The Lay of Havelok the Dane: Composed in the Reign of Edward I, About A. D. 1280; Formerly Edited by Sir F. Madden for the Roxburghe Club, and Now ... Dodleian Library, Oxford

by Walter W. Skeat

Excerpt from The Lay of Havelok the Dane: Composed in the Reign of Edward I, About A. D. 1280; Formerly Edited by Sir F. Madden for the Roxburghe Club, and Now Re-Edited From the Unique Ms. Laud Misc; 108, in the Dodleian Library, Oxford
1. The English 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 [read Havelok] the Dane, and his wife Goldborough; and Ritson, in his Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy - (vol. i. p. lxxxviii. of his Metrical Romancees) - 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 as Vitae 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."
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Genres: Poetry, Medieval, Literature

230 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1285

About the author

Walter William Skeat, English philologist, educated at King's College School (Wimbledon), Highgate School, and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in July 1860. The noted palaeographer T. C. Skeat was his grandson.

In 1878 he was elected Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Cambridge. He completed Mitchell Kemble's edition of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, and did much other work both in Anglo-Saxon and in Gothic, but is perhaps most generally known for his labours in Middle English, and for his standard editions of Chaucer and Langland's Piers Plowman.

As he himself generously declared, he was at first mainly guided in the study of Chaucer by Henry Bradshaw, with whom he was to have participated in the edition of Chaucer planned in 1870 by the University of Oxford, having declined in Bradshaw's favour an offer of the editorship made to himself. Bradshaw's perseverance was not equal to his genius, and the scheme came to nothing for the time, but was eventually resumed and carried into effect by Skeat in an edition of six volumes (1894), a supplementary volume of Chaucerian Pieces being published in 1897. He also issued an edition of Chaucer in one volume for general readers, and a separate edition of his Treatise on the Astrolabe, with a learned commentary.

His edition of Piers Plowman in three parallel texts was published in 1886; and, besides the Treatise on the Astrolabe, he edited numerous books for the Early English Text Society, including the Bruce of John Barbour, Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, the romances of Havelok the Dane and William of Palerne, and Ælfric's Lives of the Saints (4 vols.). For the Scottish Text Society he edited The Kingis Quair, usually ascribed to James I of Scotland, and he published an edition (2 vols., 1871) of Chatterton, with an investigation of the sources of the obsolete words employed by him.

He is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found 'Havelok the Dane' surprisingly interesting. It's difficult language, but I made it through with patience and a glossary. It's part of the supposed "Matter of England", though I don't know much about that as a whole at this stage. (The Matter of Britain concerns Arthur and his knights; the Matter of France, Charlemagne; the matter of Rome, Greek and Roman Gods and heroes. The Matter of England isn't generally a recognised myth cycle in the same way -- that I know of, anyway.) It's interesting that here Viking and English interests are hand in hand, instead of opposed, as we would traditionally see them. Although Havelok is a very English sort of Viking.

I was actually most interested in Goldborw; it seems as though she alone would have been a threat to the usurper's power once she was of age, without needing a man to back her up. Perhaps the text just takes it for granted that she would need a strong husband to reclaim her kingdom, I'm not sure. I found Havelok himself less interesting, I have to say.

[olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cried. Not because it was good, because I had an essay on it due in three hours.

[Lukerik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first foray into the fields of Middle English beyond the Riverside Chaucer. I thought I might have difficulty because þ is not modernised in this edition. I got used to that very quickly, but what I had not realised is that Havelock is written in an entirely different dialect than I am familiar with. It is virtually Norse. At the start I would sometimes read an entire line and realise that I could not be sure of the meaning of a single word in it. I have to be in Romance mode for Chaucer but I rewired my brain to Germanic and after 20 pages of constantly flipping back and forth to the excellent glossary I suddenly realised I was reading with relative ease… which was handy because this is a fast-paced, lively and immediate story. I reminded me a lot of Star Wars. Havelock definitely wears one of the hero's thousand faces. It's written in what must have been, at the time very everyday English. The author's a very good narrative poet. It's rhymed and metred, but the poetry is subservient to the story. There's a great juxtaposition between the miraculous and the mundane. The action is clearly realised and at times it's very funny. A little gem.

[Rob]

(too old to rate) As much as we may like to act like trashy lowbrow culture was invented by MTV and Stephanie Meyer, it actually goes back at least as far as Serious Literachur. Case in point: Havelok the Dane, a bawdy medieval romance filled with fighting, drinking, noble heroes, treacherous usurpers, and weird repetition. It's more than a bit reminiscent of a Tom Clancy novel, both in its appeal to unreconstructed masculinity and its propagandistic function of re-narrating an oppressive state as an association of underdog heroes.

So yeah, not terribly intellectual business, even for its day, but there are some legitimately enjoyable parts in here, like where Havelok beats up a ton of guys with a door. If nothing else, it's worth checking out just to see a side of medieval lit you usually never hear about.

[Poptart19 (the name’s ren) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

This is such a fun story! Hidden identities, lost royal heirs, chivalry, & romance—all in rhymed verse.

You can download for free from the Gutenberg Project, and print copies are available from the EETS through Oxford UP.

[joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Political thrillers have come a looong way since the 13th century.

[Mythlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's some weird stuff in here - an initially passive and even sometimes comically unheroic hero who is saved multiple times by a light shining from his mouth which reveals to onlookers that he is the Rightful Heir of Denmark. (His wife is the Rightful Heir of England but has - alas! - no such light.)

Justice is meted out with some randomness; the punishment for the first wrongdoer is rather horrific, but there are rewards for the daughters of a reformed villain and for a cook who hired Havelok after he pushed his rivals into the mud and left him there.

I'm still not quite sure why Havelok decides to stay and rule England while sending his buddy to take charge of Denmark, but I suppose it works for them.

Additional musings available here.

[Reuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an Medieval English romance, about 1375 C.E.

[Chanel Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a great translation of this online. Like most medieval texts, I enjoyed it more than I expected to.