Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h1>Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln.</h1> <p>By Charles W. Whistler</p> <h2><SPAN href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER I. GRIM THE FISHER AND HIS SONS.">CHAPTER I. GRIM THE FISHER AND HIS SONS.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER II. KING HODULF'S SECRET.">CHAPTER II. KING HODULF'S SECRET.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER III. HAVELOK, SON OF GUNNAR.">CHAPTER III. HAVELOK, SON OF GUNNAR.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER IV. ACROSS THE SWAN'S PATH.">CHAPTER IV. ACROSS THE SWAN'S PATH.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER V. STORM AND SHIPWRECK.">CHAPTER V. STORM AND SHIPWRECK.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER VI. THE BEGINNING OF GRIMSBY TOWN.">CHAPTER VI. THE BEGINNING OF GRIMSBY TOWN.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER VII. BROTHERHOOD.">CHAPTER VII. BROTHERHOOD.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER VIII. BERTHUN THE COOK.">CHAPTER VIII. BERTHUN THE COOK.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER IX. CURAN THE PORTER.">CHAPTER IX. CURAN THE PORTER.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER X. KING ALSI OF LINDSEY.">CHAPTER X. KING ALSI OF LINDSEY.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XI. THE COMING OF THE PRINCESS.">CHAPTER XI. THE COMING OF THE PRINCESS.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XII. IN LINCOLN MARKETPLACE.">CHAPTER XII. IN LINCOLN MARKETPLACE.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XIII. THE WITAN'S FEASTING.">CHAPTER XIII. THE WITAN'S FEASTING.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XIV. THE CRAFT OF ALSI THE KING.">CHAPTER XIV. THE CRAFT OF ALSI THE KING.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XV. THE FORTUNE OF CURAN THE PORTER.">CHAPTER XV. THE FORTUNE OF CURAN THE PORTER.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XVI. A STRANGEST WEDDING.">CHAPTER XVI. A STRANGEST WEDDING.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XVII. HOW THE BRIDE WENT HOME.">CHAPTER XVII. HOW THE BRIDE WENT HOME.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XVIII. JARL SIGURD OF DENMARK.">CHAPTER XVIII. JARL SIGURD OF DENMARK.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XIX. THE LAST OF GRIFFIN OF WALES.">CHAPTER XIX. THE LAST OF GRIFFIN OF WALES.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XX. THE OWNING OF THE HEIR.">CHAPTER XX. THE OWNING OF THE HEIR.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XXI. THE TOKEN OF SACK AND ANCHOR.">CHAPTER XXI. THE TOKEN OF SACK AND ANCHOR.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XXII. KING ALSI'S WELCOME.">CHAPTER XXII. KING ALSI'S WELCOME.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XXIII. BY TETFORD STREAM.">CHAPTER XXIII. BY TETFORD STREAM.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN href="#CHAPTER XXIV. PEACE, AND FAREWELL.">CHAPTER XXIV. PEACE, AND FAREWELL.</SPAN></h2> <h2><SPAN name="PREFACE">PREFACE.</SPAN></h2> <p>If any excuse is needed for recasting the ancient legend of Grim the fisher and his foster-son Havelok the Dane, it may be found in the fascination of the story itself, which made it one of the most popular legends in England from the time of the Norman conquest, at least, to that of Elizabeth. From the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries it seems to have been almost classic; and during that period two full metrical versions --- one in Norman-French and the other in English --- were written, besides many other short versions and abridgments, which still exist. These are given exhaustively by Professor Skeat in his edition of the English poem for the Early English Text Society, and it is needless to do more than refer to them here as the sources from which this story is gathered.</p> <p>These versions differ most materially from one another in names and incidents, while yet preserving the main outlines of the whole history. It is evident that there has been a far more ancient, orally-preserved tradition, which has been the original of the freely-treated poems and concise prose statements of the legend which we have. And it seems possible, from among the many variations, and from under the disguise of the mediaeval forms in which it has been hidden, to piece together what this original may have been, at least with some probability.</p> <p>We have one clue to the age of the legend of Havelok in the statement by the eleventh-century Norman poet that his tale comes from a British source, which at least gives a very early date for the happenings related; while another version tells us that the king of "Lindesie" was a Briton. Welsh names occur, accordingly, in several places; and it is more than likely that the old legend preserved a record of actual events in the early days of the Anglo-Saxon settlement in England, when there were yet marriages between conquerors and conquered, and the origins of Angle and Jute and Saxon were not yet forgotten in the pedigrees of the many petty kings.</p> <p>One of the most curious proofs of the actual British origin of the legend is in the statement that the death of Havelok's father occurred as the result of a British invasion of Denmark for King Arthur, by a force under a leader with the distinctly Norse name of Hodulf. The claim for conquest of the north by Arthur is very old, and is repeated by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and may well have originated in the remembrance of some successful raid on the Danish coasts by the Norse settlers in the Gower district of Pembrokeshire, in company with a contingent of their Welsh neighbours.</p> <p>This episode does not occur in the English version; but here an attack on Havelok on his return home to Denmark is made by men led by one Griffin, and this otherwise unexplainable survival of a Welsh name seems to connect the two accounts in some way that recalls the ancient legend at the back of both.</p> <p>I have therefore treated the Welsh element in the story as deserving a more prominent place, at least in subsidiary incidents, than it has in the two old metrical versions. It has been possible to follow neither of these exactly, as in names and details they are widely apart; but to one who knows both, the sequence of events will, I think, be clear enough.</p> <p>I have, for the same reason of the British origin of the legend, preferred the simple and apposite derivation of the name of "Curan," taken by the hero during his servitude, from the Welsh Cwran, "a wonder," to the Norman explanation of the name as meaning a "scullion," which seems to be rather a guess, based on the menial position of the prince, than a translation.</p> <p>For the long existence of a Welsh servile population in the lowlands of Lincolnshire there is evidence enough in the story of <span lang="en-US">Guthlac</span> of Crowland, and the type may still be found there. There need be little excuse for claiming some remains of their old Christianity among them, and the "hermit" who reads the dream for the princess may well have been a half-forgotten Welsh priest. But the mediaeval poems have Christianized the ancient legend, until it would seem to stand in somewhat the same relationship to what it was as the German "Niebelungen Lied" does to the "Volsunga Saga."</p> <p>With regard to the dreams which recur so constantly, I have in the case of the princess transferred the date of hers to the day previous to her marriage, the change only involving a difference of a day, but seeming to he needed, as explanatory of her sudden submission to her guardian. And instead of crediting Havelok with the supernatural light bodily, it has been transferred to the dream which seems to haunt those who have to do with him.</p> <p>As to the names of the various characters, they are in the old versions hardly twice alike. I have, therefore, taken those which seem to have been modernized from their originals, or preserved <span lang="en-US">by</span> simple transliteration, and have set them back in what seems to have been their first form. Gunther, William, and Bertram, for instance, seem to be modernized from Gunnar, Withelm, and perhaps Berthun; while Sykar, Aunger, and Gryme are but alternative English spellings of the northern Sigurd, Arngeir, and Grim.</p> <p>The device on Havelok's banner in chapter xxi. is exactly copied from the ancient seal of the Corporation of Grimsby,<SPAN class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote1anc" href="#sdfootnote1sym">¹</SPAN> which is of the date of Edward the First. The existence of this is perhaps the best proof that the story of Grim and Havelok is more than a romance. Certainly the Norse "Heimskringla" record claims an older northern origin for the town than that of the Danish invasion of Alfred's time; and the historic freedom of its ships from toll in the port of Elsinore has always <span lang="en-US">been</span> held to date from the days of its founder.</p> <p>The strange and mysterious "blue stones" of Grimsby and Louth are yet in evidence, and those of the former town are connected by legend with Grim. Certainly they have some very ancient if long-forgotten associations, and it is more than likely that they have been brought as "palladia" with the earliest northern settlers. A similar stone exists in the centre of the little East Anglian town of Harleston, with a definite legend of settlement attached to it; and there may be others. The Coronation Stone of Westminster and the stone in Kingston-on-Thames are well-known proofs of the ancient sanctity that surrounded such objects for original reasons that are now lost.</p> <p>The final battle at Tetford, with its details, are from the Norman poem. The later English account is rounded off with the disgrace and burning alive of the false guardian; but for many reasons the earlier seems to be the more correct account. Certainly the mounds of some great forgotten fight remain in the Tetford valley, and Havelok is said to have come to "Carleflure," which, being near Saltfleet, and on the road to Tetford, may be Canton, where there is a strong camp of what is apparently Danish type.</p> <p>Those who can read with any comfort the crabbed Norman-French and Early English poetic versions will see at once where I have added incidents that may bring the story into a connected whole, as nearly as possible on the old Saga lines; and those readers to whom the old romance is new will hardly wish that I should pull the story to pieces again, to no purpose so far as they are concerned. And, at least, for a fairly free treatment of the subject, I have the authority of those previous authors whom I have mentioned.</p> <p>In the different versions, the founder of Grimsby is variously described as a steward of the Danish king's castle, a merchant, a fisher, and in the English poem --- probably because it was felt that none other would have undertaken the drowning of the prince --- as a thrall. Another version gives no account of the sack episode, but says that Grim finds both queen and prince wandering on the shore. Grim the fisher is certainly a historic character in his own town, and it has not been hard to combine the various callings of the worthy foster-father of Havelok and the troubles of both mother and son. A third local variant tells that Havelok was found at Grimsby by the fisher adrift in an open boat; and I have given that boat also a place in the story, in a different way.</p> <p>The names of the kings are too far lost to be set back in their place in history, but Professor Skeet gives the probable date of Havelok and Grim as at the end of the sixth century, with a possible identification of the former with the "governor of Lincoln" baptized by <span lang="en-US">Paulinus.</span> I have, therefore, assumed this period where required. But a legend of this kind is a romance of all time, and needs no confinement to date and place. Briton and Saxon, Norman and Englishman, and maybe Norseman and Dane, have loved the old story, and with its tale of right and love triumphant it still has its own power.</p> <p>Stockland, 1899</p> <p>Chas. W. Whistler</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />