has not been altered. The French text of the romance, the title of which isLe Lai de Aveloc, and the abridgment of the story by Geffrei Gaimar, have not been here reprinted; the fact being, that the French and English versions differ very widely, and that the passages of the French which really correspond to the English are few and short.Allof these will be found in the Notes, in their proper places, and it was also deemed the less necessary to print the French text, because it is tolerably accessible; for it may be found either in vol. i. of Monumenta Historica Britannica, ed. Petrie, 1848, in the reprint by M. Michel (1833) entitled “Le Lai d’Havelok,” or in the edition by Mr T. Wright for the Caxton Society, 1850. An abstract of it is given at p. xxiii. The Notes are abridged from Sir F. Madden’s, with but a very few additions by myself, which are distinguished by being placed within square brackets. The Glossarial Index is, for the most part, reprinted from Sir F. Madden’s Glossary, but contains a large number ofslightalterations, re-arrangements, and additions. The references have nearly all been verified,3and the few words formerly left unexplained are now either wholly or partially solved. I have now only to add that a large portion of the remainder of this preface, especially that which concerns the historical and traditional evidences of the story (§ 4 to § 18), is abridged or copied from Sir F. Madden’s long Introduction, which fairly exhausts the subject.4All extracts included between marks of quotation are taken from it without alteration. But I must be considered responsible for therearrangement of the materials, and I have added a few remarks from other sources.§ 4.Notices of the Story of Havelok by early writers.There can be little doubt that the tradition must have existed from Anglo-Saxon times, but the earliest mention of it is presented to us in the full account furnished by the French version of the Romance. Of this there are two copies, one of which belongs to Sir T. Phillipps; the other is known as the Arundel or Norfolk MS., and is preserved in the Heralds’ College, where it is marked E. D. N. No. 14; the various editions of the latter have been already enumerated in § 3. This version was certainly composed within the first half of the twelfth century. From the fact that it is entitled aLai, and from the assertion of the poet—“Qe vnlaien firent li Breton”—“whereof the Britons made a lay”—we easily conclude that it was drawn from a British source. From the evident connection of the story with the Chronicle called theBrut, we may further conclude that byBretonis not meant Armorican, but belonging toBritain. The story is in no way connected with France; the tradition is British or Welsh, and the French version was doubtless written in England by a subject of an English king. That the language is French is due merely to the accident that the Norman conquerors of England had acquired that language during their temporary sojourn in France. From every point of view, whether we regard the British tradition, the Anglo-Norman version, or the version printed in the present volume, the story is wholly English. It is not to be connected too closely with the Armorican lays of Mariede France.5§ 5.We next come to the abridgment of the same as made by Geffrei Gaimar, who wrote between the years 1141 and 1151. In one place, Geffrei quotes Gildas as his authority, but no conclusion can easily be drawn from this indefinite reference. In another place, he mentions a feast given by Havelok after his defeat of Hodulf—si cum nus dit la verai estoire— “as the truehistory tells us.” As this feast is not mentioned in the fuller French version, and yet reappears in the English text, we perceive that he had some additional source of information; and this is confirmed by the fact that he mentions several additional details, also not found in the completer version. That the lay of Havelok, as found in Gaimar, is really his, and not an interpolation by a later hand, may fairly be inferred from his repeated allusions to the story in the body of his work. There are three MS. copies containing Gaimar’s abridgment, of which the best is the Royal MS. (Bibl. Reg. 13 A. xxi.) in the British Museum; the two others belong respectively to the Dean and Chapter of Durham (its mark being C. iv. 27) and to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln (its mark being H. 18). It is curious that the Norfolk MS. contains not only the fuller French version of the story, but also the Brut of Wace, and the continuation of it by Gaimar. Gaimar’s abridgment, as printed in Sir F. Madden’s edition, is taken from the Royal MS., supplemented by the Durham and Lincoln MSS. See also Monumenta Historica Britannica, vol. i. p. 764. It is important to mention that Gaimar speaks of the Danes as having been in Norfolk since the time that Havelok was King, after he has been relating the combats between the Britons and the Saxons under the command of Cerdic and Cynric. Another allusion makes Havelok to have lived long before the year 800, according to every system of chronology.§ 6.The next mention of Havelok is in the French Chronicle of Peter de Langtoft, of Langtoft in Yorkshire, who died early in the reign of Edward II., and whose Chronicle closes with the death of Edward I. Here the only trace of the story is in the mention of “Gountere le pere Hauelok, de Danays Ray clamez”—Gunter, father of Havelok, called King of the Danes. The allusion is almost valueless from its evident absurdity; for he confounds Gunter with the Danish invader defeated by Alfred, and who is variously called Godrum, Gudrum, Guthrum, or Gurmound. He must have been thinking, at the moment, of a very different Gurmund, viz. the King of the Africans, as he is curiously called, whose terrible devastations are described very fully in Laȝamon, vol. iii. pp. 156-177, and who may fairly be supposed to have lived much nearer to the time of Havelok; and he must furtherhave confounded this Gurmund with Gunter. For the account of Robert of Brunne’s translation of Langtoft’s Chronicle, see below, § 10.§ 7.But soon after this, we come to a most curious account. In MS. Harl. 902 is a late copy, on paper, of a Chronicle calledLe Bruit Dengleterre, or otherwiseLe Petit Bruit, compiledA.D.1310, by Meistre Rauf de Boun, at the request of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln. It is a most worthless compilation, put together in defiance of all chronology, but with respect to our present inquiry it is full of interest, as it soon becomes obvious that one of his sources of information is the very English version here printed, which he cites by the name ofl’estorie de Grimesby, and which is thus proved to have been written before the year 1310. “The Chronicler,” says Sir F. Madden, “commences, as usual, with Brute,B.C.2000, and after taking us through the succeeding reigns to the time of Cassibelin, who fought with Julius Cæsar, informs us, that after Cassibelin’s death came Gurmound out of Denmark, who claimed the throne as the son of the eldest daughter of Belin, married to Thorand, King of Denmark. He occupies the kingdom 57 years, and is at length slain atHunteton, called afterwards from himGurmoundcestre. He is succeeded by his son Frederick, who hated the English, and filled his court with Danish nobles, but who is at last driven out of the country, after having held it for the short space of 71 years. And then, adds this miserable History-monger: ‘Et si entendrez vous, que par cel primer venue de auaunt dit Roy Gormound, et puis par cele hountoux exil de son fitz Frederik, si fu le rancour de Daneis vers nous enpendaunt, et le regne par cel primere accion vers nous enchalangount plus de sept C auns apre,iekis a la venue Haneloke, fitz le Roy Birkenebayne de Dannemarche, q~ le regne par mariage entra de sa femme.’ —f. 2 b.“After a variety of equally credible stories, we come to Adelstan II.6son of Edward [the Elder], who corresponds withthe real king of that name,A.D.925-941. He is succeeded by his son [brother] Edmund, who reigned four years [A.D.941-946], and is said to have beenpoisonedat Canterbury; after whom we haveAdelwold, whose identity with the Athelwold of the English Romance, will leave no doubt as to the source whence the writer drew great part of his materials in the following passage:‘Apresceo vient Adelwold son fitz q~ reignaXVJet demie, si engendroit ij feiz et iij filis, dount trestoutz murrirent frechement fors q~ sa pune file, le out a nomGoldburgh, del age deVJaunz kaunt son pere Adelwold morust. Cely Roy Adelwold quant il doit morir, comaunda sa file a garder a vn Count de Cornewayle, al houre kaunt il quidou~ie (sic) hountousment auoir deparagé, quaunt fitHaueloke, fitz le Roy Byrkenbayne de Denmarche, esposer le, encountre sa volunté, q~ primis fuit Roy Dengleterre et de Denmarch tout a vn foitz, par quele aliaunce leis Daneis queillerunt gendr~ (sic) mestrie en Engleterre, et long temps puise le tindrunt,si cum vous nouncie l’estorie de Grimesby, comeGrimeprimez nurist Haueloke en Engleterre, depuis cel houre q’il feut chasé de Denmarche &c. deqis al houre q’il vint au chastelle de Nichole, q~ cely auauntdit traitreGoudricheout en garde, en quel chastel il auauntdit Haueloke espousa l’auauntdit Goldeburgh, q~ fuit heir Dengleterre. Et par cel reson tynt cely Haueloke la terre de Denmarche auxi comme son heritage, et Engleterre auxi par mariage de sa femme; et si entendrez vous, q~ par la reson q~ ly auauntdit Gryme ariua primez, kaunt il amena l’enfaunt Haueloke hors de Denmarche, par meyme la reson reseut cele vile son nom, de Grime, quel noun ly tint vnquore Grimisby.‘Apres ceo regna meyme cely Haueloke, q~ mult fuit prodhomme, et droiturelle, et bien demenoit son people en reson et ley. Cel Roy Haueloke reigna xlj. aunz, si engendroit ix fitz et vij filis, dount trestoutz murrerount ainz q~ furunt d’age, fors soulement iiij de ses feitz, dont l’un out a noum Gurmound, cely q~ entendy auoir son heire en Engleterre; le secound out a noun Knout, quen fitz feffoit son pere en le regne de Denmarche, quant il estoit del age de xviij aunz, et ly mesme se tynt a la coroune Dengleterre, quel terre il entendy al oeps son ainez fitz Gurmoundauoir gardé. Mes il debusa son col auxi comme il feu mounté vn cheval testous q~ poindre volleyt, en l’an de son regne xxiij entrant. Le tiers fitz ont a noun Godard, q~ son pere feffoit de la Seneschacie Dengleterre, q~ n’auo~ut (sic) taunt come ore fait ly quart. Et le puisnez fitz de toutz out a noum Thorand, q~ espousa la Countesse de Hertouwe en Norwey. Et par la reson q~ cely Thorand feut enherité en la terre de Norwey, ly et ses successours sont enheritez iekis en sa p~ce (sic) toutdis, puis y auoit affinité de alliaunce entre ceulx de Denmarche et ceulx de Norwey, a checun venue q~ vnkes firent en ceste terre pur chalenge ou clayme mettre, iekis a taunt q~ lour accion feut enseyne destrut par vn noble chevallereGuy de Warwike, &c. Et tout en sy feffoit Haueloke sez quatre fitz: si gist a priorie deGreschercheen Loundrez.’ —f. 6 b.“TheEstorie de Grimesbytherefore, referred to above, is the identical English Romance before us, and it is no less worthy of remark, that the whole of the passage just quoted, with one single variation of import, has been literally translated by Henry de Knyghton, and inserted in his Chronicle.7Of the sources whence the information respecting Havelok’s sons is derived, we are unable to offer any account, as no trace of it occurs either in the French or English texts of the story.”§ 8.“About the same time at which Rauf de Boun composed his Chronicle, was written a brief Genealogy of the British and Saxon Kings, from Brutus to Edward II., preserved in the same MS. in the Heralds’ College which contains the French text of the Romance. The following curious rubric is prefixed:—La lignée des Bretons et des Engleis, queus il furent, et de queus nons, et coment Brut vint premerement en Engleterre, et combien de tens puis, et dont il vint. Brut et Cornelius furent chevalers chacez de la bataille de Troie,M. CCCC. XVII.anz deuant qe dieus nasquit, et vindrent en Engleterre, en Cornewaille, et riens ne fut trouee en la terre fors qe geanz, Geomagog, Hastripoldius, Ruscalbundy, et plusurs autres Geanz.In this Genealogy no mention of Havelok occurs under the reign of Constantine, but after the names of the Saxon Kings Edbright and Edelwin, we read: ‘Athelwoldauoit vne filleGoldeburgh, et il regna vi. anz.Hauelocesposa meismecele Goldeburgh, et regna iij. anz.Alfredle frere le Roi Athelwold enchaca Haueloc par Hunehere, et il fut le primer Roi corone de l’apostoille, et il regna xxx. anz.’ —fol. 148 b. By this account Athelwold is clearly identified with Ethelbald, King of Wessex, who reigned from 855 to 860, whilst Havelok is substituted in the place of Ethelbert and Ethered.”§ 9.“Not long after the same period was written a MetricalChronicle of England, printed by Ritson, Metr. Rom. V. ii. p. 270. Two copies are known to exist,8the first concluding with the death of Piers Gavestone, in 1313 (MS. Reg. 12. C. xii.), and the other continued to the time of Edw. III. (Auchinleck MS.). The period of Havelok’s descent into England is there ascribed to the reign of King Ethelred (978-1016), which will very nearly coincide with the period assigned by Rauf de Boun, viz.A.D.963-1004.”‘Haueloccom tho to this lond,With gret host & eke strong,Ant sloh the Kyng Achelred,At Westmustre he was ded,Ah he heuede reigned herSeuene an tuenti fulle ȝer.’MS. Reg. 12. C. xii.“This date differs from most of the others, and appears founded on the general notion of the Danish invasions during that period.”§ 10.Before proceeding to consider theproseChronicle of the Brute, it is better to speak first of the translation of Peter de Langtoft’s Chronicle by Robert of Brunne, a translation which was completedA.D.1338. At p. 25 of Hearne’s edition is the following passage:‘ Ȝit a nother Danes Kyng in the North gan aryue.Alfrid it herd, thidere gan he dryue.Hauelok9fader he was,Gunterwas his name.He brent citees & tounes, ouer alle did he schame.Saynt Cutbertes clerkes tho Danes thei dred.The toke the holy bones, about thei tham led.Seuen ȝere thorgh the land wer thei born aboute,It comforted the kyng mykelle, whan he was in doute¶ Whan Alfrid & Gunter had werred long in ille,Thorgh the grace of God, Gunter turned his wille.Cristend wild he be, the kyng of fonte him lift,& thritty of his knyghtes turnes, thorgh Godes gift.Tho that first were foos, and com of paien lay,Of Cristen men haf los, & so thei wend away.’“This is the whole that appears in the original, but after the above lines immediately follows, in the language of Robert of Brunne himself (as noted also by Hearne, Pref. p. lxvii.), the following curious, and to our inquiry, very important passage:”‘ Bot I haf grete ferly, that I fynd no man,That has writen in story, how Hauelok this lond wan.NoitherGildas, no Bede, no Henry of Huntynton,No William of Malmesbiri, ne Pers of Bridlynton,Writes not in ther bokes of no kyng Athelwold,Ne Goldeburgh his douhtere, ne Hauelok not of told,Whilk tyme the were kynges, long or now late,Thei mak no menyng whan, no in what date.Bot that thiselowed men vpon Inglish tellis,Right story can me not ken, the certeynte what spellis.Men sais in Lyncoln castelle ligges ȝit a stone,That Hauelok kast wele forbi euer ilkone& ȝit the chapelle standes, ther he weddid his wife,Goldeburgh the kynges douhter,that saw is ȝit rife.& of Gryme a fisshere,men redes ȝit in ryme,That he bigged Grymesby Gryme that ilk tyme.Of alle stories of honoure, that I haf thorgh souht,I fynd that no compiloure of him tellis ouht.Sen I fynd non redy, that tellis of Hauelok kyndeTurne we to that story, that we writen fynde.’“There cannot exist the smallest doubt, that by the ‘Ryme’ here mentioned ‘that lowed men vpon Inglish tellis,’ the identical English Romance, now before the reader, is referred to. It must therefore certainly have been composed prior to the period at which Robert of Brunne wrote,10in whose time the traditions respecting Havelok at Lincoln were so strongly preserved, as topoint out various localities to which the story had affixed a name, and similar traditions connected with the legend, as we shall find hereafter, existed also at Grimsby. The doubts expressed by the Chronicler, as to their authenticity, or the authority of the ‘Ryme,’ are curious, but only of value so far as they prove he was ignorant of the existence of a French Romance on the subject, or of its reception in Gaimar’s historical poem.”§ 11.“But on consulting the Lambeth copy of Rob. of Brunne, in order to verify the passage as printed by Hearne from the Inner Temple MS. we were not a little surprised to ascertain a fact hitherto overlooked, and indeed unknown, viz. that the Lambeth MS. (which is a folio, written on paper, and imperfect both at the beginning and close)11does not correspond with the Edition, but has evidently been revised by a later hand, which has abridged the Prologues, omitted some passages, and inserted others. The strongest proof of this exists in the passage before us, in which the Lambeth MS. entirely omits the lines of Rob. of Brunne respecting the authenticity of the story of Havelok, and in their place substitutes an abridged outline of the story itself, copied apparently from the French Chronicle of Gaimar. The interpolation is so curious, and so connected with our inquiry, as to be a sufficient apology for introducing it here.”‘ ¶ Forth wente Gounter & his folk, al in to Denemark,Sone fel ther hym vpon, a werre styth & stark,Thurgh a Breton kyng, thtout of Ingeland cam,& asked the tribut of Denmark, thtArthur whylom nam.They wythseide hit schortly, & non wolde they ȝelde,But rather they wolde dereyne hit, wyth bataill y the felde.Both partis on a day, to felde come they stronge,Desconfit were the danes, Gounter his deth gan fonge.When he was ded they schope brynge, al his blod to schame,But Gatferes doughter the kyng,Eleynewas hure name,Was kyng Gounteres wyf, and had a child hem bytwene,Wyth wham scheo scapede vnethe, al to the se with tene.The child hym highteHauelok, thtwas his moder dere,Scheo mette with grym atte hauene, a wel god marinere,He hure knew & highte hure wel, to helpe hure with his might,To bryng hure saf out of the lond, wythinne thtilke night.When they come in myd se, a gret meschef gan falle,They metten wyth a gret schip, lade wyth outlawes alle.Anon they fullen hem apon, & dide hem Mikel peyne,So thtwyth strengthe of their assaut, ded was quene Eleyne.But ȝyt ascapede from hem Grym, wyth Hauelok & other fyue,& atte the hauene of Grymesby, ther they gon aryue.Ther was brought forth child Hauelok, wyth Grym & his fere,Right als hit hadde be ther own, for other wyste men nere.Til he was mykel & mighti, & man of mykel cost,Thtfor his grete sustinaunce, nedly serue he most.He tok leue of Grym & Seburc, as of his sire & dame,And askede ther blessinge curteysly, ther was he nought to blame.Thenne drow he forth northward, to kynges court Edelsie,Ththeld fro Humber to Rotland, the kyngdam of Lyndesye.Thys Edelsy of Breton kynde, had Orewayn his sister brightMaried to a noble kyng, of Northfolk Egelbright.Holly for his kyngdam, he held in his hand,Al the lond fro Colchestre, right in til Holand.Thys Egelbright thtwas a Dane, & Orewayn the quene,Hadden gete on Argill, a doughter hem bytwene.Sone then deyde Egelbright, & his wyf Orewayn,& therfore was kyng Edelsye, bothe joyful & fayn.Anon their doughter & here Eyr, his nece dame Argill,& al the kyngdam he tok in hande, al at his owene will.Ther serued Hauelok as quistron, & was y-cald Coraunt,He was ful mykel & hardy, & strong as a Geaunt.He was bold Curteys & fre, & fair & god of manere,So thtalle folk hym louede, thtauewest hym were.But for couetise of desheraison, of damysele Argill,& for a chere thtthe kyng sey, scheo made Coraunt till,He dide hem arraye ful symplely, & wedde togydere bothe,For he ne rewarded desparagyng, were manion ful wrothe.A while they dwelt after in court, in ful pore degre,The schame & sorewe thtArgill hadde, hit was a deol to se.Then seyde scheo til hure maister, of whenne sire be ȝe?Haue ȝe no kyn ne frendes at hom, in ȝoure contre?Leuer were me lyue in pore lyf, wythoute schame & tene,Than in schame & sorewe, lede the astat of quene.Thenne wente they forth to Grymesby, al by his wyues red,& founde thtGrym & his wyf, weren bothe ded.But he fond ther on Aunger, Grymes cosyn hend,To wham thtGrym & his wyf, had teld word & ende.How ththit stod wyth Hauelok, in all manere degre,& they hit hym telde & conseilled, to drawe til his contre,Tasaye what grace he mighte fynde, among his frendes there,& they wolde ordeyne for their schipynge, and al ththem nede were.When Aunger hadde y-schiped hem, they seilled forth ful swythe,Ful-but in til Denemark, wyth weder fair & lithe.Ther fond he on sire Sykar, a man of gret pousté,Ththey styward somtyme was, of al his fader fe.Ful fayn was he of his comyng, & god help him behight,To recouere his heritage, of Edulf kyng & knyght.Sone asembled they gret folk, of his sibmen & frendes,Kyng Edulf gadered his power, & ageyn them wendes.Desconfyt was ther kyng Edulf, & al his grete bataill,& so conquered Hauelok, his heritage saunz faille.Sone after he schop him gret power, in toward Ingelond,His wyues heritage to wynne, ne wolde he nought wonde.Ththerde the kyng of Lyndeseye, he was come on thtcost,& schop to fighte wyth hym sone, & gadered hym gret host.But atte day of bataill, Edelsy was desconfit,& after by tretys gaf Argentill, hure heritage al quit.& for scheo was next of his blod, Hauelokes wyf so feyr,He gaf hure Lyndesey after his day, & made hure his Eyr.& atte last so byfel, thtvnder Hauelokes schelde,Al Northfolk & Lyndeseye, holy of hym they helde.’MS. Lamb. 131. leaf 76.§ 12.We now come to the prose Chronicle called The Brute, which became exceedingly popular, and was the foundation of “Caxton’s Chronicle,” first printed by CaxtonA.D.1480, but of which Caxton was not the author, though he may have added some of the last chapters. The original is in French, and was probably compiled a few yearsbeforeRobert of Brunne’s translation of Langtoft was made, as it concludes with the year 1331, or, in some copies, with 1332. The author of it is not known, but it was probably only regarded as a compilation from the Chronicles of the earlier Historians. “In this Chronicle, in all its various shapes, is contained the Story of Havelock,engrafted on the British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and in its detail, following precisely the French text of the Romance. The only variation of consequence is the substitution of the name of Birkabeyn (as in the English text) for that of Gunter, and in some copies, both of the French and English MSS. of the Chronicle, the name ofGoldeburghis inserted instead ofArgentille; which variations are the more curious, as they prove the absolute identity of the story. For the sake of a more complete illustration of what has been advanced, we are induced to copy the passage at length, as it appears in the French Chronicle, taken from a well-written MS. of the 14th century, MS. Reg. 20 A 3, fol. 165 b.”12‘Des Rois Adelbright & Edelfi, Cap.IIIJxx.XIX.Apres le Roi Constantin estoient deux Rois en graunt Brutaigne, dount li vns out a noun Aldelbright, & fust Danois, & [tint] tut le pais de Norff’ & de Suffolk, & ly altre out a noun Edelfi, qefust Brittone, & tint Nicol & Lindesey, & tote la terre desqes a Humber, Ceux deux Rois soi entreguerroierent, [& moult s’entrehaierent] mais puis furent il entre acordez & soi entreamerent, taunt com s’il vssent estee freres de vn ventre neez. Le Roi Edelfi out vne soer, Orewenne par noun, & la dona par grant amour al Roi Aldelbright a femme. Et il engendra de ly vne fille qeout a noun Argentille. En le tierez an apres vne greue Maladie ly suruint, si deuereit morrir, & maunda par vn iour al Roi Edelfi, soun frere en lei, q’il venist a ly parler, & cil ly emparla volentiers. Donqe ly pria le Roi Aldelbright et ly coniura en le noun [de] Dieu, q’il apres sa mort preist Argentille sa fille, & sa terre, & q’il la feist honestement garder [& nurrir] en sa chambre, & quant ele serreit de age, q’il la feist marier al plus fort hom & plus vaillaunt q’il porroit trouer, & qea donqe ly rendist sa terre. Edelfi ceo graunta, & par serment afferma sa priere. Et quant Adelbright fust mort, & enterree, Edelfi prist la damoysele, & la norrist en sa chambre, si deuynt ele la plus beale creature qehom porreit trouer.Coment le Roi Edelfi Maria la damoisele Argentille a vn quistroun de sa quisine.Capm.C.Le Roi Edelfi, qefust vncle a la Damoysele Argentille, pensa fausement coment il porreit la terre sa Nece auoir par touz iours, & malueisement countre soun serment pensa a deceiure la pucelle, si la maria a vn quistroun de sa quisyne qefust apellée Curan, si esteit il le plus haut, le plus fort, & le plus vaillaunt de corps, qehom sauoit nulle part a cel temps, & la quidoit hountousement marier, pur auoir sa terre a remenaunt, Mais il fust deceu. Carcest Curan fust [le Roi] Hauelok, filz le Roi Kirkebain de Denemarche, & il conquist la terre sa femme [en Bretaigne], & occist le Roi Edelfi, vncle sa femme, & conquist tote la terre,si com aillours est trouée plus pleinement[en l’estorie], & il ne regna qetreis aunz. Car Saxsouns & Danoys le occirent, & ceo fust grant damage a tote la grant Brutaigne. Et les Brutouns le porterent a Stonhenge, & illoeqes ly enterrerent a grant honour.’§ 13.“With the above may be compared the English version, as extant in MS. Harl. 2279, which agrees with the Ed. of Caxton, except in the occasional substitution of one word for another.”13‘MS. Harl. 2279, f. 47.Of the kinges Albright & of Edelf.CaoIIIIxx.XIo.After kyng Constantinus deth, ther were .ij. kynges in Britaigne, that one men callede Adelbright, that was a Danoys, and helde the cuntray of Northfolk and Southfolk, that other hight Edelf, and was a Britoun & helde Nichole, Lindeseye, and alle the lande vnto Humber. Thes ij. kynges faste werred togeders, but afterward thei were acorded, and louede togedere as thei had ben borne of o bodie. The kyng Edelf had a suster that men callede Orewenne, and he yaf here thurghe grete frenshipe to kyng Adelbright to wif, and he begate on here a doughter that men callede Argentille, and in the .iij. yeer after him come vppon a strong sekenesse that nedes he muste die, and he sent to kyng Edelf, his brother in lawe, that he shulde come and speke with him, and he come to him with good wille. Tho prayed he the kyng and coniurede also in the name of God, that after whan he were dede, he shulde take Argentil his doughter, and the lande, and that he kepte hir wel, and noreshed in his chambre; and whan she were of age he shulde done here be mariede to the strongest and worthiest man that he myȝt fynde, and than he shulde yelde vp her lande ayen. Edelf hit grauntid, and bi othe hit confermede his prayer. And whan Adelbright was dede and Enterede, Edelfe toke the damesel Argentil, and noreshid her in his chambre, and she become the fayrest creature thtmyȝt lif, or eny man finde.How kyng Edelf mariede the damysel Argentil to a knaue of his kichyn.CaoIIIIxx.XII.This kyng Edelf, that was vncle to the damesel Argentil, bithought how that he myȝte falsliche haue the lande from his necefor euermore, and falsly ayens his othe thouȝte to desceyue the damysel, and marie here to a knave of his kichon, that men callede Curan, and he become the worthiest and strengest man of bodie that eny man wist in eny lande that tho leuede. And to him he thouȝt here shendfully haue mariede, for to haue had here lande afterward; but he was clene desceyuede. For this Curan that was Hauelokis son that was kyng of Kirkelane in Denmark, and this Curan Conquerede his wifes landes, and slow kyng Edelf, that was his wifes vncle, and had alle here lande, as in a-nother stede hit [MS. but] telleth more oponly, and he ne regnede but iij. yeer, for Saxones and Danoys him quelde, and that was grete harme to al Britaigne, and Britouns bere him to Stonehenge, and ther thei him interede with mochel honour and solempnite.’“It must not be concealed, that in some copies, viz. in MSS. Harl. 1337, 6251, Digby 185, Hatton 50, Ashmole 791 and 793, the story is altogether omitted, and Conan made to succeed to Arthur. In those copies also of the English Polychronicon, the latter part of which resembles the above Chronicle, the passage is not found.” “Among the Harl. MSS. (No. 63) is a copy of the same Chronicle in an abridged form, in which the name ofGoldesburgheis substituted for that of Argentille.” Sir F. Madden now adds—that “the story occurs also in some interpolated copies of Higden (the Latin text, viz. MSS. Harl. 655, Cott. Jul. E. 8, Reg. 13 E. 1).In an earlier form it is found in a Latin Chronicle of the 13th century, MS. Cott. Dom. A. 2, fol. 130.”§ 14.“It was, in all probability, to this Chronicle also, in its original form, that Thomas Gray, the author of theScala Cronica(orScale Cronicon), a Chronicle in French prose, composed between the years 1355 and 1362, is indebted for his knowledge of the tale.” The original MS. is No. 132 in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and was edited by Stevenson for the Maitland Club in 1836. The passage relative to Havelok is translated by Leland,Collectanea, vol. i. pt. 2, p. 511. This account resembles the others, and involves no new point of interest.§ 15.I may here introduce the remark, that the story is also to be found in theEulogium Historiarum, ed. Haydon, 1860, vol. ii. p. 378. I here quote the passage at length, as it is not referred to in Sir F. Madden’s edition. The date of the Chronicle is about 1366. For various readings, see Haydon’s edition.Non enim est prætermittendum de quodam Dano generoso ætate juvenili florente, qui tempore regis Edelfridi casualiter Angliam adiit, qui a propria patria expulsus per quendam ducem falsissimum, cui pater ejus illum commiserat ipso moriente et ducem rogavit ut puerum nutriret usque dum posset Denemarchiæ regnum viriliter gubernare. Dux vero malitiam machinans juvenem hæredem rectum, Hauelok nomine, voluit occidisse. Puer vero comperiens aufugit per latibula usque dum quidam Anglicus et mercator in illis partibus adventaret; nomen autem mercatoris Grym vocitabatur. Hauelok autem, Grym rogans ut ipsum in Angliam transvectaret, ipse autem annuens, puerum secum conduxit et cum eo per aliquot tempus apud Grymesby morabatur. Tandem ipsum ad curiam regis Edelfridi conduxit et ibi in coquina regis moratus est.Rex autem Edelfridus quamdam habuit sororem nomine Orwen et illam maritavit regi Athelberto, quod conjugium inter duos reges vinculum amoris catenavit. Rex autem Athelbert terram citra Trentam cum regio diademate occupavit, cum terra de Northfolk’ et de Southfolk’ et eis adjacentibus. Rex vero Edelfrid comitatum Lincolniæ et Lyndeseye et eis spectantibus. Ante maritagium puellæ Orwen illi duo reges semper debellabant, post matrimonium factum nulla fuit divisio, nec in familia inter eos nec in dominio.Rex vero Ethelbert de uxore sua quamdam filiam genuit, nomine Argentile, pulcherrimam valde. Athelberto obiente, vel ante mortem ejus, regem rogavit Edelfridum ut filiam suam homini fortissimo ac validiori totius sui regni in conjugium copularet, nihil doli vel mali machinans.Rex autem Adelfrid omnem malitiam ingeminans de conjugio puellæ malitiose disponens, cogitans se habere unum lixam in coquina sua qui omnes homines regni sui in vigore et fortitudine superabat, et juxta votum patris puellæ ad illum hominem fortissimum illam generosam juvenculam toro maritali copulavit, ob cupiditatem regni puellæ ipsam ita enormiter maritabat. Hauelok in patria Danemarchiæ et Argentile in Britannia æquali sorte ad custodiendum deputati sunt, totum tamen nutu Divino cedebat eis in honorem. Nam Hauelok post paucos annos regnum Britanniæ adoptus est, et a Saxonibus tandem occisus et apud le Stonhenge est sepultus. Pater ejus Kirkeban vocabatur.This agrees closely with the accounts given above (§ 12 and § 13). The chief point to be noticed is that this account identifies Edelfrid with the Æthelfrith son of Æthelric who was king of the Northumbrians fromA.D.593 to 617, according to thecomputation of the A.S. Chronicle, and who was succeeded by Eadwine son of Ælle, who drove out the æthelings or sons of Æthelfrith. It may be remarked further, that the same Æthelfrith is called Æluric by Laȝamon, who gives him a very bad character; see Laȝamon, ed. Madden, vol. iii. p. 195.§ 16.The story is also mentioned by Henry de Knyghton, a canon of Leicester abbey, whose history concludes with the year 1395. But his is no fresh evidence, as it is evidently borrowed from the French Chronicle of Rauf de Boun; see § 7. It is also alluded to in a blundering manner in a short historical compilation extending from the time of Brutus to the reign of Henry VI., and preserved in MS. Cotton Calig. A. 2. At fol. 107bis the passage— “Ethelwolde, qui generavit filiam de (sic) Haueloke de Denmarke, per quem Danes per cccc. annos postea fecerunt clameum Anglie.” Some omission after the worddehas turned the passage into nonsense; but it is noteworthy as expressing the claim of the Danes to the English crown by right of descent from Havelok; a claim which is more clearly expressed in MS. Harl. 63, in which the King of Denmark is represented as sending a herald to Æthelstan (A.D.927)— “to witte wheder he wold fynde a man to fight withColbrande14for the righ[t]e of the kyngdom Northumbre, that the Danes had claymed byfore by the title of kyng Haueloke, that wedded Goldesburghe the kyngis daughter of Northumbre” —fol. 19.15Four hundred years before this date would intimate some year early in the sixth century. Finally, the story is found at a later period in Caxton’s Chronicle (A.D.1480) as above intimated in § 12; whence it was adopted by Warner, and inserted into his poem entitled Albion’s England; book iv. chap. 20, published in 1586. Warner called it the tale of “Argentile and Curan;” and in this ballad-shape it was reprinted in Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Poetry (vol. ii. p. 261; ed. 1812) with the same title. Not long after, in 1617, another author, William Webster, published a larger poem in six-line stanzas; but this is a mere paraphrase of Warner. The title is— “The mostpleasant and delightful historie of Curan, a prince of Danske, and the fayre princesse Argentile,” &c. John Fabyan, in his Concordance of Historyes, first printed in 1516, alludes to the two kings Adelbryght and Edill, only to dismiss the “longe processe” concerning them, as not supported by sufficient authority. See p. 82 of the reprint by Ellis, 4to, 1811.§ 17.The only other two sources whence any further light can be thrown upon our subject are the traditions of Denmark and Grimsby. A letter addressed by Sir F. Madden to Professor Rask elicited a reply which was equivalent to saying that next to nothing is known about it in Denmark. This seems to be the right place to mention a small book of 80 pages, published at Copenhagen in the present year (1868), and entitled “Sagnet om Havelok Danske; fortalt af Kristian Köster.” It contains (1) a version, in Danish prose, of the English poem; (2) a version of the same story, following the French texts of the Arundel and Royal MSS.; and (3) some elucidations of the legend. The author proposes a theory that Havelok is really the Danish king Amlet, i.e. Hamlet; but I have not space here to state all his arguments. As far as I follow them, some of the chief ones are these; that Havelok ought to be found in the list of Danish kings;16that Hamlet’s simulation of folly or madness is paralleled by Havelok’s behaviour, as expressed in ll. 945-954 of our poem; and that both Hamlet and Havelok succeeded in fulfilling the revenge which they had long cherished secretly. But I am not much persuaded by these considerations, for, even granting some resemblance in the names,17the resemblance in the stories is very slight. But I must refer the reader to the book itself.§ 18.Turning however to local traditions, we find that Camden briefly alludes to the story in a contemptuous manner(p. 353; ed. 8vo, Lond. 1587); but Gervase Holles is far from being disposed to regard it as fabulous.Inhis MSS. collections for Lincolnshire, preserved in MS. Harl. 6829, he thus speaks of the story we are examining.18“And it will not be amisse, to say something concerning yeCommon tradition of her first founder Grime, as yeinhabitants (with a Catholique faith) name him. The tradition it thus.Grime(say they) a poore Fisherman (as he was launching into yeRiuer for fish in his little boate vpon Humber) espyed not far from him another little boate, empty (as he might conceaue) which by yefauour of yewynde & tyde still approached nearer & nearer vnto him. He betakes him to his oares, & meetes itt, wherein he founde onely a Childe wrapt in swathing clothes, purposely exposed (as it should seeme) to yepittylesse [rage] of yewilde & wide Ocean. He moued with pitty, takes itt home, & like a good foster-father carefully nourisht itt, & endeauoured to nourishe it in his owne occupation: but yechilde contrarily was wholy deuoted to exercises of actiuity, & when he began to write man, to martiall sports, & at length by his signall valour obteyned such renowne, ythe marryed yeKing of England’s daughter, & last of all founde who was his true Father, & that he was Sonne to yeKing of Denmarke; & for yecomicke close of all; thatHaueloke(for such was his name) exceedingly aduanced & enriched his foster-father Grime, who thus enriched, builded a fayre Towne neare the place where Hauelocke was founde, & named it Grimesby. Thus say some: others differ a little in yecircumstances, as namely, that Grime was not a Fisherman, but a Merchant, & that Hauelocke should be preferred to yeKing’s kitchin, & there liue a longe tyme as a Scullion: but however yecircumstances differ, they all agree in yeconsequence, as concerning yeTowne’s foundation, to which (sayth yestory) Hauelocke yeDanish prince, afterward graunted many immunityes. This is yefamous Tradition concerning Grimsby wch learned Mr. Cambden gives so little creditt to, that he thinkes it onelyillis dignissima, qui anilibus fabulis noctem solent protrudere.”And again, after shewing thatbyis the Danish fortown, and quoting a passage about Havelock’s father being named Gunter, which may be found in Weever (Ancient Funeral Monuments, fol. Lond. 1631, p. 749), he proceeds:“thatHauelocke did sometymes reside in Grimsby, may be gathered from a great blewBoundry-stone, lying at yeEast ende of Briggowgate, which retaines yename ofHauelock’s-Stoneto this day. Agayne yegreat priuiledges & immunityes, that this Towne hath in Denmarke aboue any other in England (as freedome from Toll, & yerest) may fairely induce a Beleife, that some preceding favour, or good turne called on this remuneration. But lastly (which proofe I take to beinstar omnium) the Common Seale of yeTowne, & that a most auncient one,” &c. [Here follows a description of the Seal.]“The singular fact,” adds Sir F. Madden, “alluded to by Holles, of the Burgesses of Grimsby being free from toll at the Port of Elsineur, in Denmark, is confirmed by the Rev. G. Oliver, in his Monumental Antiquities of Grimsby, 8vo, Hull, 1825, who is inclined from that, and other circumstances, to believe the story is not so totally without foundation.” There is also an absurd local story that the church at Grimsby, which has now but one turret, formerly had four, three of which were kicked down by Grim in his anxiety to destroy some hostile vessels. The first fell among the enemy’s fleet; the second dropped in Wellowgate, and is now Havelock’s stone; the third fell within the churchyard, but the fourth his strength failed to move. Perhaps amongst the most interesting notices of the story are the following words by Sir Henry Havelock, whose family seems to have originally resided in Durham. His own account, however, is this. “My father, William Havelock, descended from a family which formerly resided at Grimsby in Lincolnshire, and was himself born at Guisborough in Yorkshire.”19And it may at least be said with perfect truth, that if the name ofHavelockwas not famous formerly, it is famous now.§ 19.The last evidence for the legend is the still-existing seal of the corporation of Great Grimsby. The engraving of this seal, as it appears in the present edition, was made from a copy kindly furnished to the E.E.T.S. by the Mayor of Grimsby, and I here subjoin a description of it, communicated to me by J. Hopkin, Esq., Jun., of Grimsby, which was first printed, in a slightly different form, in Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. xi. p. 41; see also p. 216.“The ancient Town Seal of Great Grimsby is engraven on a circular piece of brass not very thick; and on the back, which is rather arched, is a small projecting piece of brass, placed as a substitute for a handle, in order when taking an impression the more easily to detach the matrix from the Wax. This seal is in an excellent state of preservation, and is inscribed in Saxon characters ‘Sigillvm Comunitatis Grimebye’ and represents thereon Gryme (‘Gryem’) who by tradition is reported to have been a native of Souldburg in Denmark, where he gained a precarious livelihood by fishing and piracy; but having, as is supposed, during the reign of Ethelbert,20been accidentally driven into the Humber by a furious storm, he landed on the Lincolnshire Coast near Grimsby, he being at this time miserably poor and almost destitute of the common necessaries of life; for Leland represents this ‘poor fisschar’ as being so very needy that he was not ‘able to kepe his sunne Cuaran for poverty.’ Gryme, finding a capacious haven adapted to his pursuits, built himself a house and commenced and soon succeeded in establishing a very lucrative Trade with Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Other Merchants having in process of time settled near him, attracted by the commercial advantages offered by this excellent Harbour, they jointly constructed convenient appendages for extensive Trade, and the colony soon rose into considerable importance, and became known at an early period by the name of Grimsby. For not only was Grimsby constituted a borough so early as the seventh century, but Peter of Langtoft speaks of it as a frontier Town and the boundary of a Kingdom erected by the conquests of Egbert in the year 827, which he states included all that portion of the Island which lay between ‘the maritime Towns of Grymsby and Dover.’ So that even at that period, Grimsby must have been a place of peculiar strength and importance. Gryme is represented on the seal as a man of gigantic stature with comparatively short hair, a shaven chin, and a moustache, holding in his right hand a drawn sword and bearing on his left arm a circular shield with an ornate boss and rim. The sleeveless tunic above his under vest is most probably the panzar or panzara of the Danes. Between his feet is a Conic object, possibly intended for a helmet, as it resembles the chapelle-de-fer worn by William Rufus on his Great Seal, and which in the laws of Gula is distinguished as the Steel hufe. On the right hand of Gryme stands his protégé Haveloc (‘Habloc’), whom, during one of his mercantile excursions soon after his arrival in Lincolnshire, Gryme had the good fortune to savefrom imminent danger of Shipwreck, and who proved to be the Son of Gunter, King of Denmark, and who was therefore conveyed to the British Court, where he subsequently received in marriage Goldburgh, the Daughter of the British Sovereign. Above Gryme is represented a hand, being emblematical of the hand of providence by which Haveloc was preserved, and near the hand is the star which marks the point where the inscription begins and ends. Haveloc made such a favourable representation of his preserver at the British and Danish Courts, that he procured for him many honours and privileges. From the British Monarch Gryme, who had already realised an abundance of wealth, received a charter, and was made the chief governor of Grimsby; and the Danish Sovereign granted to the Town an immunity (which is still possessed by the Burgesses of Grimsby) from all Tolls at the Port of Elsineur. Gryme afterwards lived in Grimsby like a petty prince in his Hereditary Dominions. Above Haveloc is represented a crown and in his right hand is a battle axe, the favourite weapon of the Northmen, and in his right hand is a ring which he is presenting to the British Princess Goldburgh (‘Goldebvrgh’), who stands on the left side of Gryme and whose right hand is held towards the Ring. Over her head is a Regal Diadem, and in her left hand is a Sceptre. Sir F. Madden states that it is certain that this seal is at least as old as the time of Edward I. (and therefore contemporaneous with the MS.) as the legend is written in a character which after the year 1300 fell into disuse, and was succeeded by the black letter, orGothic.”§ 20.Sketch of the story of“Le Lai d’Aueloc.”21It is my intention to offer some remarks on the probable sources of the legend, and to fix a conjectural date for the existence of Havelok. But it is obviously convenient that a sketch of the story should first be given. It appears, however, that the resemblance between the French and English versions is by no means very close, and it will be necessary to give separate abstracts of them. I begin with the French version, in which I follow the Norfolk MS. rather than the abridgment by Gaimar. I have already said that the former is printed in Sir F. Madden’s edition, and that it was reprinted by M. Michel with the title “Lai d’Havelok le Danois,” Paris, 1833, and by Mr Wright for the Caxton Society in 1850.The Britons made a lay concerning King Havelok, who is surnamed Cuaran. His father was Gunter, King of the Danes. Arthur crossed the sea, and invaded Denmark. Gunter perished by the treason of Hodulf, who gained the kingdom, and held it of Arthur. Gunter had a fine castle, where his wife and son were guarded, being committed to the protection of Grim. The child was but seven years old; but ever as he slept, an odorous flame issued from his mouth. Hodulf sought to kill him, but Grim prepared a ship, and furnished it with provisions, wherein he placed the queen and the child, and set sail from Denmark. On their voyage they encountered pirates (“outlaghes”), who killed them all after a hard fight, excepting Grim, who was an acquaintance of theirs, and Grim’s wife and children. Havelok also was saved. They at last arrived at the haven, afterwards named “Grimesbi” from Grim. Grim there resumed his old trade, a fisherman’s, and a town grew up round his hut, which was called Grimsby. The child grew up, and waxed strong. One day Grim said to him, “Son, you will never thrive as a fisherman; take your brothers with you, and seek service amongst the King’s servants.” He was soon well apparelled, and repaired with his two foster-brothers to Nicole [Lincoln].22Now at that time there was a king named Alsi, who ruled over all Nicole and Lindesie;23but the country southward was governed by another king, named Ekenbright, who had married Alsi’s sister Orewen. These two had one only daughter, named Argentille. Ekenbright, falling ill, committed Argentille to the care of Alsi, till she should be of age to be married to the strongest man that can be found. At Ekenbright’s death, Alsi reigned over both countries, holding his court at Nicole. Havelok, on his arrival there, was employed to carry water and cut wood, and to perform all menial offices requiring great strength. He was named Cuaran, which means—in the British language—a scullion. Argentille soon arrived at marriageable age, and Alsi determined to marry her to Cuaran, which would sufficiently fulfil her father’s wish—Cuaran being confessedly the strongest man in those parts. To this marriage he compelled her to consent, hoping thereby to disgrace her for ever. Havelok was unwilling that his wife should perceive the marvellous flame, but soon forgot this, and ere long fell asleep. Then had Argentille a strange vision—that a savage bear and some foxes attacked Cuaran, but dogs and boars defended him. A boar having killed the bear, the foxes cried for quarter from Cuaran,who commanded them to be bound. Then he would have put to sea, but the sea rose so high that he was terrified. Next she beheld two lions, at seeing which she was frightened, and she and Cuaran climbed a tree to avoid them; but the lions submitted themselves to him, and called him their lord. Then a great cry was raised, whereat she awoke, and beheld the miraculous flame. “Sir,” she exclaimed, “you burn!” But he reassured her, and, having heard her dream, said that it would soon come true. The next day, however, she again told her dream to a chamberlain, her friend, who said that he well knew a holy hermit who could explain it. The hermit explained to Argentille that Cuaran must be of royal lineage. “He will be king,” he said, “and you a queen. Ask him concerning his parentage. Remember also to repair to his native place.” On being questioned, Cuaran replied that he was born at Grimsby; that Grim was his father, and Saburc his mother. “Then let us go to Grimsby,” she replied. Accompanied by his two foster-brothers, they came to Grimsby; but Grim and Saburc were both dead. They found there, however, a daughter of Grim’s, named Kelloc, who had married a tradesman of that town. Up to this time Havelok had not known his true parentage, but Kelloc thought it was now time to tell him, and said: “Your father was Gunter, the King of the Danes, whom Hodulf slew. Hodulf obtained the kingdom as a grant from Arthur. Grim fled with you, and saved your life; but your mother perished at sea. Your name isHavelok. My husband will convey you to Denmark, where you must inquire for a lord named ‘Sigar l’estal;’ and take with you my two brothers.” So Kelloc’s husband conveyed them to Denmark, and advised Havelok to go to Sigar and show himself and his wife, as then he would be asked who his wife is. They went to the city of the seneschal, the before-named Sigar, where they craved a night’s lodging, and were courteously entertained. But as they retired to a lodging for the night, six men attacked them, who had been smitten with the beauty of Argentille. Havelok defended himself with an axe which he found, and slew five, whereupon the sixth fled. Havelok and his party fled away for refuge to a monastery, which was soon attacked by the townsmen who had heard of the combat. Havelokmounted the tower, and defended himself bravely,casting down a huge stone on his enemies.24The news soon reached the ears of Sigar, who hastened to see what the uproar was about. BeholdingHavelok fixedly, he called to mind the form and appearance of Gunter, and asked Havelok of his parentage. Havelok replied that Grim had told him he was by birth a Dane, and that his mother perished at sea; and ended by briefly relating his subsequent adventures. Then Sigar asked him his name. “My name is Havelok,” he said, “and my other name is Cuaran.” Then the seneschal took him home, and determined to watch for the miraculous flame, which he soon perceived, and was assured that Havelok was the true heir. Therefore he gathered a great host of his friends, and sent for the horn which none but the true heir could sound, promising a ring to any one who could blow it. When all had failed, it was given to Havelok, who blew it loud and long, and was joyfully recognized and acknowledged to be the true King. Then with a great army he attacked Hodulf the usurper, whom he slew with his own hand. Thus was Havelok made King of Denmark.But after he had reigned four years, his wife incited him to return to England. With a great number of ships he sailed there, and arrived at Carleflure;25and sent messengers to Alsi, demanding the inheritance of Argentille. Alsi was indeed astonished at such a demand as coming from a scullion, and offered him battle. The hosts met at Theford,26and the battle endured till nightfall without a decisive result. But Argentille craftily advised her lord to support his dead men by stakes, to increase the apparent number of his army; and the next day Alsi, deceived by this device, treated for peace, and yielded up to his former ward all the land, from Holland27to Gloucester. Alsi had been so sorely wounded that he lived but fifteen days longer. Thus was Havelok king over Lincoln and Lindsey, and reigned over them for twenty years. Such is the lay of Cuaran.§ 21.The chief points to be noticed in Gaimar’s abridgment are the few additional particulars to be gleaned from it. We there find that Havelok’s mother wasAlvive, a daughter of KingGaifer; that the King of Nicole and Lindeseie was aBriton, and was named Edelsie; that his sister, named Orwain, was married to Adelbrit, aDane, who ruled over Norfolk; and that Edelsie and Adelbrit lived in the days of Costentin (Constantine), whosucceeded Arthur. It is also said that the usurper Hodulf was brother to Aschis, who is the Achilles of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Another statement, that Havelok’s kingdom extended from Holland toColchester, seems to be an improvement upon “from Holland toGloucester.”The words of Mr Petrie, in his remarks upon the lay in Monumenta Historica Britannica, vol. i., may be quoted here. “Although both [French versions] have the same story in substance, and often contain lines exactly alike, yet, besides the different order in which the incidents are narrated, each has occasionally circumstances wanting in the other, and such too, it should seem, as would leave the story incomplete unless supplied from the other copy. Thus, the visit to the hermit, which is omitted in Gaimar, was probably in the original romance; for without it Argentille’s dream tells for nothing; and in the Arundel copy there is a particular account of Haveloc’s defence of a tower by hurling stones on his assailants, which in Gaimar is so obscurely alluded to as to be hardly intelligible. On the other hand, instead of the description of the extraordinary virtues of Sygar’s ring in Gaimar, it is merely said in the Arundel copy that Sygar would give hisanel d’orto whoever could sound the horn; and, to omit other instances, a festival is described in Gaimar on the authority ofl’Estorie, of which no notice whatever occurs in the Arundel MS.”§ 22.Sketch of the English Poem.The “Lay of Havelok” has been admirably paraphrased by Professor Morley, in his “English Writers,” vol. i. pp. 459-467, a book which should be in every reader’s hands, and which should by all means be consulted. I only intend here to give a briefer outline, for the sake of comparing the main features of our poem with those of the FrenchLai.Hear the tale of Havelok! There was once a good king in England, named Athelwold, renowned and beloved for his justice. He had but one child, a daughter named Goldborough. Knowing that his end was approaching, he sent for all his lords to assemble at Winchester, and there committed Goldborough to the care of Godrich, the earl of Cornwall; directing him to see her marriedto the strongest and fairest man whom he could find. But Godrich imprisoned her at Dover, and resolved to seize her inheritance for his own son. At that time there was also a King of Denmark, named Birkabeyn, who had one son, Havelok, and two daughters, Swanborough and Helfled. At the approach of death, he committed these to the care of Earl Godard. But Godard killed the two girls, and only spared Havelok because he did not like to kill him with his own hand. He therefore hired a fisherman, named Grim, to drown Havelok at sea. But Grim perceived, as Havelok slept, a miraculous light shining round the lad, whereby he knew that the child was the true heir, and would one day be king. In order to avoid Godard, Grim fitted up a ship, and provisioned it, and with his wife Leve, his three sons, his two daughters, and Havelok, put out to sea. They landed in Lindesey at the month of the Humber, at a place afterwards named Grimsby after Grim. Grim worked at his old trade, a fisherman’s, and Havelok carried about the fish for sale. Then arose a great dearth in the land, and Havelok went out to seek his own livelihood, walking to Lincoln barefoot. He was hired as a porter by the earl of Cornwall’s cook, and drew water and cut wood for the earl’s kitchen. One day some men met to contend in games and to “put the stone.” At the cook’s command, Havelok also put the stone, hurling it further than any of the rest.28Godrich, hearing the praises of Havelok’s strength, at once resolved to perform his oath by causing him to marry Goldborough; and carried his design into execution. As goon as the pair were married, Havelok suddenly quitted Lincoln with his wife, and returned to Grimsby, where he found that Grim was dead, but that his five childrenareyet alive. At night, Goldborough perceived a light shining round about Havelok, and observed a cross upon his shoulder. At the same time she heard an angel’s voice, telling her of good fortune to come. Then he awoke, and told her a dream; how he had dreamt that all Denmark and England became his own. She encouraged him, and urged him to set sail for Denmark at once. He accordingly called to him Grim’s three sons, and narrated to them his own history, and Godard’s treachery, asking them to accompany him to Denmark. To this they assented, and sailed with him and Goldborough to Denmark. There he sought out a former friend of his father’s, Earl Ubbe, who invited him and his friends to a sumptuous feast. After the feast, Havelok and Goldborough and Grim’s sons went to the house of one Bernard Brown, whose house was that night attacked by sixty thieves. By dint ofgreat prowess, the friends at length slew all their sixty assailants, and Ubbe was so amazed at Havelok’s valour that he resolved to dub him a knight, and invited him to sleep in his own castle. At night, he peeped into Havelok’s chamber, and beheld the marvellous light, and saw a bright cross on his neck. Rejoiced at heart, he did homage to Havelok, and commanded all his friends and dependents to do the same. He also dubbed him knight, and proclaimed him King. With six thousand men he set out to attack Godard, whom he defeated and made prisoner, and afterwards caused to be flayed, drawn, and hung. Then Havelok swore that he would establish at Grimsby a priory of black monks, to pray for Grim’s soul; and Godrich, having heard that Havelok has invaded England, raised a great army against him. An indecisive combat took place between Ubbe and Godrich, but a more decisive one between Godrich and Havelok; for Havelok cut off his foe’s hand and made him prisoner. Then the English submitted to Goldborough, and acknowledged her as queen; but Godrich was condemned and burnt. Havelok rewarded both his own friends and the English nobles; for he caused Earl Reyner of Chester to marry Gunild, Grim’s daughter, and Bertram, formerly Godrich’s cook, to marry Levive, another of Grim’s daughters; bestowing upon Bertram the earldom of Cornwall. Then were Havelok and Goldborough crowned at London, and a feast was given that lasted forty days. The kingdom of Denmark was bestowed upon Ubbe, who held it of King Havelok. Havelok and Goldborough lived to the age of a hundred years, and their reign lasted for sixty years in England. They had fifteen children, who were all kings and queens. Such is thegesteof Havelok and Goldborough.§ 23.Possible date of Havelok’s reign.

CONTENTS.Titlepage.The engraving represents the seal of Great Grimsby, described in § 19 of the Preface, p. xxi.Preface.§ 1.The former edition of 1828.§ 2.The present edition.§ 3.Plan of this edition.§ 4.Notices of the story by Early Writers: the longer French Version.§ 5.The shorter French Version.§ 6.Peter de Langtoft (1307).§ 7.Rauf de Boun (1310).§ 8.A Brief Genealogy, Herald’s Coll. MS. (ab. 1310).§ 9.Metrical Chronicle (ab. 1313).§ 10.Robert of Brunne (1338); ed. Hearne.§ 11.Robert of Brunne; Lambeth MS.§ 12.French Prose “Brute” (1332).§ 13.English Prose “Brute,” MS. Harl. 2279.§ 14.Gray’s Scala Cronica (ab. 1360).§ 15.Eulogium Historiarum (1366).§ 16.Henry de Knyghton (1395); Warner (1586); Webster (1617).§ 17.Danish traditions.§ 18.Lincolnshire traditions.§ 19.Seal of Great Grimsby.§ 20.Sketch of the French “Lai.”§ 21.Gaimar’s abridgment.§ 22.Sketch of the English Lay.§ 23.Possible date of Havelok’s reign.§ 24.Story of “Edwin of Deira.”§ 25.On the names “Curan” and “Havelok.”§ 26.Description of the MS.§ 27.Grammatical forms in the Poem.§ 28.On the metre.§ 29.On the final-e, &c.iEmendations, &c.livThe lay of Havelok1Notes to “Havelok”87Glossarial Index105Index of Names157PREFACE.§ 1.TheEnglish version of the Lay of Havelok, now here reprinted, is one of the few poems that have happily been recovered, after having long been given up as lost. Tyrwhitt, in his Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer, has a footnote (No. 51) deploring the loss of the Rime concerning Gryme the Fisher, the founder of Grymesby, Hanelok [readHavelok] the Dane, and his wife Goldborough; and Ritson, in his Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy—(vol. i. p. lxxxviii. of his Metrical Romanceës)—makes remarks to the same effect. It was at length, however, discovered by accident in a manuscript belonging to the Bodleian library, which had been described in the old Catalogue merely asVitæ Sanctorum, a large portion of it being occupied by metrical legends of the Saints. In 1828, it was edited for the Roxburghe Club by Sir F. Madden, the title-page of the edition being as follows:— “The Ancient English Romance of Havelok the Dane, accompanied by the French Text: with an introduction, notes, and a glossary, by Frederick Madden, Esq., F.A.S. F.R.S.L., Sub-Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, London. W. Nicol, Shakspeare Press,MDCCCXXVIII.” This volume contains a very complete Introduction, pp. i-lvi; the English version of Havelok, pp. 1-104; the French text of the Romance of Havelok, from a MS. in the Heralds’ College, pp. 105-146; the French Romance of Havelok, as abridged and altered by Geffrei Gaimar, pp. 147-180; notes to the English text, pp. 181-207; notes to the Frenchtext, pp. 208-210; and a glossary, &c., pp. 211-263. But there are sometimes bound up with it two pamphlets, viz. “Remarks on the Glossary to Havelok,” by S. W. Singer, and an “Examination of the Remarks, &c.,” by the Editor of Havelok. In explanation of this, it may suffice to say, that the former contains some criticisms by Mr Singer (executed in a manner suggestive of an officious wish to display superior critical acumen), of which a few are correct, but others are ludicrously false; whilst the latter is a vindication of the general correctness of the explanations given, and contains, incidentally, some valuable contributions to our general etymological knowledge, and various remarks which have proved of service in rendering the glossary in the present edition more exactly accurate.1§ 2.Owing to the scarcity of copies of this former edition, the committee of the Early English Text Society, having first obtained the approval of Sir Frederic Madden, resolved upon issuing a reprint of it; and Sir Frederic having expressed a wish that the duty of seeing it through the press should be entrusted to myself, I gladly undertook that responsibility. He has kindly looked over the revises of the whole work,2but as it has undergone several modifications, it will be the best plan to state in detail what these are.§ 3.With respect to the text, the greatest care has been taken to render it, as nearly as can be represented in print, an exact copy of the MS. The text of the former edition is exceedingly correct, and the alterations here made are few and of slight importance. Sir F. Madden furnished me with some, the results of a re-comparison, made by himself, of his printed copy with the original; besides this, I have myself carefully read the proof sheets with the MS.twice, and it may therefore be assumed that the complete correctness of the text is established. It seems to me that this is altogether the most important part of the workof aTextSociety, in order that the student may never be perplexed by the appearance of words having no real existence. For a like reason the letters þ and ƿ (the latter of which I have represented by an italicw) have now been inserted wherever they occur, and the expansions of abbreviations are now denoted by italics. For further remarks upon the text, see the description of the MS. below, § 26. Sidenotes and headlines have been added, but the numbering of the lines has not been altered. The French text of the romance, the title of which isLe Lai de Aveloc, and the abridgment of the story by Geffrei Gaimar, have not been here reprinted; the fact being, that the French and English versions differ very widely, and that the passages of the French which really correspond to the English are few and short.Allof these will be found in the Notes, in their proper places, and it was also deemed the less necessary to print the French text, because it is tolerably accessible; for it may be found either in vol. i. of Monumenta Historica Britannica, ed. Petrie, 1848, in the reprint by M. Michel (1833) entitled “Le Lai d’Havelok,” or in the edition by Mr T. Wright for the Caxton Society, 1850. An abstract of it is given at p. xxiii. The Notes are abridged from Sir F. Madden’s, with but a very few additions by myself, which are distinguished by being placed within square brackets. The Glossarial Index is, for the most part, reprinted from Sir F. Madden’s Glossary, but contains a large number ofslightalterations, re-arrangements, and additions. The references have nearly all been verified,3and the few words formerly left unexplained are now either wholly or partially solved. I have now only to add that a large portion of the remainder of this preface, especially that which concerns the historical and traditional evidences of the story (§ 4 to § 18), is abridged or copied from Sir F. Madden’s long Introduction, which fairly exhausts the subject.4All extracts included between marks of quotation are taken from it without alteration. But I must be considered responsible for therearrangement of the materials, and I have added a few remarks from other sources.§ 4.Notices of the Story of Havelok by early writers.There can be little doubt that the tradition must have existed from Anglo-Saxon times, but the earliest mention of it is presented to us in the full account furnished by the French version of the Romance. Of this there are two copies, one of which belongs to Sir T. Phillipps; the other is known as the Arundel or Norfolk MS., and is preserved in the Heralds’ College, where it is marked E. D. N. No. 14; the various editions of the latter have been already enumerated in § 3. This version was certainly composed within the first half of the twelfth century. From the fact that it is entitled aLai, and from the assertion of the poet—“Qe vnlaien firent li Breton”—“whereof the Britons made a lay”—we easily conclude that it was drawn from a British source. From the evident connection of the story with the Chronicle called theBrut, we may further conclude that byBretonis not meant Armorican, but belonging toBritain. The story is in no way connected with France; the tradition is British or Welsh, and the French version was doubtless written in England by a subject of an English king. That the language is French is due merely to the accident that the Norman conquerors of England had acquired that language during their temporary sojourn in France. From every point of view, whether we regard the British tradition, the Anglo-Norman version, or the version printed in the present volume, the story is wholly English. It is not to be connected too closely with the Armorican lays of Mariede France.5§ 5.We next come to the abridgment of the same as made by Geffrei Gaimar, who wrote between the years 1141 and 1151. In one place, Geffrei quotes Gildas as his authority, but no conclusion can easily be drawn from this indefinite reference. In another place, he mentions a feast given by Havelok after his defeat of Hodulf—si cum nus dit la verai estoire— “as the truehistory tells us.” As this feast is not mentioned in the fuller French version, and yet reappears in the English text, we perceive that he had some additional source of information; and this is confirmed by the fact that he mentions several additional details, also not found in the completer version. That the lay of Havelok, as found in Gaimar, is really his, and not an interpolation by a later hand, may fairly be inferred from his repeated allusions to the story in the body of his work. There are three MS. copies containing Gaimar’s abridgment, of which the best is the Royal MS. (Bibl. Reg. 13 A. xxi.) in the British Museum; the two others belong respectively to the Dean and Chapter of Durham (its mark being C. iv. 27) and to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln (its mark being H. 18). It is curious that the Norfolk MS. contains not only the fuller French version of the story, but also the Brut of Wace, and the continuation of it by Gaimar. Gaimar’s abridgment, as printed in Sir F. Madden’s edition, is taken from the Royal MS., supplemented by the Durham and Lincoln MSS. See also Monumenta Historica Britannica, vol. i. p. 764. It is important to mention that Gaimar speaks of the Danes as having been in Norfolk since the time that Havelok was King, after he has been relating the combats between the Britons and the Saxons under the command of Cerdic and Cynric. Another allusion makes Havelok to have lived long before the year 800, according to every system of chronology.§ 6.The next mention of Havelok is in the French Chronicle of Peter de Langtoft, of Langtoft in Yorkshire, who died early in the reign of Edward II., and whose Chronicle closes with the death of Edward I. Here the only trace of the story is in the mention of “Gountere le pere Hauelok, de Danays Ray clamez”—Gunter, father of Havelok, called King of the Danes. The allusion is almost valueless from its evident absurdity; for he confounds Gunter with the Danish invader defeated by Alfred, and who is variously called Godrum, Gudrum, Guthrum, or Gurmound. He must have been thinking, at the moment, of a very different Gurmund, viz. the King of the Africans, as he is curiously called, whose terrible devastations are described very fully in Laȝamon, vol. iii. pp. 156-177, and who may fairly be supposed to have lived much nearer to the time of Havelok; and he must furtherhave confounded this Gurmund with Gunter. For the account of Robert of Brunne’s translation of Langtoft’s Chronicle, see below, § 10.§ 7.But soon after this, we come to a most curious account. In MS. Harl. 902 is a late copy, on paper, of a Chronicle calledLe Bruit Dengleterre, or otherwiseLe Petit Bruit, compiledA.D.1310, by Meistre Rauf de Boun, at the request of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln. It is a most worthless compilation, put together in defiance of all chronology, but with respect to our present inquiry it is full of interest, as it soon becomes obvious that one of his sources of information is the very English version here printed, which he cites by the name ofl’estorie de Grimesby, and which is thus proved to have been written before the year 1310. “The Chronicler,” says Sir F. Madden, “commences, as usual, with Brute,B.C.2000, and after taking us through the succeeding reigns to the time of Cassibelin, who fought with Julius Cæsar, informs us, that after Cassibelin’s death came Gurmound out of Denmark, who claimed the throne as the son of the eldest daughter of Belin, married to Thorand, King of Denmark. He occupies the kingdom 57 years, and is at length slain atHunteton, called afterwards from himGurmoundcestre. He is succeeded by his son Frederick, who hated the English, and filled his court with Danish nobles, but who is at last driven out of the country, after having held it for the short space of 71 years. And then, adds this miserable History-monger: ‘Et si entendrez vous, que par cel primer venue de auaunt dit Roy Gormound, et puis par cele hountoux exil de son fitz Frederik, si fu le rancour de Daneis vers nous enpendaunt, et le regne par cel primere accion vers nous enchalangount plus de sept C auns apre,iekis a la venue Haneloke, fitz le Roy Birkenebayne de Dannemarche, q~ le regne par mariage entra de sa femme.’ —f. 2 b.“After a variety of equally credible stories, we come to Adelstan II.6son of Edward [the Elder], who corresponds withthe real king of that name,A.D.925-941. He is succeeded by his son [brother] Edmund, who reigned four years [A.D.941-946], and is said to have beenpoisonedat Canterbury; after whom we haveAdelwold, whose identity with the Athelwold of the English Romance, will leave no doubt as to the source whence the writer drew great part of his materials in the following passage:‘Apresceo vient Adelwold son fitz q~ reignaXVJet demie, si engendroit ij feiz et iij filis, dount trestoutz murrirent frechement fors q~ sa pune file, le out a nomGoldburgh, del age deVJaunz kaunt son pere Adelwold morust. Cely Roy Adelwold quant il doit morir, comaunda sa file a garder a vn Count de Cornewayle, al houre kaunt il quidou~ie (sic) hountousment auoir deparagé, quaunt fitHaueloke, fitz le Roy Byrkenbayne de Denmarche, esposer le, encountre sa volunté, q~ primis fuit Roy Dengleterre et de Denmarch tout a vn foitz, par quele aliaunce leis Daneis queillerunt gendr~ (sic) mestrie en Engleterre, et long temps puise le tindrunt,si cum vous nouncie l’estorie de Grimesby, comeGrimeprimez nurist Haueloke en Engleterre, depuis cel houre q’il feut chasé de Denmarche &c. deqis al houre q’il vint au chastelle de Nichole, q~ cely auauntdit traitreGoudricheout en garde, en quel chastel il auauntdit Haueloke espousa l’auauntdit Goldeburgh, q~ fuit heir Dengleterre. Et par cel reson tynt cely Haueloke la terre de Denmarche auxi comme son heritage, et Engleterre auxi par mariage de sa femme; et si entendrez vous, q~ par la reson q~ ly auauntdit Gryme ariua primez, kaunt il amena l’enfaunt Haueloke hors de Denmarche, par meyme la reson reseut cele vile son nom, de Grime, quel noun ly tint vnquore Grimisby.‘Apres ceo regna meyme cely Haueloke, q~ mult fuit prodhomme, et droiturelle, et bien demenoit son people en reson et ley. Cel Roy Haueloke reigna xlj. aunz, si engendroit ix fitz et vij filis, dount trestoutz murrerount ainz q~ furunt d’age, fors soulement iiij de ses feitz, dont l’un out a noum Gurmound, cely q~ entendy auoir son heire en Engleterre; le secound out a noun Knout, quen fitz feffoit son pere en le regne de Denmarche, quant il estoit del age de xviij aunz, et ly mesme se tynt a la coroune Dengleterre, quel terre il entendy al oeps son ainez fitz Gurmoundauoir gardé. Mes il debusa son col auxi comme il feu mounté vn cheval testous q~ poindre volleyt, en l’an de son regne xxiij entrant. Le tiers fitz ont a noun Godard, q~ son pere feffoit de la Seneschacie Dengleterre, q~ n’auo~ut (sic) taunt come ore fait ly quart. Et le puisnez fitz de toutz out a noum Thorand, q~ espousa la Countesse de Hertouwe en Norwey. Et par la reson q~ cely Thorand feut enherité en la terre de Norwey, ly et ses successours sont enheritez iekis en sa p~ce (sic) toutdis, puis y auoit affinité de alliaunce entre ceulx de Denmarche et ceulx de Norwey, a checun venue q~ vnkes firent en ceste terre pur chalenge ou clayme mettre, iekis a taunt q~ lour accion feut enseyne destrut par vn noble chevallereGuy de Warwike, &c. Et tout en sy feffoit Haueloke sez quatre fitz: si gist a priorie deGreschercheen Loundrez.’ —f. 6 b.“TheEstorie de Grimesbytherefore, referred to above, is the identical English Romance before us, and it is no less worthy of remark, that the whole of the passage just quoted, with one single variation of import, has been literally translated by Henry de Knyghton, and inserted in his Chronicle.7Of the sources whence the information respecting Havelok’s sons is derived, we are unable to offer any account, as no trace of it occurs either in the French or English texts of the story.”§ 8.“About the same time at which Rauf de Boun composed his Chronicle, was written a brief Genealogy of the British and Saxon Kings, from Brutus to Edward II., preserved in the same MS. in the Heralds’ College which contains the French text of the Romance. The following curious rubric is prefixed:—La lignée des Bretons et des Engleis, queus il furent, et de queus nons, et coment Brut vint premerement en Engleterre, et combien de tens puis, et dont il vint. Brut et Cornelius furent chevalers chacez de la bataille de Troie,M. CCCC. XVII.anz deuant qe dieus nasquit, et vindrent en Engleterre, en Cornewaille, et riens ne fut trouee en la terre fors qe geanz, Geomagog, Hastripoldius, Ruscalbundy, et plusurs autres Geanz.In this Genealogy no mention of Havelok occurs under the reign of Constantine, but after the names of the Saxon Kings Edbright and Edelwin, we read: ‘Athelwoldauoit vne filleGoldeburgh, et il regna vi. anz.Hauelocesposa meismecele Goldeburgh, et regna iij. anz.Alfredle frere le Roi Athelwold enchaca Haueloc par Hunehere, et il fut le primer Roi corone de l’apostoille, et il regna xxx. anz.’ —fol. 148 b. By this account Athelwold is clearly identified with Ethelbald, King of Wessex, who reigned from 855 to 860, whilst Havelok is substituted in the place of Ethelbert and Ethered.”§ 9.“Not long after the same period was written a MetricalChronicle of England, printed by Ritson, Metr. Rom. V. ii. p. 270. Two copies are known to exist,8the first concluding with the death of Piers Gavestone, in 1313 (MS. Reg. 12. C. xii.), and the other continued to the time of Edw. III. (Auchinleck MS.). The period of Havelok’s descent into England is there ascribed to the reign of King Ethelred (978-1016), which will very nearly coincide with the period assigned by Rauf de Boun, viz.A.D.963-1004.”‘Haueloccom tho to this lond,With gret host & eke strong,Ant sloh the Kyng Achelred,At Westmustre he was ded,Ah he heuede reigned herSeuene an tuenti fulle ȝer.’MS. Reg. 12. C. xii.“This date differs from most of the others, and appears founded on the general notion of the Danish invasions during that period.”§ 10.Before proceeding to consider theproseChronicle of the Brute, it is better to speak first of the translation of Peter de Langtoft’s Chronicle by Robert of Brunne, a translation which was completedA.D.1338. At p. 25 of Hearne’s edition is the following passage:‘ Ȝit a nother Danes Kyng in the North gan aryue.Alfrid it herd, thidere gan he dryue.Hauelok9fader he was,Gunterwas his name.He brent citees & tounes, ouer alle did he schame.Saynt Cutbertes clerkes tho Danes thei dred.The toke the holy bones, about thei tham led.Seuen ȝere thorgh the land wer thei born aboute,It comforted the kyng mykelle, whan he was in doute¶ Whan Alfrid & Gunter had werred long in ille,Thorgh the grace of God, Gunter turned his wille.Cristend wild he be, the kyng of fonte him lift,& thritty of his knyghtes turnes, thorgh Godes gift.Tho that first were foos, and com of paien lay,Of Cristen men haf los, & so thei wend away.’“This is the whole that appears in the original, but after the above lines immediately follows, in the language of Robert of Brunne himself (as noted also by Hearne, Pref. p. lxvii.), the following curious, and to our inquiry, very important passage:”‘ Bot I haf grete ferly, that I fynd no man,That has writen in story, how Hauelok this lond wan.NoitherGildas, no Bede, no Henry of Huntynton,No William of Malmesbiri, ne Pers of Bridlynton,Writes not in ther bokes of no kyng Athelwold,Ne Goldeburgh his douhtere, ne Hauelok not of told,Whilk tyme the were kynges, long or now late,Thei mak no menyng whan, no in what date.Bot that thiselowed men vpon Inglish tellis,Right story can me not ken, the certeynte what spellis.Men sais in Lyncoln castelle ligges ȝit a stone,That Hauelok kast wele forbi euer ilkone& ȝit the chapelle standes, ther he weddid his wife,Goldeburgh the kynges douhter,that saw is ȝit rife.& of Gryme a fisshere,men redes ȝit in ryme,That he bigged Grymesby Gryme that ilk tyme.Of alle stories of honoure, that I haf thorgh souht,I fynd that no compiloure of him tellis ouht.Sen I fynd non redy, that tellis of Hauelok kyndeTurne we to that story, that we writen fynde.’“There cannot exist the smallest doubt, that by the ‘Ryme’ here mentioned ‘that lowed men vpon Inglish tellis,’ the identical English Romance, now before the reader, is referred to. It must therefore certainly have been composed prior to the period at which Robert of Brunne wrote,10in whose time the traditions respecting Havelok at Lincoln were so strongly preserved, as topoint out various localities to which the story had affixed a name, and similar traditions connected with the legend, as we shall find hereafter, existed also at Grimsby. The doubts expressed by the Chronicler, as to their authenticity, or the authority of the ‘Ryme,’ are curious, but only of value so far as they prove he was ignorant of the existence of a French Romance on the subject, or of its reception in Gaimar’s historical poem.”§ 11.“But on consulting the Lambeth copy of Rob. of Brunne, in order to verify the passage as printed by Hearne from the Inner Temple MS. we were not a little surprised to ascertain a fact hitherto overlooked, and indeed unknown, viz. that the Lambeth MS. (which is a folio, written on paper, and imperfect both at the beginning and close)11does not correspond with the Edition, but has evidently been revised by a later hand, which has abridged the Prologues, omitted some passages, and inserted others. The strongest proof of this exists in the passage before us, in which the Lambeth MS. entirely omits the lines of Rob. of Brunne respecting the authenticity of the story of Havelok, and in their place substitutes an abridged outline of the story itself, copied apparently from the French Chronicle of Gaimar. The interpolation is so curious, and so connected with our inquiry, as to be a sufficient apology for introducing it here.”‘ ¶ Forth wente Gounter & his folk, al in to Denemark,Sone fel ther hym vpon, a werre styth & stark,Thurgh a Breton kyng, thtout of Ingeland cam,& asked the tribut of Denmark, thtArthur whylom nam.They wythseide hit schortly, & non wolde they ȝelde,But rather they wolde dereyne hit, wyth bataill y the felde.Both partis on a day, to felde come they stronge,Desconfit were the danes, Gounter his deth gan fonge.When he was ded they schope brynge, al his blod to schame,But Gatferes doughter the kyng,Eleynewas hure name,Was kyng Gounteres wyf, and had a child hem bytwene,Wyth wham scheo scapede vnethe, al to the se with tene.The child hym highteHauelok, thtwas his moder dere,Scheo mette with grym atte hauene, a wel god marinere,He hure knew & highte hure wel, to helpe hure with his might,To bryng hure saf out of the lond, wythinne thtilke night.When they come in myd se, a gret meschef gan falle,They metten wyth a gret schip, lade wyth outlawes alle.Anon they fullen hem apon, & dide hem Mikel peyne,So thtwyth strengthe of their assaut, ded was quene Eleyne.But ȝyt ascapede from hem Grym, wyth Hauelok & other fyue,& atte the hauene of Grymesby, ther they gon aryue.Ther was brought forth child Hauelok, wyth Grym & his fere,Right als hit hadde be ther own, for other wyste men nere.Til he was mykel & mighti, & man of mykel cost,Thtfor his grete sustinaunce, nedly serue he most.He tok leue of Grym & Seburc, as of his sire & dame,And askede ther blessinge curteysly, ther was he nought to blame.Thenne drow he forth northward, to kynges court Edelsie,Ththeld fro Humber to Rotland, the kyngdam of Lyndesye.Thys Edelsy of Breton kynde, had Orewayn his sister brightMaried to a noble kyng, of Northfolk Egelbright.Holly for his kyngdam, he held in his hand,Al the lond fro Colchestre, right in til Holand.Thys Egelbright thtwas a Dane, & Orewayn the quene,Hadden gete on Argill, a doughter hem bytwene.Sone then deyde Egelbright, & his wyf Orewayn,& therfore was kyng Edelsye, bothe joyful & fayn.Anon their doughter & here Eyr, his nece dame Argill,& al the kyngdam he tok in hande, al at his owene will.Ther serued Hauelok as quistron, & was y-cald Coraunt,He was ful mykel & hardy, & strong as a Geaunt.He was bold Curteys & fre, & fair & god of manere,So thtalle folk hym louede, thtauewest hym were.But for couetise of desheraison, of damysele Argill,& for a chere thtthe kyng sey, scheo made Coraunt till,He dide hem arraye ful symplely, & wedde togydere bothe,For he ne rewarded desparagyng, were manion ful wrothe.A while they dwelt after in court, in ful pore degre,The schame & sorewe thtArgill hadde, hit was a deol to se.Then seyde scheo til hure maister, of whenne sire be ȝe?Haue ȝe no kyn ne frendes at hom, in ȝoure contre?Leuer were me lyue in pore lyf, wythoute schame & tene,Than in schame & sorewe, lede the astat of quene.Thenne wente they forth to Grymesby, al by his wyues red,& founde thtGrym & his wyf, weren bothe ded.But he fond ther on Aunger, Grymes cosyn hend,To wham thtGrym & his wyf, had teld word & ende.How ththit stod wyth Hauelok, in all manere degre,& they hit hym telde & conseilled, to drawe til his contre,Tasaye what grace he mighte fynde, among his frendes there,& they wolde ordeyne for their schipynge, and al ththem nede were.When Aunger hadde y-schiped hem, they seilled forth ful swythe,Ful-but in til Denemark, wyth weder fair & lithe.Ther fond he on sire Sykar, a man of gret pousté,Ththey styward somtyme was, of al his fader fe.Ful fayn was he of his comyng, & god help him behight,To recouere his heritage, of Edulf kyng & knyght.Sone asembled they gret folk, of his sibmen & frendes,Kyng Edulf gadered his power, & ageyn them wendes.Desconfyt was ther kyng Edulf, & al his grete bataill,& so conquered Hauelok, his heritage saunz faille.Sone after he schop him gret power, in toward Ingelond,His wyues heritage to wynne, ne wolde he nought wonde.Ththerde the kyng of Lyndeseye, he was come on thtcost,& schop to fighte wyth hym sone, & gadered hym gret host.But atte day of bataill, Edelsy was desconfit,& after by tretys gaf Argentill, hure heritage al quit.& for scheo was next of his blod, Hauelokes wyf so feyr,He gaf hure Lyndesey after his day, & made hure his Eyr.& atte last so byfel, thtvnder Hauelokes schelde,Al Northfolk & Lyndeseye, holy of hym they helde.’MS. Lamb. 131. leaf 76.§ 12.We now come to the prose Chronicle called The Brute, which became exceedingly popular, and was the foundation of “Caxton’s Chronicle,” first printed by CaxtonA.D.1480, but of which Caxton was not the author, though he may have added some of the last chapters. The original is in French, and was probably compiled a few yearsbeforeRobert of Brunne’s translation of Langtoft was made, as it concludes with the year 1331, or, in some copies, with 1332. The author of it is not known, but it was probably only regarded as a compilation from the Chronicles of the earlier Historians. “In this Chronicle, in all its various shapes, is contained the Story of Havelock,engrafted on the British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and in its detail, following precisely the French text of the Romance. The only variation of consequence is the substitution of the name of Birkabeyn (as in the English text) for that of Gunter, and in some copies, both of the French and English MSS. of the Chronicle, the name ofGoldeburghis inserted instead ofArgentille; which variations are the more curious, as they prove the absolute identity of the story. For the sake of a more complete illustration of what has been advanced, we are induced to copy the passage at length, as it appears in the French Chronicle, taken from a well-written MS. of the 14th century, MS. Reg. 20 A 3, fol. 165 b.”12‘Des Rois Adelbright & Edelfi, Cap.IIIJxx.XIX.Apres le Roi Constantin estoient deux Rois en graunt Brutaigne, dount li vns out a noun Aldelbright, & fust Danois, & [tint] tut le pais de Norff’ & de Suffolk, & ly altre out a noun Edelfi, qefust Brittone, & tint Nicol & Lindesey, & tote la terre desqes a Humber, Ceux deux Rois soi entreguerroierent, [& moult s’entrehaierent] mais puis furent il entre acordez & soi entreamerent, taunt com s’il vssent estee freres de vn ventre neez. Le Roi Edelfi out vne soer, Orewenne par noun, & la dona par grant amour al Roi Aldelbright a femme. Et il engendra de ly vne fille qeout a noun Argentille. En le tierez an apres vne greue Maladie ly suruint, si deuereit morrir, & maunda par vn iour al Roi Edelfi, soun frere en lei, q’il venist a ly parler, & cil ly emparla volentiers. Donqe ly pria le Roi Aldelbright et ly coniura en le noun [de] Dieu, q’il apres sa mort preist Argentille sa fille, & sa terre, & q’il la feist honestement garder [& nurrir] en sa chambre, & quant ele serreit de age, q’il la feist marier al plus fort hom & plus vaillaunt q’il porroit trouer, & qea donqe ly rendist sa terre. Edelfi ceo graunta, & par serment afferma sa priere. Et quant Adelbright fust mort, & enterree, Edelfi prist la damoysele, & la norrist en sa chambre, si deuynt ele la plus beale creature qehom porreit trouer.Coment le Roi Edelfi Maria la damoisele Argentille a vn quistroun de sa quisine.Capm.C.Le Roi Edelfi, qefust vncle a la Damoysele Argentille, pensa fausement coment il porreit la terre sa Nece auoir par touz iours, & malueisement countre soun serment pensa a deceiure la pucelle, si la maria a vn quistroun de sa quisyne qefust apellée Curan, si esteit il le plus haut, le plus fort, & le plus vaillaunt de corps, qehom sauoit nulle part a cel temps, & la quidoit hountousement marier, pur auoir sa terre a remenaunt, Mais il fust deceu. Carcest Curan fust [le Roi] Hauelok, filz le Roi Kirkebain de Denemarche, & il conquist la terre sa femme [en Bretaigne], & occist le Roi Edelfi, vncle sa femme, & conquist tote la terre,si com aillours est trouée plus pleinement[en l’estorie], & il ne regna qetreis aunz. Car Saxsouns & Danoys le occirent, & ceo fust grant damage a tote la grant Brutaigne. Et les Brutouns le porterent a Stonhenge, & illoeqes ly enterrerent a grant honour.’§ 13.“With the above may be compared the English version, as extant in MS. Harl. 2279, which agrees with the Ed. of Caxton, except in the occasional substitution of one word for another.”13‘MS. Harl. 2279, f. 47.Of the kinges Albright & of Edelf.CaoIIIIxx.XIo.After kyng Constantinus deth, ther were .ij. kynges in Britaigne, that one men callede Adelbright, that was a Danoys, and helde the cuntray of Northfolk and Southfolk, that other hight Edelf, and was a Britoun & helde Nichole, Lindeseye, and alle the lande vnto Humber. Thes ij. kynges faste werred togeders, but afterward thei were acorded, and louede togedere as thei had ben borne of o bodie. The kyng Edelf had a suster that men callede Orewenne, and he yaf here thurghe grete frenshipe to kyng Adelbright to wif, and he begate on here a doughter that men callede Argentille, and in the .iij. yeer after him come vppon a strong sekenesse that nedes he muste die, and he sent to kyng Edelf, his brother in lawe, that he shulde come and speke with him, and he come to him with good wille. Tho prayed he the kyng and coniurede also in the name of God, that after whan he were dede, he shulde take Argentil his doughter, and the lande, and that he kepte hir wel, and noreshed in his chambre; and whan she were of age he shulde done here be mariede to the strongest and worthiest man that he myȝt fynde, and than he shulde yelde vp her lande ayen. Edelf hit grauntid, and bi othe hit confermede his prayer. And whan Adelbright was dede and Enterede, Edelfe toke the damesel Argentil, and noreshid her in his chambre, and she become the fayrest creature thtmyȝt lif, or eny man finde.How kyng Edelf mariede the damysel Argentil to a knaue of his kichyn.CaoIIIIxx.XII.This kyng Edelf, that was vncle to the damesel Argentil, bithought how that he myȝte falsliche haue the lande from his necefor euermore, and falsly ayens his othe thouȝte to desceyue the damysel, and marie here to a knave of his kichon, that men callede Curan, and he become the worthiest and strengest man of bodie that eny man wist in eny lande that tho leuede. And to him he thouȝt here shendfully haue mariede, for to haue had here lande afterward; but he was clene desceyuede. For this Curan that was Hauelokis son that was kyng of Kirkelane in Denmark, and this Curan Conquerede his wifes landes, and slow kyng Edelf, that was his wifes vncle, and had alle here lande, as in a-nother stede hit [MS. but] telleth more oponly, and he ne regnede but iij. yeer, for Saxones and Danoys him quelde, and that was grete harme to al Britaigne, and Britouns bere him to Stonehenge, and ther thei him interede with mochel honour and solempnite.’“It must not be concealed, that in some copies, viz. in MSS. Harl. 1337, 6251, Digby 185, Hatton 50, Ashmole 791 and 793, the story is altogether omitted, and Conan made to succeed to Arthur. In those copies also of the English Polychronicon, the latter part of which resembles the above Chronicle, the passage is not found.” “Among the Harl. MSS. (No. 63) is a copy of the same Chronicle in an abridged form, in which the name ofGoldesburgheis substituted for that of Argentille.” Sir F. Madden now adds—that “the story occurs also in some interpolated copies of Higden (the Latin text, viz. MSS. Harl. 655, Cott. Jul. E. 8, Reg. 13 E. 1).In an earlier form it is found in a Latin Chronicle of the 13th century, MS. Cott. Dom. A. 2, fol. 130.”§ 14.“It was, in all probability, to this Chronicle also, in its original form, that Thomas Gray, the author of theScala Cronica(orScale Cronicon), a Chronicle in French prose, composed between the years 1355 and 1362, is indebted for his knowledge of the tale.” The original MS. is No. 132 in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and was edited by Stevenson for the Maitland Club in 1836. The passage relative to Havelok is translated by Leland,Collectanea, vol. i. pt. 2, p. 511. This account resembles the others, and involves no new point of interest.§ 15.I may here introduce the remark, that the story is also to be found in theEulogium Historiarum, ed. Haydon, 1860, vol. ii. p. 378. I here quote the passage at length, as it is not referred to in Sir F. Madden’s edition. The date of the Chronicle is about 1366. For various readings, see Haydon’s edition.Non enim est prætermittendum de quodam Dano generoso ætate juvenili florente, qui tempore regis Edelfridi casualiter Angliam adiit, qui a propria patria expulsus per quendam ducem falsissimum, cui pater ejus illum commiserat ipso moriente et ducem rogavit ut puerum nutriret usque dum posset Denemarchiæ regnum viriliter gubernare. Dux vero malitiam machinans juvenem hæredem rectum, Hauelok nomine, voluit occidisse. Puer vero comperiens aufugit per latibula usque dum quidam Anglicus et mercator in illis partibus adventaret; nomen autem mercatoris Grym vocitabatur. Hauelok autem, Grym rogans ut ipsum in Angliam transvectaret, ipse autem annuens, puerum secum conduxit et cum eo per aliquot tempus apud Grymesby morabatur. Tandem ipsum ad curiam regis Edelfridi conduxit et ibi in coquina regis moratus est.Rex autem Edelfridus quamdam habuit sororem nomine Orwen et illam maritavit regi Athelberto, quod conjugium inter duos reges vinculum amoris catenavit. Rex autem Athelbert terram citra Trentam cum regio diademate occupavit, cum terra de Northfolk’ et de Southfolk’ et eis adjacentibus. Rex vero Edelfrid comitatum Lincolniæ et Lyndeseye et eis spectantibus. Ante maritagium puellæ Orwen illi duo reges semper debellabant, post matrimonium factum nulla fuit divisio, nec in familia inter eos nec in dominio.Rex vero Ethelbert de uxore sua quamdam filiam genuit, nomine Argentile, pulcherrimam valde. Athelberto obiente, vel ante mortem ejus, regem rogavit Edelfridum ut filiam suam homini fortissimo ac validiori totius sui regni in conjugium copularet, nihil doli vel mali machinans.Rex autem Adelfrid omnem malitiam ingeminans de conjugio puellæ malitiose disponens, cogitans se habere unum lixam in coquina sua qui omnes homines regni sui in vigore et fortitudine superabat, et juxta votum patris puellæ ad illum hominem fortissimum illam generosam juvenculam toro maritali copulavit, ob cupiditatem regni puellæ ipsam ita enormiter maritabat. Hauelok in patria Danemarchiæ et Argentile in Britannia æquali sorte ad custodiendum deputati sunt, totum tamen nutu Divino cedebat eis in honorem. Nam Hauelok post paucos annos regnum Britanniæ adoptus est, et a Saxonibus tandem occisus et apud le Stonhenge est sepultus. Pater ejus Kirkeban vocabatur.This agrees closely with the accounts given above (§ 12 and § 13). The chief point to be noticed is that this account identifies Edelfrid with the Æthelfrith son of Æthelric who was king of the Northumbrians fromA.D.593 to 617, according to thecomputation of the A.S. Chronicle, and who was succeeded by Eadwine son of Ælle, who drove out the æthelings or sons of Æthelfrith. It may be remarked further, that the same Æthelfrith is called Æluric by Laȝamon, who gives him a very bad character; see Laȝamon, ed. Madden, vol. iii. p. 195.§ 16.The story is also mentioned by Henry de Knyghton, a canon of Leicester abbey, whose history concludes with the year 1395. But his is no fresh evidence, as it is evidently borrowed from the French Chronicle of Rauf de Boun; see § 7. It is also alluded to in a blundering manner in a short historical compilation extending from the time of Brutus to the reign of Henry VI., and preserved in MS. Cotton Calig. A. 2. At fol. 107bis the passage— “Ethelwolde, qui generavit filiam de (sic) Haueloke de Denmarke, per quem Danes per cccc. annos postea fecerunt clameum Anglie.” Some omission after the worddehas turned the passage into nonsense; but it is noteworthy as expressing the claim of the Danes to the English crown by right of descent from Havelok; a claim which is more clearly expressed in MS. Harl. 63, in which the King of Denmark is represented as sending a herald to Æthelstan (A.D.927)— “to witte wheder he wold fynde a man to fight withColbrande14for the righ[t]e of the kyngdom Northumbre, that the Danes had claymed byfore by the title of kyng Haueloke, that wedded Goldesburghe the kyngis daughter of Northumbre” —fol. 19.15Four hundred years before this date would intimate some year early in the sixth century. Finally, the story is found at a later period in Caxton’s Chronicle (A.D.1480) as above intimated in § 12; whence it was adopted by Warner, and inserted into his poem entitled Albion’s England; book iv. chap. 20, published in 1586. Warner called it the tale of “Argentile and Curan;” and in this ballad-shape it was reprinted in Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Poetry (vol. ii. p. 261; ed. 1812) with the same title. Not long after, in 1617, another author, William Webster, published a larger poem in six-line stanzas; but this is a mere paraphrase of Warner. The title is— “The mostpleasant and delightful historie of Curan, a prince of Danske, and the fayre princesse Argentile,” &c. John Fabyan, in his Concordance of Historyes, first printed in 1516, alludes to the two kings Adelbryght and Edill, only to dismiss the “longe processe” concerning them, as not supported by sufficient authority. See p. 82 of the reprint by Ellis, 4to, 1811.§ 17.The only other two sources whence any further light can be thrown upon our subject are the traditions of Denmark and Grimsby. A letter addressed by Sir F. Madden to Professor Rask elicited a reply which was equivalent to saying that next to nothing is known about it in Denmark. This seems to be the right place to mention a small book of 80 pages, published at Copenhagen in the present year (1868), and entitled “Sagnet om Havelok Danske; fortalt af Kristian Köster.” It contains (1) a version, in Danish prose, of the English poem; (2) a version of the same story, following the French texts of the Arundel and Royal MSS.; and (3) some elucidations of the legend. The author proposes a theory that Havelok is really the Danish king Amlet, i.e. Hamlet; but I have not space here to state all his arguments. As far as I follow them, some of the chief ones are these; that Havelok ought to be found in the list of Danish kings;16that Hamlet’s simulation of folly or madness is paralleled by Havelok’s behaviour, as expressed in ll. 945-954 of our poem; and that both Hamlet and Havelok succeeded in fulfilling the revenge which they had long cherished secretly. But I am not much persuaded by these considerations, for, even granting some resemblance in the names,17the resemblance in the stories is very slight. But I must refer the reader to the book itself.§ 18.Turning however to local traditions, we find that Camden briefly alludes to the story in a contemptuous manner(p. 353; ed. 8vo, Lond. 1587); but Gervase Holles is far from being disposed to regard it as fabulous.Inhis MSS. collections for Lincolnshire, preserved in MS. Harl. 6829, he thus speaks of the story we are examining.18“And it will not be amisse, to say something concerning yeCommon tradition of her first founder Grime, as yeinhabitants (with a Catholique faith) name him. The tradition it thus.Grime(say they) a poore Fisherman (as he was launching into yeRiuer for fish in his little boate vpon Humber) espyed not far from him another little boate, empty (as he might conceaue) which by yefauour of yewynde & tyde still approached nearer & nearer vnto him. He betakes him to his oares, & meetes itt, wherein he founde onely a Childe wrapt in swathing clothes, purposely exposed (as it should seeme) to yepittylesse [rage] of yewilde & wide Ocean. He moued with pitty, takes itt home, & like a good foster-father carefully nourisht itt, & endeauoured to nourishe it in his owne occupation: but yechilde contrarily was wholy deuoted to exercises of actiuity, & when he began to write man, to martiall sports, & at length by his signall valour obteyned such renowne, ythe marryed yeKing of England’s daughter, & last of all founde who was his true Father, & that he was Sonne to yeKing of Denmarke; & for yecomicke close of all; thatHaueloke(for such was his name) exceedingly aduanced & enriched his foster-father Grime, who thus enriched, builded a fayre Towne neare the place where Hauelocke was founde, & named it Grimesby. Thus say some: others differ a little in yecircumstances, as namely, that Grime was not a Fisherman, but a Merchant, & that Hauelocke should be preferred to yeKing’s kitchin, & there liue a longe tyme as a Scullion: but however yecircumstances differ, they all agree in yeconsequence, as concerning yeTowne’s foundation, to which (sayth yestory) Hauelocke yeDanish prince, afterward graunted many immunityes. This is yefamous Tradition concerning Grimsby wch learned Mr. Cambden gives so little creditt to, that he thinkes it onelyillis dignissima, qui anilibus fabulis noctem solent protrudere.”And again, after shewing thatbyis the Danish fortown, and quoting a passage about Havelock’s father being named Gunter, which may be found in Weever (Ancient Funeral Monuments, fol. Lond. 1631, p. 749), he proceeds:“thatHauelocke did sometymes reside in Grimsby, may be gathered from a great blewBoundry-stone, lying at yeEast ende of Briggowgate, which retaines yename ofHauelock’s-Stoneto this day. Agayne yegreat priuiledges & immunityes, that this Towne hath in Denmarke aboue any other in England (as freedome from Toll, & yerest) may fairely induce a Beleife, that some preceding favour, or good turne called on this remuneration. But lastly (which proofe I take to beinstar omnium) the Common Seale of yeTowne, & that a most auncient one,” &c. [Here follows a description of the Seal.]“The singular fact,” adds Sir F. Madden, “alluded to by Holles, of the Burgesses of Grimsby being free from toll at the Port of Elsineur, in Denmark, is confirmed by the Rev. G. Oliver, in his Monumental Antiquities of Grimsby, 8vo, Hull, 1825, who is inclined from that, and other circumstances, to believe the story is not so totally without foundation.” There is also an absurd local story that the church at Grimsby, which has now but one turret, formerly had four, three of which were kicked down by Grim in his anxiety to destroy some hostile vessels. The first fell among the enemy’s fleet; the second dropped in Wellowgate, and is now Havelock’s stone; the third fell within the churchyard, but the fourth his strength failed to move. Perhaps amongst the most interesting notices of the story are the following words by Sir Henry Havelock, whose family seems to have originally resided in Durham. His own account, however, is this. “My father, William Havelock, descended from a family which formerly resided at Grimsby in Lincolnshire, and was himself born at Guisborough in Yorkshire.”19And it may at least be said with perfect truth, that if the name ofHavelockwas not famous formerly, it is famous now.§ 19.The last evidence for the legend is the still-existing seal of the corporation of Great Grimsby. The engraving of this seal, as it appears in the present edition, was made from a copy kindly furnished to the E.E.T.S. by the Mayor of Grimsby, and I here subjoin a description of it, communicated to me by J. Hopkin, Esq., Jun., of Grimsby, which was first printed, in a slightly different form, in Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. xi. p. 41; see also p. 216.“The ancient Town Seal of Great Grimsby is engraven on a circular piece of brass not very thick; and on the back, which is rather arched, is a small projecting piece of brass, placed as a substitute for a handle, in order when taking an impression the more easily to detach the matrix from the Wax. This seal is in an excellent state of preservation, and is inscribed in Saxon characters ‘Sigillvm Comunitatis Grimebye’ and represents thereon Gryme (‘Gryem’) who by tradition is reported to have been a native of Souldburg in Denmark, where he gained a precarious livelihood by fishing and piracy; but having, as is supposed, during the reign of Ethelbert,20been accidentally driven into the Humber by a furious storm, he landed on the Lincolnshire Coast near Grimsby, he being at this time miserably poor and almost destitute of the common necessaries of life; for Leland represents this ‘poor fisschar’ as being so very needy that he was not ‘able to kepe his sunne Cuaran for poverty.’ Gryme, finding a capacious haven adapted to his pursuits, built himself a house and commenced and soon succeeded in establishing a very lucrative Trade with Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Other Merchants having in process of time settled near him, attracted by the commercial advantages offered by this excellent Harbour, they jointly constructed convenient appendages for extensive Trade, and the colony soon rose into considerable importance, and became known at an early period by the name of Grimsby. For not only was Grimsby constituted a borough so early as the seventh century, but Peter of Langtoft speaks of it as a frontier Town and the boundary of a Kingdom erected by the conquests of Egbert in the year 827, which he states included all that portion of the Island which lay between ‘the maritime Towns of Grymsby and Dover.’ So that even at that period, Grimsby must have been a place of peculiar strength and importance. Gryme is represented on the seal as a man of gigantic stature with comparatively short hair, a shaven chin, and a moustache, holding in his right hand a drawn sword and bearing on his left arm a circular shield with an ornate boss and rim. The sleeveless tunic above his under vest is most probably the panzar or panzara of the Danes. Between his feet is a Conic object, possibly intended for a helmet, as it resembles the chapelle-de-fer worn by William Rufus on his Great Seal, and which in the laws of Gula is distinguished as the Steel hufe. On the right hand of Gryme stands his protégé Haveloc (‘Habloc’), whom, during one of his mercantile excursions soon after his arrival in Lincolnshire, Gryme had the good fortune to savefrom imminent danger of Shipwreck, and who proved to be the Son of Gunter, King of Denmark, and who was therefore conveyed to the British Court, where he subsequently received in marriage Goldburgh, the Daughter of the British Sovereign. Above Gryme is represented a hand, being emblematical of the hand of providence by which Haveloc was preserved, and near the hand is the star which marks the point where the inscription begins and ends. Haveloc made such a favourable representation of his preserver at the British and Danish Courts, that he procured for him many honours and privileges. From the British Monarch Gryme, who had already realised an abundance of wealth, received a charter, and was made the chief governor of Grimsby; and the Danish Sovereign granted to the Town an immunity (which is still possessed by the Burgesses of Grimsby) from all Tolls at the Port of Elsineur. Gryme afterwards lived in Grimsby like a petty prince in his Hereditary Dominions. Above Haveloc is represented a crown and in his right hand is a battle axe, the favourite weapon of the Northmen, and in his right hand is a ring which he is presenting to the British Princess Goldburgh (‘Goldebvrgh’), who stands on the left side of Gryme and whose right hand is held towards the Ring. Over her head is a Regal Diadem, and in her left hand is a Sceptre. Sir F. Madden states that it is certain that this seal is at least as old as the time of Edward I. (and therefore contemporaneous with the MS.) as the legend is written in a character which after the year 1300 fell into disuse, and was succeeded by the black letter, orGothic.”§ 20.Sketch of the story of“Le Lai d’Aueloc.”21It is my intention to offer some remarks on the probable sources of the legend, and to fix a conjectural date for the existence of Havelok. But it is obviously convenient that a sketch of the story should first be given. It appears, however, that the resemblance between the French and English versions is by no means very close, and it will be necessary to give separate abstracts of them. I begin with the French version, in which I follow the Norfolk MS. rather than the abridgment by Gaimar. I have already said that the former is printed in Sir F. Madden’s edition, and that it was reprinted by M. Michel with the title “Lai d’Havelok le Danois,” Paris, 1833, and by Mr Wright for the Caxton Society in 1850.The Britons made a lay concerning King Havelok, who is surnamed Cuaran. His father was Gunter, King of the Danes. Arthur crossed the sea, and invaded Denmark. Gunter perished by the treason of Hodulf, who gained the kingdom, and held it of Arthur. Gunter had a fine castle, where his wife and son were guarded, being committed to the protection of Grim. The child was but seven years old; but ever as he slept, an odorous flame issued from his mouth. Hodulf sought to kill him, but Grim prepared a ship, and furnished it with provisions, wherein he placed the queen and the child, and set sail from Denmark. On their voyage they encountered pirates (“outlaghes”), who killed them all after a hard fight, excepting Grim, who was an acquaintance of theirs, and Grim’s wife and children. Havelok also was saved. They at last arrived at the haven, afterwards named “Grimesbi” from Grim. Grim there resumed his old trade, a fisherman’s, and a town grew up round his hut, which was called Grimsby. The child grew up, and waxed strong. One day Grim said to him, “Son, you will never thrive as a fisherman; take your brothers with you, and seek service amongst the King’s servants.” He was soon well apparelled, and repaired with his two foster-brothers to Nicole [Lincoln].22Now at that time there was a king named Alsi, who ruled over all Nicole and Lindesie;23but the country southward was governed by another king, named Ekenbright, who had married Alsi’s sister Orewen. These two had one only daughter, named Argentille. Ekenbright, falling ill, committed Argentille to the care of Alsi, till she should be of age to be married to the strongest man that can be found. At Ekenbright’s death, Alsi reigned over both countries, holding his court at Nicole. Havelok, on his arrival there, was employed to carry water and cut wood, and to perform all menial offices requiring great strength. He was named Cuaran, which means—in the British language—a scullion. Argentille soon arrived at marriageable age, and Alsi determined to marry her to Cuaran, which would sufficiently fulfil her father’s wish—Cuaran being confessedly the strongest man in those parts. To this marriage he compelled her to consent, hoping thereby to disgrace her for ever. Havelok was unwilling that his wife should perceive the marvellous flame, but soon forgot this, and ere long fell asleep. Then had Argentille a strange vision—that a savage bear and some foxes attacked Cuaran, but dogs and boars defended him. A boar having killed the bear, the foxes cried for quarter from Cuaran,who commanded them to be bound. Then he would have put to sea, but the sea rose so high that he was terrified. Next she beheld two lions, at seeing which she was frightened, and she and Cuaran climbed a tree to avoid them; but the lions submitted themselves to him, and called him their lord. Then a great cry was raised, whereat she awoke, and beheld the miraculous flame. “Sir,” she exclaimed, “you burn!” But he reassured her, and, having heard her dream, said that it would soon come true. The next day, however, she again told her dream to a chamberlain, her friend, who said that he well knew a holy hermit who could explain it. The hermit explained to Argentille that Cuaran must be of royal lineage. “He will be king,” he said, “and you a queen. Ask him concerning his parentage. Remember also to repair to his native place.” On being questioned, Cuaran replied that he was born at Grimsby; that Grim was his father, and Saburc his mother. “Then let us go to Grimsby,” she replied. Accompanied by his two foster-brothers, they came to Grimsby; but Grim and Saburc were both dead. They found there, however, a daughter of Grim’s, named Kelloc, who had married a tradesman of that town. Up to this time Havelok had not known his true parentage, but Kelloc thought it was now time to tell him, and said: “Your father was Gunter, the King of the Danes, whom Hodulf slew. Hodulf obtained the kingdom as a grant from Arthur. Grim fled with you, and saved your life; but your mother perished at sea. Your name isHavelok. My husband will convey you to Denmark, where you must inquire for a lord named ‘Sigar l’estal;’ and take with you my two brothers.” So Kelloc’s husband conveyed them to Denmark, and advised Havelok to go to Sigar and show himself and his wife, as then he would be asked who his wife is. They went to the city of the seneschal, the before-named Sigar, where they craved a night’s lodging, and were courteously entertained. But as they retired to a lodging for the night, six men attacked them, who had been smitten with the beauty of Argentille. Havelok defended himself with an axe which he found, and slew five, whereupon the sixth fled. Havelok and his party fled away for refuge to a monastery, which was soon attacked by the townsmen who had heard of the combat. Havelokmounted the tower, and defended himself bravely,casting down a huge stone on his enemies.24The news soon reached the ears of Sigar, who hastened to see what the uproar was about. BeholdingHavelok fixedly, he called to mind the form and appearance of Gunter, and asked Havelok of his parentage. Havelok replied that Grim had told him he was by birth a Dane, and that his mother perished at sea; and ended by briefly relating his subsequent adventures. Then Sigar asked him his name. “My name is Havelok,” he said, “and my other name is Cuaran.” Then the seneschal took him home, and determined to watch for the miraculous flame, which he soon perceived, and was assured that Havelok was the true heir. Therefore he gathered a great host of his friends, and sent for the horn which none but the true heir could sound, promising a ring to any one who could blow it. When all had failed, it was given to Havelok, who blew it loud and long, and was joyfully recognized and acknowledged to be the true King. Then with a great army he attacked Hodulf the usurper, whom he slew with his own hand. Thus was Havelok made King of Denmark.But after he had reigned four years, his wife incited him to return to England. With a great number of ships he sailed there, and arrived at Carleflure;25and sent messengers to Alsi, demanding the inheritance of Argentille. Alsi was indeed astonished at such a demand as coming from a scullion, and offered him battle. The hosts met at Theford,26and the battle endured till nightfall without a decisive result. But Argentille craftily advised her lord to support his dead men by stakes, to increase the apparent number of his army; and the next day Alsi, deceived by this device, treated for peace, and yielded up to his former ward all the land, from Holland27to Gloucester. Alsi had been so sorely wounded that he lived but fifteen days longer. Thus was Havelok king over Lincoln and Lindsey, and reigned over them for twenty years. Such is the lay of Cuaran.§ 21.The chief points to be noticed in Gaimar’s abridgment are the few additional particulars to be gleaned from it. We there find that Havelok’s mother wasAlvive, a daughter of KingGaifer; that the King of Nicole and Lindeseie was aBriton, and was named Edelsie; that his sister, named Orwain, was married to Adelbrit, aDane, who ruled over Norfolk; and that Edelsie and Adelbrit lived in the days of Costentin (Constantine), whosucceeded Arthur. It is also said that the usurper Hodulf was brother to Aschis, who is the Achilles of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Another statement, that Havelok’s kingdom extended from Holland toColchester, seems to be an improvement upon “from Holland toGloucester.”The words of Mr Petrie, in his remarks upon the lay in Monumenta Historica Britannica, vol. i., may be quoted here. “Although both [French versions] have the same story in substance, and often contain lines exactly alike, yet, besides the different order in which the incidents are narrated, each has occasionally circumstances wanting in the other, and such too, it should seem, as would leave the story incomplete unless supplied from the other copy. Thus, the visit to the hermit, which is omitted in Gaimar, was probably in the original romance; for without it Argentille’s dream tells for nothing; and in the Arundel copy there is a particular account of Haveloc’s defence of a tower by hurling stones on his assailants, which in Gaimar is so obscurely alluded to as to be hardly intelligible. On the other hand, instead of the description of the extraordinary virtues of Sygar’s ring in Gaimar, it is merely said in the Arundel copy that Sygar would give hisanel d’orto whoever could sound the horn; and, to omit other instances, a festival is described in Gaimar on the authority ofl’Estorie, of which no notice whatever occurs in the Arundel MS.”§ 22.Sketch of the English Poem.The “Lay of Havelok” has been admirably paraphrased by Professor Morley, in his “English Writers,” vol. i. pp. 459-467, a book which should be in every reader’s hands, and which should by all means be consulted. I only intend here to give a briefer outline, for the sake of comparing the main features of our poem with those of the FrenchLai.Hear the tale of Havelok! There was once a good king in England, named Athelwold, renowned and beloved for his justice. He had but one child, a daughter named Goldborough. Knowing that his end was approaching, he sent for all his lords to assemble at Winchester, and there committed Goldborough to the care of Godrich, the earl of Cornwall; directing him to see her marriedto the strongest and fairest man whom he could find. But Godrich imprisoned her at Dover, and resolved to seize her inheritance for his own son. At that time there was also a King of Denmark, named Birkabeyn, who had one son, Havelok, and two daughters, Swanborough and Helfled. At the approach of death, he committed these to the care of Earl Godard. But Godard killed the two girls, and only spared Havelok because he did not like to kill him with his own hand. He therefore hired a fisherman, named Grim, to drown Havelok at sea. But Grim perceived, as Havelok slept, a miraculous light shining round the lad, whereby he knew that the child was the true heir, and would one day be king. In order to avoid Godard, Grim fitted up a ship, and provisioned it, and with his wife Leve, his three sons, his two daughters, and Havelok, put out to sea. They landed in Lindesey at the month of the Humber, at a place afterwards named Grimsby after Grim. Grim worked at his old trade, a fisherman’s, and Havelok carried about the fish for sale. Then arose a great dearth in the land, and Havelok went out to seek his own livelihood, walking to Lincoln barefoot. He was hired as a porter by the earl of Cornwall’s cook, and drew water and cut wood for the earl’s kitchen. One day some men met to contend in games and to “put the stone.” At the cook’s command, Havelok also put the stone, hurling it further than any of the rest.28Godrich, hearing the praises of Havelok’s strength, at once resolved to perform his oath by causing him to marry Goldborough; and carried his design into execution. As goon as the pair were married, Havelok suddenly quitted Lincoln with his wife, and returned to Grimsby, where he found that Grim was dead, but that his five childrenareyet alive. At night, Goldborough perceived a light shining round about Havelok, and observed a cross upon his shoulder. At the same time she heard an angel’s voice, telling her of good fortune to come. Then he awoke, and told her a dream; how he had dreamt that all Denmark and England became his own. She encouraged him, and urged him to set sail for Denmark at once. He accordingly called to him Grim’s three sons, and narrated to them his own history, and Godard’s treachery, asking them to accompany him to Denmark. To this they assented, and sailed with him and Goldborough to Denmark. There he sought out a former friend of his father’s, Earl Ubbe, who invited him and his friends to a sumptuous feast. After the feast, Havelok and Goldborough and Grim’s sons went to the house of one Bernard Brown, whose house was that night attacked by sixty thieves. By dint ofgreat prowess, the friends at length slew all their sixty assailants, and Ubbe was so amazed at Havelok’s valour that he resolved to dub him a knight, and invited him to sleep in his own castle. At night, he peeped into Havelok’s chamber, and beheld the marvellous light, and saw a bright cross on his neck. Rejoiced at heart, he did homage to Havelok, and commanded all his friends and dependents to do the same. He also dubbed him knight, and proclaimed him King. With six thousand men he set out to attack Godard, whom he defeated and made prisoner, and afterwards caused to be flayed, drawn, and hung. Then Havelok swore that he would establish at Grimsby a priory of black monks, to pray for Grim’s soul; and Godrich, having heard that Havelok has invaded England, raised a great army against him. An indecisive combat took place between Ubbe and Godrich, but a more decisive one between Godrich and Havelok; for Havelok cut off his foe’s hand and made him prisoner. Then the English submitted to Goldborough, and acknowledged her as queen; but Godrich was condemned and burnt. Havelok rewarded both his own friends and the English nobles; for he caused Earl Reyner of Chester to marry Gunild, Grim’s daughter, and Bertram, formerly Godrich’s cook, to marry Levive, another of Grim’s daughters; bestowing upon Bertram the earldom of Cornwall. Then were Havelok and Goldborough crowned at London, and a feast was given that lasted forty days. The kingdom of Denmark was bestowed upon Ubbe, who held it of King Havelok. Havelok and Goldborough lived to the age of a hundred years, and their reign lasted for sixty years in England. They had fifteen children, who were all kings and queens. Such is thegesteof Havelok and Goldborough.§ 23.Possible date of Havelok’s reign.

Titlepage.The engraving represents the seal of Great Grimsby, described in § 19 of the Preface, p. xxi.

Preface.§ 1.The former edition of 1828.§ 2.The present edition.§ 3.Plan of this edition.§ 4.Notices of the story by Early Writers: the longer French Version.§ 5.The shorter French Version.§ 6.Peter de Langtoft (1307).§ 7.Rauf de Boun (1310).§ 8.A Brief Genealogy, Herald’s Coll. MS. (ab. 1310).§ 9.Metrical Chronicle (ab. 1313).§ 10.Robert of Brunne (1338); ed. Hearne.§ 11.Robert of Brunne; Lambeth MS.§ 12.French Prose “Brute” (1332).§ 13.English Prose “Brute,” MS. Harl. 2279.§ 14.Gray’s Scala Cronica (ab. 1360).§ 15.Eulogium Historiarum (1366).§ 16.Henry de Knyghton (1395); Warner (1586); Webster (1617).§ 17.Danish traditions.§ 18.Lincolnshire traditions.§ 19.Seal of Great Grimsby.§ 20.Sketch of the French “Lai.”§ 21.Gaimar’s abridgment.§ 22.Sketch of the English Lay.§ 23.Possible date of Havelok’s reign.§ 24.Story of “Edwin of Deira.”§ 25.On the names “Curan” and “Havelok.”§ 26.Description of the MS.§ 27.Grammatical forms in the Poem.§ 28.On the metre.§ 29.On the final-e, &c.

§ 1.TheEnglish version of the Lay of Havelok, now here reprinted, is one of the few poems that have happily been recovered, after having long been given up as lost. Tyrwhitt, in his Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer, has a footnote (No. 51) deploring the loss of the Rime concerning Gryme the Fisher, the founder of Grymesby, Hanelok [readHavelok] the Dane, and his wife Goldborough; and Ritson, in his Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy—(vol. i. p. lxxxviii. of his Metrical Romanceës)—makes remarks to the same effect. It was at length, however, discovered by accident in a manuscript belonging to the Bodleian library, which had been described in the old Catalogue merely asVitæ Sanctorum, a large portion of it being occupied by metrical legends of the Saints. In 1828, it was edited for the Roxburghe Club by Sir F. Madden, the title-page of the edition being as follows:— “The Ancient English Romance of Havelok the Dane, accompanied by the French Text: with an introduction, notes, and a glossary, by Frederick Madden, Esq., F.A.S. F.R.S.L., Sub-Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, London. W. Nicol, Shakspeare Press,MDCCCXXVIII.” This volume contains a very complete Introduction, pp. i-lvi; the English version of Havelok, pp. 1-104; the French text of the Romance of Havelok, from a MS. in the Heralds’ College, pp. 105-146; the French Romance of Havelok, as abridged and altered by Geffrei Gaimar, pp. 147-180; notes to the English text, pp. 181-207; notes to the Frenchtext, pp. 208-210; and a glossary, &c., pp. 211-263. But there are sometimes bound up with it two pamphlets, viz. “Remarks on the Glossary to Havelok,” by S. W. Singer, and an “Examination of the Remarks, &c.,” by the Editor of Havelok. In explanation of this, it may suffice to say, that the former contains some criticisms by Mr Singer (executed in a manner suggestive of an officious wish to display superior critical acumen), of which a few are correct, but others are ludicrously false; whilst the latter is a vindication of the general correctness of the explanations given, and contains, incidentally, some valuable contributions to our general etymological knowledge, and various remarks which have proved of service in rendering the glossary in the present edition more exactly accurate.1

§ 2.Owing to the scarcity of copies of this former edition, the committee of the Early English Text Society, having first obtained the approval of Sir Frederic Madden, resolved upon issuing a reprint of it; and Sir Frederic having expressed a wish that the duty of seeing it through the press should be entrusted to myself, I gladly undertook that responsibility. He has kindly looked over the revises of the whole work,2but as it has undergone several modifications, it will be the best plan to state in detail what these are.

§ 3.With respect to the text, the greatest care has been taken to render it, as nearly as can be represented in print, an exact copy of the MS. The text of the former edition is exceedingly correct, and the alterations here made are few and of slight importance. Sir F. Madden furnished me with some, the results of a re-comparison, made by himself, of his printed copy with the original; besides this, I have myself carefully read the proof sheets with the MS.twice, and it may therefore be assumed that the complete correctness of the text is established. It seems to me that this is altogether the most important part of the workof aTextSociety, in order that the student may never be perplexed by the appearance of words having no real existence. For a like reason the letters þ and ƿ (the latter of which I have represented by an italicw) have now been inserted wherever they occur, and the expansions of abbreviations are now denoted by italics. For further remarks upon the text, see the description of the MS. below, § 26. Sidenotes and headlines have been added, but the numbering of the lines has not been altered. The French text of the romance, the title of which isLe Lai de Aveloc, and the abridgment of the story by Geffrei Gaimar, have not been here reprinted; the fact being, that the French and English versions differ very widely, and that the passages of the French which really correspond to the English are few and short.Allof these will be found in the Notes, in their proper places, and it was also deemed the less necessary to print the French text, because it is tolerably accessible; for it may be found either in vol. i. of Monumenta Historica Britannica, ed. Petrie, 1848, in the reprint by M. Michel (1833) entitled “Le Lai d’Havelok,” or in the edition by Mr T. Wright for the Caxton Society, 1850. An abstract of it is given at p. xxiii. The Notes are abridged from Sir F. Madden’s, with but a very few additions by myself, which are distinguished by being placed within square brackets. The Glossarial Index is, for the most part, reprinted from Sir F. Madden’s Glossary, but contains a large number ofslightalterations, re-arrangements, and additions. The references have nearly all been verified,3and the few words formerly left unexplained are now either wholly or partially solved. I have now only to add that a large portion of the remainder of this preface, especially that which concerns the historical and traditional evidences of the story (§ 4 to § 18), is abridged or copied from Sir F. Madden’s long Introduction, which fairly exhausts the subject.4All extracts included between marks of quotation are taken from it without alteration. But I must be considered responsible for therearrangement of the materials, and I have added a few remarks from other sources.

§ 4.Notices of the Story of Havelok by early writers.There can be little doubt that the tradition must have existed from Anglo-Saxon times, but the earliest mention of it is presented to us in the full account furnished by the French version of the Romance. Of this there are two copies, one of which belongs to Sir T. Phillipps; the other is known as the Arundel or Norfolk MS., and is preserved in the Heralds’ College, where it is marked E. D. N. No. 14; the various editions of the latter have been already enumerated in § 3. This version was certainly composed within the first half of the twelfth century. From the fact that it is entitled aLai, and from the assertion of the poet—“Qe vnlaien firent li Breton”—“whereof the Britons made a lay”—we easily conclude that it was drawn from a British source. From the evident connection of the story with the Chronicle called theBrut, we may further conclude that byBretonis not meant Armorican, but belonging toBritain. The story is in no way connected with France; the tradition is British or Welsh, and the French version was doubtless written in England by a subject of an English king. That the language is French is due merely to the accident that the Norman conquerors of England had acquired that language during their temporary sojourn in France. From every point of view, whether we regard the British tradition, the Anglo-Norman version, or the version printed in the present volume, the story is wholly English. It is not to be connected too closely with the Armorican lays of Mariede France.5

§ 5.We next come to the abridgment of the same as made by Geffrei Gaimar, who wrote between the years 1141 and 1151. In one place, Geffrei quotes Gildas as his authority, but no conclusion can easily be drawn from this indefinite reference. In another place, he mentions a feast given by Havelok after his defeat of Hodulf—si cum nus dit la verai estoire— “as the truehistory tells us.” As this feast is not mentioned in the fuller French version, and yet reappears in the English text, we perceive that he had some additional source of information; and this is confirmed by the fact that he mentions several additional details, also not found in the completer version. That the lay of Havelok, as found in Gaimar, is really his, and not an interpolation by a later hand, may fairly be inferred from his repeated allusions to the story in the body of his work. There are three MS. copies containing Gaimar’s abridgment, of which the best is the Royal MS. (Bibl. Reg. 13 A. xxi.) in the British Museum; the two others belong respectively to the Dean and Chapter of Durham (its mark being C. iv. 27) and to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln (its mark being H. 18). It is curious that the Norfolk MS. contains not only the fuller French version of the story, but also the Brut of Wace, and the continuation of it by Gaimar. Gaimar’s abridgment, as printed in Sir F. Madden’s edition, is taken from the Royal MS., supplemented by the Durham and Lincoln MSS. See also Monumenta Historica Britannica, vol. i. p. 764. It is important to mention that Gaimar speaks of the Danes as having been in Norfolk since the time that Havelok was King, after he has been relating the combats between the Britons and the Saxons under the command of Cerdic and Cynric. Another allusion makes Havelok to have lived long before the year 800, according to every system of chronology.

§ 6.The next mention of Havelok is in the French Chronicle of Peter de Langtoft, of Langtoft in Yorkshire, who died early in the reign of Edward II., and whose Chronicle closes with the death of Edward I. Here the only trace of the story is in the mention of “Gountere le pere Hauelok, de Danays Ray clamez”—Gunter, father of Havelok, called King of the Danes. The allusion is almost valueless from its evident absurdity; for he confounds Gunter with the Danish invader defeated by Alfred, and who is variously called Godrum, Gudrum, Guthrum, or Gurmound. He must have been thinking, at the moment, of a very different Gurmund, viz. the King of the Africans, as he is curiously called, whose terrible devastations are described very fully in Laȝamon, vol. iii. pp. 156-177, and who may fairly be supposed to have lived much nearer to the time of Havelok; and he must furtherhave confounded this Gurmund with Gunter. For the account of Robert of Brunne’s translation of Langtoft’s Chronicle, see below, § 10.

§ 7.But soon after this, we come to a most curious account. In MS. Harl. 902 is a late copy, on paper, of a Chronicle calledLe Bruit Dengleterre, or otherwiseLe Petit Bruit, compiledA.D.1310, by Meistre Rauf de Boun, at the request of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln. It is a most worthless compilation, put together in defiance of all chronology, but with respect to our present inquiry it is full of interest, as it soon becomes obvious that one of his sources of information is the very English version here printed, which he cites by the name ofl’estorie de Grimesby, and which is thus proved to have been written before the year 1310. “The Chronicler,” says Sir F. Madden, “commences, as usual, with Brute,B.C.2000, and after taking us through the succeeding reigns to the time of Cassibelin, who fought with Julius Cæsar, informs us, that after Cassibelin’s death came Gurmound out of Denmark, who claimed the throne as the son of the eldest daughter of Belin, married to Thorand, King of Denmark. He occupies the kingdom 57 years, and is at length slain atHunteton, called afterwards from himGurmoundcestre. He is succeeded by his son Frederick, who hated the English, and filled his court with Danish nobles, but who is at last driven out of the country, after having held it for the short space of 71 years. And then, adds this miserable History-monger: ‘Et si entendrez vous, que par cel primer venue de auaunt dit Roy Gormound, et puis par cele hountoux exil de son fitz Frederik, si fu le rancour de Daneis vers nous enpendaunt, et le regne par cel primere accion vers nous enchalangount plus de sept C auns apre,iekis a la venue Haneloke, fitz le Roy Birkenebayne de Dannemarche, q~ le regne par mariage entra de sa femme.’ —f. 2 b.

“After a variety of equally credible stories, we come to Adelstan II.6son of Edward [the Elder], who corresponds withthe real king of that name,A.D.925-941. He is succeeded by his son [brother] Edmund, who reigned four years [A.D.941-946], and is said to have beenpoisonedat Canterbury; after whom we haveAdelwold, whose identity with the Athelwold of the English Romance, will leave no doubt as to the source whence the writer drew great part of his materials in the following passage:

‘Apresceo vient Adelwold son fitz q~ reignaXVJet demie, si engendroit ij feiz et iij filis, dount trestoutz murrirent frechement fors q~ sa pune file, le out a nomGoldburgh, del age deVJaunz kaunt son pere Adelwold morust. Cely Roy Adelwold quant il doit morir, comaunda sa file a garder a vn Count de Cornewayle, al houre kaunt il quidou~ie (sic) hountousment auoir deparagé, quaunt fitHaueloke, fitz le Roy Byrkenbayne de Denmarche, esposer le, encountre sa volunté, q~ primis fuit Roy Dengleterre et de Denmarch tout a vn foitz, par quele aliaunce leis Daneis queillerunt gendr~ (sic) mestrie en Engleterre, et long temps puise le tindrunt,si cum vous nouncie l’estorie de Grimesby, comeGrimeprimez nurist Haueloke en Engleterre, depuis cel houre q’il feut chasé de Denmarche &c. deqis al houre q’il vint au chastelle de Nichole, q~ cely auauntdit traitreGoudricheout en garde, en quel chastel il auauntdit Haueloke espousa l’auauntdit Goldeburgh, q~ fuit heir Dengleterre. Et par cel reson tynt cely Haueloke la terre de Denmarche auxi comme son heritage, et Engleterre auxi par mariage de sa femme; et si entendrez vous, q~ par la reson q~ ly auauntdit Gryme ariua primez, kaunt il amena l’enfaunt Haueloke hors de Denmarche, par meyme la reson reseut cele vile son nom, de Grime, quel noun ly tint vnquore Grimisby.

‘Apres ceo regna meyme cely Haueloke, q~ mult fuit prodhomme, et droiturelle, et bien demenoit son people en reson et ley. Cel Roy Haueloke reigna xlj. aunz, si engendroit ix fitz et vij filis, dount trestoutz murrerount ainz q~ furunt d’age, fors soulement iiij de ses feitz, dont l’un out a noum Gurmound, cely q~ entendy auoir son heire en Engleterre; le secound out a noun Knout, quen fitz feffoit son pere en le regne de Denmarche, quant il estoit del age de xviij aunz, et ly mesme se tynt a la coroune Dengleterre, quel terre il entendy al oeps son ainez fitz Gurmoundauoir gardé. Mes il debusa son col auxi comme il feu mounté vn cheval testous q~ poindre volleyt, en l’an de son regne xxiij entrant. Le tiers fitz ont a noun Godard, q~ son pere feffoit de la Seneschacie Dengleterre, q~ n’auo~ut (sic) taunt come ore fait ly quart. Et le puisnez fitz de toutz out a noum Thorand, q~ espousa la Countesse de Hertouwe en Norwey. Et par la reson q~ cely Thorand feut enherité en la terre de Norwey, ly et ses successours sont enheritez iekis en sa p~ce (sic) toutdis, puis y auoit affinité de alliaunce entre ceulx de Denmarche et ceulx de Norwey, a checun venue q~ vnkes firent en ceste terre pur chalenge ou clayme mettre, iekis a taunt q~ lour accion feut enseyne destrut par vn noble chevallereGuy de Warwike, &c. Et tout en sy feffoit Haueloke sez quatre fitz: si gist a priorie deGreschercheen Loundrez.’ —f. 6 b.

“TheEstorie de Grimesbytherefore, referred to above, is the identical English Romance before us, and it is no less worthy of remark, that the whole of the passage just quoted, with one single variation of import, has been literally translated by Henry de Knyghton, and inserted in his Chronicle.7Of the sources whence the information respecting Havelok’s sons is derived, we are unable to offer any account, as no trace of it occurs either in the French or English texts of the story.”

§ 8.“About the same time at which Rauf de Boun composed his Chronicle, was written a brief Genealogy of the British and Saxon Kings, from Brutus to Edward II., preserved in the same MS. in the Heralds’ College which contains the French text of the Romance. The following curious rubric is prefixed:—La lignée des Bretons et des Engleis, queus il furent, et de queus nons, et coment Brut vint premerement en Engleterre, et combien de tens puis, et dont il vint. Brut et Cornelius furent chevalers chacez de la bataille de Troie,M. CCCC. XVII.anz deuant qe dieus nasquit, et vindrent en Engleterre, en Cornewaille, et riens ne fut trouee en la terre fors qe geanz, Geomagog, Hastripoldius, Ruscalbundy, et plusurs autres Geanz.In this Genealogy no mention of Havelok occurs under the reign of Constantine, but after the names of the Saxon Kings Edbright and Edelwin, we read: ‘Athelwoldauoit vne filleGoldeburgh, et il regna vi. anz.Hauelocesposa meismecele Goldeburgh, et regna iij. anz.Alfredle frere le Roi Athelwold enchaca Haueloc par Hunehere, et il fut le primer Roi corone de l’apostoille, et il regna xxx. anz.’ —fol. 148 b. By this account Athelwold is clearly identified with Ethelbald, King of Wessex, who reigned from 855 to 860, whilst Havelok is substituted in the place of Ethelbert and Ethered.”

§ 9.“Not long after the same period was written a MetricalChronicle of England, printed by Ritson, Metr. Rom. V. ii. p. 270. Two copies are known to exist,8the first concluding with the death of Piers Gavestone, in 1313 (MS. Reg. 12. C. xii.), and the other continued to the time of Edw. III. (Auchinleck MS.). The period of Havelok’s descent into England is there ascribed to the reign of King Ethelred (978-1016), which will very nearly coincide with the period assigned by Rauf de Boun, viz.A.D.963-1004.”

‘Haueloccom tho to this lond,With gret host & eke strong,Ant sloh the Kyng Achelred,At Westmustre he was ded,Ah he heuede reigned herSeuene an tuenti fulle ȝer.’

‘Haueloccom tho to this lond,

With gret host & eke strong,

Ant sloh the Kyng Achelred,

At Westmustre he was ded,

Ah he heuede reigned her

Seuene an tuenti fulle ȝer.’

MS. Reg. 12. C. xii.

“This date differs from most of the others, and appears founded on the general notion of the Danish invasions during that period.”

§ 10.Before proceeding to consider theproseChronicle of the Brute, it is better to speak first of the translation of Peter de Langtoft’s Chronicle by Robert of Brunne, a translation which was completedA.D.1338. At p. 25 of Hearne’s edition is the following passage:

‘ Ȝit a nother Danes Kyng in the North gan aryue.Alfrid it herd, thidere gan he dryue.Hauelok9fader he was,Gunterwas his name.He brent citees & tounes, ouer alle did he schame.Saynt Cutbertes clerkes tho Danes thei dred.The toke the holy bones, about thei tham led.Seuen ȝere thorgh the land wer thei born aboute,It comforted the kyng mykelle, whan he was in doute¶ Whan Alfrid & Gunter had werred long in ille,Thorgh the grace of God, Gunter turned his wille.Cristend wild he be, the kyng of fonte him lift,& thritty of his knyghtes turnes, thorgh Godes gift.Tho that first were foos, and com of paien lay,Of Cristen men haf los, & so thei wend away.’

‘ Ȝit a nother Danes Kyng in the North gan aryue.

Alfrid it herd, thidere gan he dryue.

Hauelok9fader he was,Gunterwas his name.

He brent citees & tounes, ouer alle did he schame.

Saynt Cutbertes clerkes tho Danes thei dred.

The toke the holy bones, about thei tham led.

Seuen ȝere thorgh the land wer thei born aboute,

It comforted the kyng mykelle, whan he was in doute

¶ Whan Alfrid & Gunter had werred long in ille,

Thorgh the grace of God, Gunter turned his wille.

Cristend wild he be, the kyng of fonte him lift,

& thritty of his knyghtes turnes, thorgh Godes gift.

Tho that first were foos, and com of paien lay,

Of Cristen men haf los, & so thei wend away.’

“This is the whole that appears in the original, but after the above lines immediately follows, in the language of Robert of Brunne himself (as noted also by Hearne, Pref. p. lxvii.), the following curious, and to our inquiry, very important passage:”

‘ Bot I haf grete ferly, that I fynd no man,That has writen in story, how Hauelok this lond wan.NoitherGildas, no Bede, no Henry of Huntynton,No William of Malmesbiri, ne Pers of Bridlynton,Writes not in ther bokes of no kyng Athelwold,Ne Goldeburgh his douhtere, ne Hauelok not of told,Whilk tyme the were kynges, long or now late,Thei mak no menyng whan, no in what date.Bot that thiselowed men vpon Inglish tellis,Right story can me not ken, the certeynte what spellis.Men sais in Lyncoln castelle ligges ȝit a stone,That Hauelok kast wele forbi euer ilkone& ȝit the chapelle standes, ther he weddid his wife,Goldeburgh the kynges douhter,that saw is ȝit rife.& of Gryme a fisshere,men redes ȝit in ryme,That he bigged Grymesby Gryme that ilk tyme.Of alle stories of honoure, that I haf thorgh souht,I fynd that no compiloure of him tellis ouht.Sen I fynd non redy, that tellis of Hauelok kyndeTurne we to that story, that we writen fynde.’

‘ Bot I haf grete ferly, that I fynd no man,

That has writen in story, how Hauelok this lond wan.

NoitherGildas, no Bede, no Henry of Huntynton,

No William of Malmesbiri, ne Pers of Bridlynton,

Writes not in ther bokes of no kyng Athelwold,

Ne Goldeburgh his douhtere, ne Hauelok not of told,

Whilk tyme the were kynges, long or now late,

Thei mak no menyng whan, no in what date.

Bot that thiselowed men vpon Inglish tellis,

Right story can me not ken, the certeynte what spellis.

Men sais in Lyncoln castelle ligges ȝit a stone,

That Hauelok kast wele forbi euer ilkone

& ȝit the chapelle standes, ther he weddid his wife,

Goldeburgh the kynges douhter,that saw is ȝit rife.

& of Gryme a fisshere,men redes ȝit in ryme,

That he bigged Grymesby Gryme that ilk tyme.

Of alle stories of honoure, that I haf thorgh souht,

I fynd that no compiloure of him tellis ouht.

Sen I fynd non redy, that tellis of Hauelok kynde

Turne we to that story, that we writen fynde.’

“There cannot exist the smallest doubt, that by the ‘Ryme’ here mentioned ‘that lowed men vpon Inglish tellis,’ the identical English Romance, now before the reader, is referred to. It must therefore certainly have been composed prior to the period at which Robert of Brunne wrote,10in whose time the traditions respecting Havelok at Lincoln were so strongly preserved, as topoint out various localities to which the story had affixed a name, and similar traditions connected with the legend, as we shall find hereafter, existed also at Grimsby. The doubts expressed by the Chronicler, as to their authenticity, or the authority of the ‘Ryme,’ are curious, but only of value so far as they prove he was ignorant of the existence of a French Romance on the subject, or of its reception in Gaimar’s historical poem.”

§ 11.“But on consulting the Lambeth copy of Rob. of Brunne, in order to verify the passage as printed by Hearne from the Inner Temple MS. we were not a little surprised to ascertain a fact hitherto overlooked, and indeed unknown, viz. that the Lambeth MS. (which is a folio, written on paper, and imperfect both at the beginning and close)11does not correspond with the Edition, but has evidently been revised by a later hand, which has abridged the Prologues, omitted some passages, and inserted others. The strongest proof of this exists in the passage before us, in which the Lambeth MS. entirely omits the lines of Rob. of Brunne respecting the authenticity of the story of Havelok, and in their place substitutes an abridged outline of the story itself, copied apparently from the French Chronicle of Gaimar. The interpolation is so curious, and so connected with our inquiry, as to be a sufficient apology for introducing it here.”

‘ ¶ Forth wente Gounter & his folk, al in to Denemark,Sone fel ther hym vpon, a werre styth & stark,Thurgh a Breton kyng, thtout of Ingeland cam,& asked the tribut of Denmark, thtArthur whylom nam.They wythseide hit schortly, & non wolde they ȝelde,But rather they wolde dereyne hit, wyth bataill y the felde.Both partis on a day, to felde come they stronge,Desconfit were the danes, Gounter his deth gan fonge.When he was ded they schope brynge, al his blod to schame,But Gatferes doughter the kyng,Eleynewas hure name,Was kyng Gounteres wyf, and had a child hem bytwene,Wyth wham scheo scapede vnethe, al to the se with tene.The child hym highteHauelok, thtwas his moder dere,Scheo mette with grym atte hauene, a wel god marinere,He hure knew & highte hure wel, to helpe hure with his might,To bryng hure saf out of the lond, wythinne thtilke night.When they come in myd se, a gret meschef gan falle,They metten wyth a gret schip, lade wyth outlawes alle.Anon they fullen hem apon, & dide hem Mikel peyne,So thtwyth strengthe of their assaut, ded was quene Eleyne.But ȝyt ascapede from hem Grym, wyth Hauelok & other fyue,& atte the hauene of Grymesby, ther they gon aryue.Ther was brought forth child Hauelok, wyth Grym & his fere,Right als hit hadde be ther own, for other wyste men nere.Til he was mykel & mighti, & man of mykel cost,Thtfor his grete sustinaunce, nedly serue he most.He tok leue of Grym & Seburc, as of his sire & dame,And askede ther blessinge curteysly, ther was he nought to blame.Thenne drow he forth northward, to kynges court Edelsie,Ththeld fro Humber to Rotland, the kyngdam of Lyndesye.Thys Edelsy of Breton kynde, had Orewayn his sister brightMaried to a noble kyng, of Northfolk Egelbright.Holly for his kyngdam, he held in his hand,Al the lond fro Colchestre, right in til Holand.Thys Egelbright thtwas a Dane, & Orewayn the quene,Hadden gete on Argill, a doughter hem bytwene.Sone then deyde Egelbright, & his wyf Orewayn,& therfore was kyng Edelsye, bothe joyful & fayn.Anon their doughter & here Eyr, his nece dame Argill,& al the kyngdam he tok in hande, al at his owene will.Ther serued Hauelok as quistron, & was y-cald Coraunt,He was ful mykel & hardy, & strong as a Geaunt.He was bold Curteys & fre, & fair & god of manere,So thtalle folk hym louede, thtauewest hym were.But for couetise of desheraison, of damysele Argill,& for a chere thtthe kyng sey, scheo made Coraunt till,He dide hem arraye ful symplely, & wedde togydere bothe,For he ne rewarded desparagyng, were manion ful wrothe.A while they dwelt after in court, in ful pore degre,The schame & sorewe thtArgill hadde, hit was a deol to se.Then seyde scheo til hure maister, of whenne sire be ȝe?Haue ȝe no kyn ne frendes at hom, in ȝoure contre?Leuer were me lyue in pore lyf, wythoute schame & tene,Than in schame & sorewe, lede the astat of quene.Thenne wente they forth to Grymesby, al by his wyues red,& founde thtGrym & his wyf, weren bothe ded.But he fond ther on Aunger, Grymes cosyn hend,To wham thtGrym & his wyf, had teld word & ende.How ththit stod wyth Hauelok, in all manere degre,& they hit hym telde & conseilled, to drawe til his contre,Tasaye what grace he mighte fynde, among his frendes there,& they wolde ordeyne for their schipynge, and al ththem nede were.When Aunger hadde y-schiped hem, they seilled forth ful swythe,Ful-but in til Denemark, wyth weder fair & lithe.Ther fond he on sire Sykar, a man of gret pousté,Ththey styward somtyme was, of al his fader fe.Ful fayn was he of his comyng, & god help him behight,To recouere his heritage, of Edulf kyng & knyght.Sone asembled they gret folk, of his sibmen & frendes,Kyng Edulf gadered his power, & ageyn them wendes.Desconfyt was ther kyng Edulf, & al his grete bataill,& so conquered Hauelok, his heritage saunz faille.Sone after he schop him gret power, in toward Ingelond,His wyues heritage to wynne, ne wolde he nought wonde.Ththerde the kyng of Lyndeseye, he was come on thtcost,& schop to fighte wyth hym sone, & gadered hym gret host.But atte day of bataill, Edelsy was desconfit,& after by tretys gaf Argentill, hure heritage al quit.& for scheo was next of his blod, Hauelokes wyf so feyr,He gaf hure Lyndesey after his day, & made hure his Eyr.& atte last so byfel, thtvnder Hauelokes schelde,Al Northfolk & Lyndeseye, holy of hym they helde.’

‘ ¶ Forth wente Gounter & his folk, al in to Denemark,

Sone fel ther hym vpon, a werre styth & stark,

Thurgh a Breton kyng, thtout of Ingeland cam,

& asked the tribut of Denmark, thtArthur whylom nam.

They wythseide hit schortly, & non wolde they ȝelde,

But rather they wolde dereyne hit, wyth bataill y the felde.

Both partis on a day, to felde come they stronge,

Desconfit were the danes, Gounter his deth gan fonge.

When he was ded they schope brynge, al his blod to schame,

But Gatferes doughter the kyng,Eleynewas hure name,

Was kyng Gounteres wyf, and had a child hem bytwene,

Wyth wham scheo scapede vnethe, al to the se with tene.

The child hym highteHauelok, thtwas his moder dere,

Scheo mette with grym atte hauene, a wel god marinere,

He hure knew & highte hure wel, to helpe hure with his might,

To bryng hure saf out of the lond, wythinne thtilke night.

When they come in myd se, a gret meschef gan falle,

They metten wyth a gret schip, lade wyth outlawes alle.

Anon they fullen hem apon, & dide hem Mikel peyne,

So thtwyth strengthe of their assaut, ded was quene Eleyne.

But ȝyt ascapede from hem Grym, wyth Hauelok & other fyue,

& atte the hauene of Grymesby, ther they gon aryue.

Ther was brought forth child Hauelok, wyth Grym & his fere,

Right als hit hadde be ther own, for other wyste men nere.

Til he was mykel & mighti, & man of mykel cost,

Thtfor his grete sustinaunce, nedly serue he most.

He tok leue of Grym & Seburc, as of his sire & dame,

And askede ther blessinge curteysly, ther was he nought to blame.

Thenne drow he forth northward, to kynges court Edelsie,

Ththeld fro Humber to Rotland, the kyngdam of Lyndesye.

Thys Edelsy of Breton kynde, had Orewayn his sister bright

Maried to a noble kyng, of Northfolk Egelbright.

Holly for his kyngdam, he held in his hand,

Al the lond fro Colchestre, right in til Holand.

Thys Egelbright thtwas a Dane, & Orewayn the quene,

Hadden gete on Argill, a doughter hem bytwene.

Sone then deyde Egelbright, & his wyf Orewayn,

& therfore was kyng Edelsye, bothe joyful & fayn.

Anon their doughter & here Eyr, his nece dame Argill,

& al the kyngdam he tok in hande, al at his owene will.

Ther serued Hauelok as quistron, & was y-cald Coraunt,

He was ful mykel & hardy, & strong as a Geaunt.

He was bold Curteys & fre, & fair & god of manere,

So thtalle folk hym louede, thtauewest hym were.

But for couetise of desheraison, of damysele Argill,

& for a chere thtthe kyng sey, scheo made Coraunt till,

He dide hem arraye ful symplely, & wedde togydere bothe,

For he ne rewarded desparagyng, were manion ful wrothe.

A while they dwelt after in court, in ful pore degre,

The schame & sorewe thtArgill hadde, hit was a deol to se.

Then seyde scheo til hure maister, of whenne sire be ȝe?

Haue ȝe no kyn ne frendes at hom, in ȝoure contre?

Leuer were me lyue in pore lyf, wythoute schame & tene,

Than in schame & sorewe, lede the astat of quene.

Thenne wente they forth to Grymesby, al by his wyues red,

& founde thtGrym & his wyf, weren bothe ded.

But he fond ther on Aunger, Grymes cosyn hend,

To wham thtGrym & his wyf, had teld word & ende.

How ththit stod wyth Hauelok, in all manere degre,

& they hit hym telde & conseilled, to drawe til his contre,

Tasaye what grace he mighte fynde, among his frendes there,

& they wolde ordeyne for their schipynge, and al ththem nede were.

When Aunger hadde y-schiped hem, they seilled forth ful swythe,

Ful-but in til Denemark, wyth weder fair & lithe.

Ther fond he on sire Sykar, a man of gret pousté,

Ththey styward somtyme was, of al his fader fe.

Ful fayn was he of his comyng, & god help him behight,

To recouere his heritage, of Edulf kyng & knyght.

Sone asembled they gret folk, of his sibmen & frendes,

Kyng Edulf gadered his power, & ageyn them wendes.

Desconfyt was ther kyng Edulf, & al his grete bataill,

& so conquered Hauelok, his heritage saunz faille.

Sone after he schop him gret power, in toward Ingelond,

His wyues heritage to wynne, ne wolde he nought wonde.

Ththerde the kyng of Lyndeseye, he was come on thtcost,

& schop to fighte wyth hym sone, & gadered hym gret host.

But atte day of bataill, Edelsy was desconfit,

& after by tretys gaf Argentill, hure heritage al quit.

& for scheo was next of his blod, Hauelokes wyf so feyr,

He gaf hure Lyndesey after his day, & made hure his Eyr.

& atte last so byfel, thtvnder Hauelokes schelde,

Al Northfolk & Lyndeseye, holy of hym they helde.’

MS. Lamb. 131. leaf 76.

§ 12.We now come to the prose Chronicle called The Brute, which became exceedingly popular, and was the foundation of “Caxton’s Chronicle,” first printed by CaxtonA.D.1480, but of which Caxton was not the author, though he may have added some of the last chapters. The original is in French, and was probably compiled a few yearsbeforeRobert of Brunne’s translation of Langtoft was made, as it concludes with the year 1331, or, in some copies, with 1332. The author of it is not known, but it was probably only regarded as a compilation from the Chronicles of the earlier Historians. “In this Chronicle, in all its various shapes, is contained the Story of Havelock,engrafted on the British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and in its detail, following precisely the French text of the Romance. The only variation of consequence is the substitution of the name of Birkabeyn (as in the English text) for that of Gunter, and in some copies, both of the French and English MSS. of the Chronicle, the name ofGoldeburghis inserted instead ofArgentille; which variations are the more curious, as they prove the absolute identity of the story. For the sake of a more complete illustration of what has been advanced, we are induced to copy the passage at length, as it appears in the French Chronicle, taken from a well-written MS. of the 14th century, MS. Reg. 20 A 3, fol. 165 b.”12

Apres le Roi Constantin estoient deux Rois en graunt Brutaigne, dount li vns out a noun Aldelbright, & fust Danois, & [tint] tut le pais de Norff’ & de Suffolk, & ly altre out a noun Edelfi, qefust Brittone, & tint Nicol & Lindesey, & tote la terre desqes a Humber, Ceux deux Rois soi entreguerroierent, [& moult s’entrehaierent] mais puis furent il entre acordez & soi entreamerent, taunt com s’il vssent estee freres de vn ventre neez. Le Roi Edelfi out vne soer, Orewenne par noun, & la dona par grant amour al Roi Aldelbright a femme. Et il engendra de ly vne fille qeout a noun Argentille. En le tierez an apres vne greue Maladie ly suruint, si deuereit morrir, & maunda par vn iour al Roi Edelfi, soun frere en lei, q’il venist a ly parler, & cil ly emparla volentiers. Donqe ly pria le Roi Aldelbright et ly coniura en le noun [de] Dieu, q’il apres sa mort preist Argentille sa fille, & sa terre, & q’il la feist honestement garder [& nurrir] en sa chambre, & quant ele serreit de age, q’il la feist marier al plus fort hom & plus vaillaunt q’il porroit trouer, & qea donqe ly rendist sa terre. Edelfi ceo graunta, & par serment afferma sa priere. Et quant Adelbright fust mort, & enterree, Edelfi prist la damoysele, & la norrist en sa chambre, si deuynt ele la plus beale creature qehom porreit trouer.

Le Roi Edelfi, qefust vncle a la Damoysele Argentille, pensa fausement coment il porreit la terre sa Nece auoir par touz iours, & malueisement countre soun serment pensa a deceiure la pucelle, si la maria a vn quistroun de sa quisyne qefust apellée Curan, si esteit il le plus haut, le plus fort, & le plus vaillaunt de corps, qehom sauoit nulle part a cel temps, & la quidoit hountousement marier, pur auoir sa terre a remenaunt, Mais il fust deceu. Carcest Curan fust [le Roi] Hauelok, filz le Roi Kirkebain de Denemarche, & il conquist la terre sa femme [en Bretaigne], & occist le Roi Edelfi, vncle sa femme, & conquist tote la terre,si com aillours est trouée plus pleinement[en l’estorie], & il ne regna qetreis aunz. Car Saxsouns & Danoys le occirent, & ceo fust grant damage a tote la grant Brutaigne. Et les Brutouns le porterent a Stonhenge, & illoeqes ly enterrerent a grant honour.’

§ 13.“With the above may be compared the English version, as extant in MS. Harl. 2279, which agrees with the Ed. of Caxton, except in the occasional substitution of one word for another.”13

After kyng Constantinus deth, ther were .ij. kynges in Britaigne, that one men callede Adelbright, that was a Danoys, and helde the cuntray of Northfolk and Southfolk, that other hight Edelf, and was a Britoun & helde Nichole, Lindeseye, and alle the lande vnto Humber. Thes ij. kynges faste werred togeders, but afterward thei were acorded, and louede togedere as thei had ben borne of o bodie. The kyng Edelf had a suster that men callede Orewenne, and he yaf here thurghe grete frenshipe to kyng Adelbright to wif, and he begate on here a doughter that men callede Argentille, and in the .iij. yeer after him come vppon a strong sekenesse that nedes he muste die, and he sent to kyng Edelf, his brother in lawe, that he shulde come and speke with him, and he come to him with good wille. Tho prayed he the kyng and coniurede also in the name of God, that after whan he were dede, he shulde take Argentil his doughter, and the lande, and that he kepte hir wel, and noreshed in his chambre; and whan she were of age he shulde done here be mariede to the strongest and worthiest man that he myȝt fynde, and than he shulde yelde vp her lande ayen. Edelf hit grauntid, and bi othe hit confermede his prayer. And whan Adelbright was dede and Enterede, Edelfe toke the damesel Argentil, and noreshid her in his chambre, and she become the fayrest creature thtmyȝt lif, or eny man finde.

This kyng Edelf, that was vncle to the damesel Argentil, bithought how that he myȝte falsliche haue the lande from his necefor euermore, and falsly ayens his othe thouȝte to desceyue the damysel, and marie here to a knave of his kichon, that men callede Curan, and he become the worthiest and strengest man of bodie that eny man wist in eny lande that tho leuede. And to him he thouȝt here shendfully haue mariede, for to haue had here lande afterward; but he was clene desceyuede. For this Curan that was Hauelokis son that was kyng of Kirkelane in Denmark, and this Curan Conquerede his wifes landes, and slow kyng Edelf, that was his wifes vncle, and had alle here lande, as in a-nother stede hit [MS. but] telleth more oponly, and he ne regnede but iij. yeer, for Saxones and Danoys him quelde, and that was grete harme to al Britaigne, and Britouns bere him to Stonehenge, and ther thei him interede with mochel honour and solempnite.’

“It must not be concealed, that in some copies, viz. in MSS. Harl. 1337, 6251, Digby 185, Hatton 50, Ashmole 791 and 793, the story is altogether omitted, and Conan made to succeed to Arthur. In those copies also of the English Polychronicon, the latter part of which resembles the above Chronicle, the passage is not found.” “Among the Harl. MSS. (No. 63) is a copy of the same Chronicle in an abridged form, in which the name ofGoldesburgheis substituted for that of Argentille.” Sir F. Madden now adds—that “the story occurs also in some interpolated copies of Higden (the Latin text, viz. MSS. Harl. 655, Cott. Jul. E. 8, Reg. 13 E. 1).In an earlier form it is found in a Latin Chronicle of the 13th century, MS. Cott. Dom. A. 2, fol. 130.”

§ 14.“It was, in all probability, to this Chronicle also, in its original form, that Thomas Gray, the author of theScala Cronica(orScale Cronicon), a Chronicle in French prose, composed between the years 1355 and 1362, is indebted for his knowledge of the tale.” The original MS. is No. 132 in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and was edited by Stevenson for the Maitland Club in 1836. The passage relative to Havelok is translated by Leland,Collectanea, vol. i. pt. 2, p. 511. This account resembles the others, and involves no new point of interest.

§ 15.I may here introduce the remark, that the story is also to be found in theEulogium Historiarum, ed. Haydon, 1860, vol. ii. p. 378. I here quote the passage at length, as it is not referred to in Sir F. Madden’s edition. The date of the Chronicle is about 1366. For various readings, see Haydon’s edition.

Non enim est prætermittendum de quodam Dano generoso ætate juvenili florente, qui tempore regis Edelfridi casualiter Angliam adiit, qui a propria patria expulsus per quendam ducem falsissimum, cui pater ejus illum commiserat ipso moriente et ducem rogavit ut puerum nutriret usque dum posset Denemarchiæ regnum viriliter gubernare. Dux vero malitiam machinans juvenem hæredem rectum, Hauelok nomine, voluit occidisse. Puer vero comperiens aufugit per latibula usque dum quidam Anglicus et mercator in illis partibus adventaret; nomen autem mercatoris Grym vocitabatur. Hauelok autem, Grym rogans ut ipsum in Angliam transvectaret, ipse autem annuens, puerum secum conduxit et cum eo per aliquot tempus apud Grymesby morabatur. Tandem ipsum ad curiam regis Edelfridi conduxit et ibi in coquina regis moratus est.

Rex autem Edelfridus quamdam habuit sororem nomine Orwen et illam maritavit regi Athelberto, quod conjugium inter duos reges vinculum amoris catenavit. Rex autem Athelbert terram citra Trentam cum regio diademate occupavit, cum terra de Northfolk’ et de Southfolk’ et eis adjacentibus. Rex vero Edelfrid comitatum Lincolniæ et Lyndeseye et eis spectantibus. Ante maritagium puellæ Orwen illi duo reges semper debellabant, post matrimonium factum nulla fuit divisio, nec in familia inter eos nec in dominio.

Rex vero Ethelbert de uxore sua quamdam filiam genuit, nomine Argentile, pulcherrimam valde. Athelberto obiente, vel ante mortem ejus, regem rogavit Edelfridum ut filiam suam homini fortissimo ac validiori totius sui regni in conjugium copularet, nihil doli vel mali machinans.

Rex autem Adelfrid omnem malitiam ingeminans de conjugio puellæ malitiose disponens, cogitans se habere unum lixam in coquina sua qui omnes homines regni sui in vigore et fortitudine superabat, et juxta votum patris puellæ ad illum hominem fortissimum illam generosam juvenculam toro maritali copulavit, ob cupiditatem regni puellæ ipsam ita enormiter maritabat. Hauelok in patria Danemarchiæ et Argentile in Britannia æquali sorte ad custodiendum deputati sunt, totum tamen nutu Divino cedebat eis in honorem. Nam Hauelok post paucos annos regnum Britanniæ adoptus est, et a Saxonibus tandem occisus et apud le Stonhenge est sepultus. Pater ejus Kirkeban vocabatur.

This agrees closely with the accounts given above (§ 12 and § 13). The chief point to be noticed is that this account identifies Edelfrid with the Æthelfrith son of Æthelric who was king of the Northumbrians fromA.D.593 to 617, according to thecomputation of the A.S. Chronicle, and who was succeeded by Eadwine son of Ælle, who drove out the æthelings or sons of Æthelfrith. It may be remarked further, that the same Æthelfrith is called Æluric by Laȝamon, who gives him a very bad character; see Laȝamon, ed. Madden, vol. iii. p. 195.

§ 16.The story is also mentioned by Henry de Knyghton, a canon of Leicester abbey, whose history concludes with the year 1395. But his is no fresh evidence, as it is evidently borrowed from the French Chronicle of Rauf de Boun; see § 7. It is also alluded to in a blundering manner in a short historical compilation extending from the time of Brutus to the reign of Henry VI., and preserved in MS. Cotton Calig. A. 2. At fol. 107bis the passage— “Ethelwolde, qui generavit filiam de (sic) Haueloke de Denmarke, per quem Danes per cccc. annos postea fecerunt clameum Anglie.” Some omission after the worddehas turned the passage into nonsense; but it is noteworthy as expressing the claim of the Danes to the English crown by right of descent from Havelok; a claim which is more clearly expressed in MS. Harl. 63, in which the King of Denmark is represented as sending a herald to Æthelstan (A.D.927)— “to witte wheder he wold fynde a man to fight withColbrande14for the righ[t]e of the kyngdom Northumbre, that the Danes had claymed byfore by the title of kyng Haueloke, that wedded Goldesburghe the kyngis daughter of Northumbre” —fol. 19.15Four hundred years before this date would intimate some year early in the sixth century. Finally, the story is found at a later period in Caxton’s Chronicle (A.D.1480) as above intimated in § 12; whence it was adopted by Warner, and inserted into his poem entitled Albion’s England; book iv. chap. 20, published in 1586. Warner called it the tale of “Argentile and Curan;” and in this ballad-shape it was reprinted in Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Poetry (vol. ii. p. 261; ed. 1812) with the same title. Not long after, in 1617, another author, William Webster, published a larger poem in six-line stanzas; but this is a mere paraphrase of Warner. The title is— “The mostpleasant and delightful historie of Curan, a prince of Danske, and the fayre princesse Argentile,” &c. John Fabyan, in his Concordance of Historyes, first printed in 1516, alludes to the two kings Adelbryght and Edill, only to dismiss the “longe processe” concerning them, as not supported by sufficient authority. See p. 82 of the reprint by Ellis, 4to, 1811.

§ 17.The only other two sources whence any further light can be thrown upon our subject are the traditions of Denmark and Grimsby. A letter addressed by Sir F. Madden to Professor Rask elicited a reply which was equivalent to saying that next to nothing is known about it in Denmark. This seems to be the right place to mention a small book of 80 pages, published at Copenhagen in the present year (1868), and entitled “Sagnet om Havelok Danske; fortalt af Kristian Köster.” It contains (1) a version, in Danish prose, of the English poem; (2) a version of the same story, following the French texts of the Arundel and Royal MSS.; and (3) some elucidations of the legend. The author proposes a theory that Havelok is really the Danish king Amlet, i.e. Hamlet; but I have not space here to state all his arguments. As far as I follow them, some of the chief ones are these; that Havelok ought to be found in the list of Danish kings;16that Hamlet’s simulation of folly or madness is paralleled by Havelok’s behaviour, as expressed in ll. 945-954 of our poem; and that both Hamlet and Havelok succeeded in fulfilling the revenge which they had long cherished secretly. But I am not much persuaded by these considerations, for, even granting some resemblance in the names,17the resemblance in the stories is very slight. But I must refer the reader to the book itself.

§ 18.Turning however to local traditions, we find that Camden briefly alludes to the story in a contemptuous manner(p. 353; ed. 8vo, Lond. 1587); but Gervase Holles is far from being disposed to regard it as fabulous.Inhis MSS. collections for Lincolnshire, preserved in MS. Harl. 6829, he thus speaks of the story we are examining.18

“And it will not be amisse, to say something concerning yeCommon tradition of her first founder Grime, as yeinhabitants (with a Catholique faith) name him. The tradition it thus.Grime(say they) a poore Fisherman (as he was launching into yeRiuer for fish in his little boate vpon Humber) espyed not far from him another little boate, empty (as he might conceaue) which by yefauour of yewynde & tyde still approached nearer & nearer vnto him. He betakes him to his oares, & meetes itt, wherein he founde onely a Childe wrapt in swathing clothes, purposely exposed (as it should seeme) to yepittylesse [rage] of yewilde & wide Ocean. He moued with pitty, takes itt home, & like a good foster-father carefully nourisht itt, & endeauoured to nourishe it in his owne occupation: but yechilde contrarily was wholy deuoted to exercises of actiuity, & when he began to write man, to martiall sports, & at length by his signall valour obteyned such renowne, ythe marryed yeKing of England’s daughter, & last of all founde who was his true Father, & that he was Sonne to yeKing of Denmarke; & for yecomicke close of all; thatHaueloke(for such was his name) exceedingly aduanced & enriched his foster-father Grime, who thus enriched, builded a fayre Towne neare the place where Hauelocke was founde, & named it Grimesby. Thus say some: others differ a little in yecircumstances, as namely, that Grime was not a Fisherman, but a Merchant, & that Hauelocke should be preferred to yeKing’s kitchin, & there liue a longe tyme as a Scullion: but however yecircumstances differ, they all agree in yeconsequence, as concerning yeTowne’s foundation, to which (sayth yestory) Hauelocke yeDanish prince, afterward graunted many immunityes. This is yefamous Tradition concerning Grimsby wch learned Mr. Cambden gives so little creditt to, that he thinkes it onelyillis dignissima, qui anilibus fabulis noctem solent protrudere.”

And again, after shewing thatbyis the Danish fortown, and quoting a passage about Havelock’s father being named Gunter, which may be found in Weever (Ancient Funeral Monuments, fol. Lond. 1631, p. 749), he proceeds:

“thatHauelocke did sometymes reside in Grimsby, may be gathered from a great blewBoundry-stone, lying at yeEast ende of Briggowgate, which retaines yename ofHauelock’s-Stoneto this day. Agayne yegreat priuiledges & immunityes, that this Towne hath in Denmarke aboue any other in England (as freedome from Toll, & yerest) may fairely induce a Beleife, that some preceding favour, or good turne called on this remuneration. But lastly (which proofe I take to beinstar omnium) the Common Seale of yeTowne, & that a most auncient one,” &c. [Here follows a description of the Seal.]

“The singular fact,” adds Sir F. Madden, “alluded to by Holles, of the Burgesses of Grimsby being free from toll at the Port of Elsineur, in Denmark, is confirmed by the Rev. G. Oliver, in his Monumental Antiquities of Grimsby, 8vo, Hull, 1825, who is inclined from that, and other circumstances, to believe the story is not so totally without foundation.” There is also an absurd local story that the church at Grimsby, which has now but one turret, formerly had four, three of which were kicked down by Grim in his anxiety to destroy some hostile vessels. The first fell among the enemy’s fleet; the second dropped in Wellowgate, and is now Havelock’s stone; the third fell within the churchyard, but the fourth his strength failed to move. Perhaps amongst the most interesting notices of the story are the following words by Sir Henry Havelock, whose family seems to have originally resided in Durham. His own account, however, is this. “My father, William Havelock, descended from a family which formerly resided at Grimsby in Lincolnshire, and was himself born at Guisborough in Yorkshire.”19And it may at least be said with perfect truth, that if the name ofHavelockwas not famous formerly, it is famous now.

§ 19.The last evidence for the legend is the still-existing seal of the corporation of Great Grimsby. The engraving of this seal, as it appears in the present edition, was made from a copy kindly furnished to the E.E.T.S. by the Mayor of Grimsby, and I here subjoin a description of it, communicated to me by J. Hopkin, Esq., Jun., of Grimsby, which was first printed, in a slightly different form, in Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. xi. p. 41; see also p. 216.

“The ancient Town Seal of Great Grimsby is engraven on a circular piece of brass not very thick; and on the back, which is rather arched, is a small projecting piece of brass, placed as a substitute for a handle, in order when taking an impression the more easily to detach the matrix from the Wax. This seal is in an excellent state of preservation, and is inscribed in Saxon characters ‘Sigillvm Comunitatis Grimebye’ and represents thereon Gryme (‘Gryem’) who by tradition is reported to have been a native of Souldburg in Denmark, where he gained a precarious livelihood by fishing and piracy; but having, as is supposed, during the reign of Ethelbert,20been accidentally driven into the Humber by a furious storm, he landed on the Lincolnshire Coast near Grimsby, he being at this time miserably poor and almost destitute of the common necessaries of life; for Leland represents this ‘poor fisschar’ as being so very needy that he was not ‘able to kepe his sunne Cuaran for poverty.’ Gryme, finding a capacious haven adapted to his pursuits, built himself a house and commenced and soon succeeded in establishing a very lucrative Trade with Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Other Merchants having in process of time settled near him, attracted by the commercial advantages offered by this excellent Harbour, they jointly constructed convenient appendages for extensive Trade, and the colony soon rose into considerable importance, and became known at an early period by the name of Grimsby. For not only was Grimsby constituted a borough so early as the seventh century, but Peter of Langtoft speaks of it as a frontier Town and the boundary of a Kingdom erected by the conquests of Egbert in the year 827, which he states included all that portion of the Island which lay between ‘the maritime Towns of Grymsby and Dover.’ So that even at that period, Grimsby must have been a place of peculiar strength and importance. Gryme is represented on the seal as a man of gigantic stature with comparatively short hair, a shaven chin, and a moustache, holding in his right hand a drawn sword and bearing on his left arm a circular shield with an ornate boss and rim. The sleeveless tunic above his under vest is most probably the panzar or panzara of the Danes. Between his feet is a Conic object, possibly intended for a helmet, as it resembles the chapelle-de-fer worn by William Rufus on his Great Seal, and which in the laws of Gula is distinguished as the Steel hufe. On the right hand of Gryme stands his protégé Haveloc (‘Habloc’), whom, during one of his mercantile excursions soon after his arrival in Lincolnshire, Gryme had the good fortune to savefrom imminent danger of Shipwreck, and who proved to be the Son of Gunter, King of Denmark, and who was therefore conveyed to the British Court, where he subsequently received in marriage Goldburgh, the Daughter of the British Sovereign. Above Gryme is represented a hand, being emblematical of the hand of providence by which Haveloc was preserved, and near the hand is the star which marks the point where the inscription begins and ends. Haveloc made such a favourable representation of his preserver at the British and Danish Courts, that he procured for him many honours and privileges. From the British Monarch Gryme, who had already realised an abundance of wealth, received a charter, and was made the chief governor of Grimsby; and the Danish Sovereign granted to the Town an immunity (which is still possessed by the Burgesses of Grimsby) from all Tolls at the Port of Elsineur. Gryme afterwards lived in Grimsby like a petty prince in his Hereditary Dominions. Above Haveloc is represented a crown and in his right hand is a battle axe, the favourite weapon of the Northmen, and in his right hand is a ring which he is presenting to the British Princess Goldburgh (‘Goldebvrgh’), who stands on the left side of Gryme and whose right hand is held towards the Ring. Over her head is a Regal Diadem, and in her left hand is a Sceptre. Sir F. Madden states that it is certain that this seal is at least as old as the time of Edward I. (and therefore contemporaneous with the MS.) as the legend is written in a character which after the year 1300 fell into disuse, and was succeeded by the black letter, orGothic.”

It is my intention to offer some remarks on the probable sources of the legend, and to fix a conjectural date for the existence of Havelok. But it is obviously convenient that a sketch of the story should first be given. It appears, however, that the resemblance between the French and English versions is by no means very close, and it will be necessary to give separate abstracts of them. I begin with the French version, in which I follow the Norfolk MS. rather than the abridgment by Gaimar. I have already said that the former is printed in Sir F. Madden’s edition, and that it was reprinted by M. Michel with the title “Lai d’Havelok le Danois,” Paris, 1833, and by Mr Wright for the Caxton Society in 1850.

The Britons made a lay concerning King Havelok, who is surnamed Cuaran. His father was Gunter, King of the Danes. Arthur crossed the sea, and invaded Denmark. Gunter perished by the treason of Hodulf, who gained the kingdom, and held it of Arthur. Gunter had a fine castle, where his wife and son were guarded, being committed to the protection of Grim. The child was but seven years old; but ever as he slept, an odorous flame issued from his mouth. Hodulf sought to kill him, but Grim prepared a ship, and furnished it with provisions, wherein he placed the queen and the child, and set sail from Denmark. On their voyage they encountered pirates (“outlaghes”), who killed them all after a hard fight, excepting Grim, who was an acquaintance of theirs, and Grim’s wife and children. Havelok also was saved. They at last arrived at the haven, afterwards named “Grimesbi” from Grim. Grim there resumed his old trade, a fisherman’s, and a town grew up round his hut, which was called Grimsby. The child grew up, and waxed strong. One day Grim said to him, “Son, you will never thrive as a fisherman; take your brothers with you, and seek service amongst the King’s servants.” He was soon well apparelled, and repaired with his two foster-brothers to Nicole [Lincoln].22Now at that time there was a king named Alsi, who ruled over all Nicole and Lindesie;23but the country southward was governed by another king, named Ekenbright, who had married Alsi’s sister Orewen. These two had one only daughter, named Argentille. Ekenbright, falling ill, committed Argentille to the care of Alsi, till she should be of age to be married to the strongest man that can be found. At Ekenbright’s death, Alsi reigned over both countries, holding his court at Nicole. Havelok, on his arrival there, was employed to carry water and cut wood, and to perform all menial offices requiring great strength. He was named Cuaran, which means—in the British language—a scullion. Argentille soon arrived at marriageable age, and Alsi determined to marry her to Cuaran, which would sufficiently fulfil her father’s wish—Cuaran being confessedly the strongest man in those parts. To this marriage he compelled her to consent, hoping thereby to disgrace her for ever. Havelok was unwilling that his wife should perceive the marvellous flame, but soon forgot this, and ere long fell asleep. Then had Argentille a strange vision—that a savage bear and some foxes attacked Cuaran, but dogs and boars defended him. A boar having killed the bear, the foxes cried for quarter from Cuaran,who commanded them to be bound. Then he would have put to sea, but the sea rose so high that he was terrified. Next she beheld two lions, at seeing which she was frightened, and she and Cuaran climbed a tree to avoid them; but the lions submitted themselves to him, and called him their lord. Then a great cry was raised, whereat she awoke, and beheld the miraculous flame. “Sir,” she exclaimed, “you burn!” But he reassured her, and, having heard her dream, said that it would soon come true. The next day, however, she again told her dream to a chamberlain, her friend, who said that he well knew a holy hermit who could explain it. The hermit explained to Argentille that Cuaran must be of royal lineage. “He will be king,” he said, “and you a queen. Ask him concerning his parentage. Remember also to repair to his native place.” On being questioned, Cuaran replied that he was born at Grimsby; that Grim was his father, and Saburc his mother. “Then let us go to Grimsby,” she replied. Accompanied by his two foster-brothers, they came to Grimsby; but Grim and Saburc were both dead. They found there, however, a daughter of Grim’s, named Kelloc, who had married a tradesman of that town. Up to this time Havelok had not known his true parentage, but Kelloc thought it was now time to tell him, and said: “Your father was Gunter, the King of the Danes, whom Hodulf slew. Hodulf obtained the kingdom as a grant from Arthur. Grim fled with you, and saved your life; but your mother perished at sea. Your name isHavelok. My husband will convey you to Denmark, where you must inquire for a lord named ‘Sigar l’estal;’ and take with you my two brothers.” So Kelloc’s husband conveyed them to Denmark, and advised Havelok to go to Sigar and show himself and his wife, as then he would be asked who his wife is. They went to the city of the seneschal, the before-named Sigar, where they craved a night’s lodging, and were courteously entertained. But as they retired to a lodging for the night, six men attacked them, who had been smitten with the beauty of Argentille. Havelok defended himself with an axe which he found, and slew five, whereupon the sixth fled. Havelok and his party fled away for refuge to a monastery, which was soon attacked by the townsmen who had heard of the combat. Havelokmounted the tower, and defended himself bravely,casting down a huge stone on his enemies.24The news soon reached the ears of Sigar, who hastened to see what the uproar was about. BeholdingHavelok fixedly, he called to mind the form and appearance of Gunter, and asked Havelok of his parentage. Havelok replied that Grim had told him he was by birth a Dane, and that his mother perished at sea; and ended by briefly relating his subsequent adventures. Then Sigar asked him his name. “My name is Havelok,” he said, “and my other name is Cuaran.” Then the seneschal took him home, and determined to watch for the miraculous flame, which he soon perceived, and was assured that Havelok was the true heir. Therefore he gathered a great host of his friends, and sent for the horn which none but the true heir could sound, promising a ring to any one who could blow it. When all had failed, it was given to Havelok, who blew it loud and long, and was joyfully recognized and acknowledged to be the true King. Then with a great army he attacked Hodulf the usurper, whom he slew with his own hand. Thus was Havelok made King of Denmark.

But after he had reigned four years, his wife incited him to return to England. With a great number of ships he sailed there, and arrived at Carleflure;25and sent messengers to Alsi, demanding the inheritance of Argentille. Alsi was indeed astonished at such a demand as coming from a scullion, and offered him battle. The hosts met at Theford,26and the battle endured till nightfall without a decisive result. But Argentille craftily advised her lord to support his dead men by stakes, to increase the apparent number of his army; and the next day Alsi, deceived by this device, treated for peace, and yielded up to his former ward all the land, from Holland27to Gloucester. Alsi had been so sorely wounded that he lived but fifteen days longer. Thus was Havelok king over Lincoln and Lindsey, and reigned over them for twenty years. Such is the lay of Cuaran.

§ 21.The chief points to be noticed in Gaimar’s abridgment are the few additional particulars to be gleaned from it. We there find that Havelok’s mother wasAlvive, a daughter of KingGaifer; that the King of Nicole and Lindeseie was aBriton, and was named Edelsie; that his sister, named Orwain, was married to Adelbrit, aDane, who ruled over Norfolk; and that Edelsie and Adelbrit lived in the days of Costentin (Constantine), whosucceeded Arthur. It is also said that the usurper Hodulf was brother to Aschis, who is the Achilles of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Another statement, that Havelok’s kingdom extended from Holland toColchester, seems to be an improvement upon “from Holland toGloucester.”

The words of Mr Petrie, in his remarks upon the lay in Monumenta Historica Britannica, vol. i., may be quoted here. “Although both [French versions] have the same story in substance, and often contain lines exactly alike, yet, besides the different order in which the incidents are narrated, each has occasionally circumstances wanting in the other, and such too, it should seem, as would leave the story incomplete unless supplied from the other copy. Thus, the visit to the hermit, which is omitted in Gaimar, was probably in the original romance; for without it Argentille’s dream tells for nothing; and in the Arundel copy there is a particular account of Haveloc’s defence of a tower by hurling stones on his assailants, which in Gaimar is so obscurely alluded to as to be hardly intelligible. On the other hand, instead of the description of the extraordinary virtues of Sygar’s ring in Gaimar, it is merely said in the Arundel copy that Sygar would give hisanel d’orto whoever could sound the horn; and, to omit other instances, a festival is described in Gaimar on the authority ofl’Estorie, of which no notice whatever occurs in the Arundel MS.”

The “Lay of Havelok” has been admirably paraphrased by Professor Morley, in his “English Writers,” vol. i. pp. 459-467, a book which should be in every reader’s hands, and which should by all means be consulted. I only intend here to give a briefer outline, for the sake of comparing the main features of our poem with those of the FrenchLai.

Hear the tale of Havelok! There was once a good king in England, named Athelwold, renowned and beloved for his justice. He had but one child, a daughter named Goldborough. Knowing that his end was approaching, he sent for all his lords to assemble at Winchester, and there committed Goldborough to the care of Godrich, the earl of Cornwall; directing him to see her marriedto the strongest and fairest man whom he could find. But Godrich imprisoned her at Dover, and resolved to seize her inheritance for his own son. At that time there was also a King of Denmark, named Birkabeyn, who had one son, Havelok, and two daughters, Swanborough and Helfled. At the approach of death, he committed these to the care of Earl Godard. But Godard killed the two girls, and only spared Havelok because he did not like to kill him with his own hand. He therefore hired a fisherman, named Grim, to drown Havelok at sea. But Grim perceived, as Havelok slept, a miraculous light shining round the lad, whereby he knew that the child was the true heir, and would one day be king. In order to avoid Godard, Grim fitted up a ship, and provisioned it, and with his wife Leve, his three sons, his two daughters, and Havelok, put out to sea. They landed in Lindesey at the month of the Humber, at a place afterwards named Grimsby after Grim. Grim worked at his old trade, a fisherman’s, and Havelok carried about the fish for sale. Then arose a great dearth in the land, and Havelok went out to seek his own livelihood, walking to Lincoln barefoot. He was hired as a porter by the earl of Cornwall’s cook, and drew water and cut wood for the earl’s kitchen. One day some men met to contend in games and to “put the stone.” At the cook’s command, Havelok also put the stone, hurling it further than any of the rest.28Godrich, hearing the praises of Havelok’s strength, at once resolved to perform his oath by causing him to marry Goldborough; and carried his design into execution. As goon as the pair were married, Havelok suddenly quitted Lincoln with his wife, and returned to Grimsby, where he found that Grim was dead, but that his five childrenareyet alive. At night, Goldborough perceived a light shining round about Havelok, and observed a cross upon his shoulder. At the same time she heard an angel’s voice, telling her of good fortune to come. Then he awoke, and told her a dream; how he had dreamt that all Denmark and England became his own. She encouraged him, and urged him to set sail for Denmark at once. He accordingly called to him Grim’s three sons, and narrated to them his own history, and Godard’s treachery, asking them to accompany him to Denmark. To this they assented, and sailed with him and Goldborough to Denmark. There he sought out a former friend of his father’s, Earl Ubbe, who invited him and his friends to a sumptuous feast. After the feast, Havelok and Goldborough and Grim’s sons went to the house of one Bernard Brown, whose house was that night attacked by sixty thieves. By dint ofgreat prowess, the friends at length slew all their sixty assailants, and Ubbe was so amazed at Havelok’s valour that he resolved to dub him a knight, and invited him to sleep in his own castle. At night, he peeped into Havelok’s chamber, and beheld the marvellous light, and saw a bright cross on his neck. Rejoiced at heart, he did homage to Havelok, and commanded all his friends and dependents to do the same. He also dubbed him knight, and proclaimed him King. With six thousand men he set out to attack Godard, whom he defeated and made prisoner, and afterwards caused to be flayed, drawn, and hung. Then Havelok swore that he would establish at Grimsby a priory of black monks, to pray for Grim’s soul; and Godrich, having heard that Havelok has invaded England, raised a great army against him. An indecisive combat took place between Ubbe and Godrich, but a more decisive one between Godrich and Havelok; for Havelok cut off his foe’s hand and made him prisoner. Then the English submitted to Goldborough, and acknowledged her as queen; but Godrich was condemned and burnt. Havelok rewarded both his own friends and the English nobles; for he caused Earl Reyner of Chester to marry Gunild, Grim’s daughter, and Bertram, formerly Godrich’s cook, to marry Levive, another of Grim’s daughters; bestowing upon Bertram the earldom of Cornwall. Then were Havelok and Goldborough crowned at London, and a feast was given that lasted forty days. The kingdom of Denmark was bestowed upon Ubbe, who held it of King Havelok. Havelok and Goldborough lived to the age of a hundred years, and their reign lasted for sixty years in England. They had fifteen children, who were all kings and queens. Such is thegesteof Havelok and Goldborough.

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