Havelok the Dane

“ But Havelok knew naught of that, and went his way with his loaves to the bridge end, and there sat on the rail and looked at the men before him. And lo! back to my mind came old days in Denmark, and how I once saw Gunnar the king sitting in open court to do justice, and then I knew for certain that I was looking on his son. And when Havelok spoke it was in the voice of Gunnar that I had long forgotten, but which came back to me clear and plain, as if it were yesterday that I had heard it. Never does a boy forget his first sight of the king. ”

“ So Alsi held both kingdoms until the princess was of age, when she would take her own. It was said that she lived at Dover until that time, and so none of her Danes were likely to be at court if we went there and found places.
So Havelok’s plan was to be carried out, and he and I were to set forth next morning. Arngeir was yet uneasy about it, nevertheless, as one could see; but I did not at that time know why it should be so doubtful a matter that two strong men should go forth and seek their fortune but thirty miles away. So we laughed at him. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 is Havelok. 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.” ”

“ It were safer.”
“Less safe, brother,” answered Havelok. “At once we should be kept apart. Listen, and I will tell you all, and then say your say.”
Then he told us, word for word, all that had just passed between him and the king. And as we listened, it grew on us that here was no wrong to the princess, but rather the beginning of honour. I could see the downfall that was in store for Alsi, and I thought also that I saw hope for the winning back of the Danish kingdom, with an East Anglian host to back us. And this also saw Withelm, and his eyes sparkled. ”

“ Just this—that you have married the queen of the East Angles to Havelok, son of Gunnar Kirkeban of Denmark, for whom men wait over there even now. The Witan not have him? I tell you that every man in the land will follow him and Goldberga if they so much as lift their finger. ”

“ Now Havelok grew restless, and wandered here and there looking at things, though not going far from me; and while I was thus alone on the bridge, a man I knew by sight came and leaned on the rail by me, and told me that he had just seen the most handsome man and the goodliest to look on that was in the kingdom, as he thought.
“Yonder he stands,” he said, “like a king who has fallen on bad times. I mind that I thought that Alsi, our king, would look like that, before I saw him, and sorely disappointed was I in him therefore. Now I wonder who yon man may be?” ”

“ Then Sigurd said, “Speak to the people, my king, and all is done.”
So Havelok smiled, and lifted his voice, and spoke.
“Stand by me, friends, as steadfastly as you have fought against me, and I shall be well content. And see, here is the queen for whom you will fight also. There is not one of you but will play the man under her eyes.” ”

“ For ‘Bare is back without brother behind it,’ son Radbard and ‘Ere one goes out, give heed to the doorways,’ son Raven; and ‘Wisdom is wanted by him who fares widely’ son Withelm. So say the old proverbs, and they are true. No quarreller is Havelok; but if he must fight, that will be no playground. Careful is he; but he has met with no guile as yet, and he trusts all men. Slow to think, if sure, are so mighty frames as his becomes, even when quick wit is needed. ”

“ Sigurd’s host went back in the autumn, rich with the treasure of Alsi the king; and from that time forward no Danish host ever sought our shores. Wars enough have been in England here, but they have not harmed us. No host has been suffered to cross the borders of Lindsey or East Anglia, save in peace, and in the wars of Penda of Mercia Havelok has taken no part. Yet he has had to fight to hold his own more than once, but always with victory, for always the prayers of the few Christians have been with him. ”

“ Up and forward flew the round shield, catching the thane’s straightened arm along its whole length, and then, as sword and arm were dashed upwards, smiting him fairly in the face; and, like a stone, the Welshman was hurled from it, and fell backward in a heap on the grass three paces away. It seemed to me that he was off his feet in his spring as the shield smote him.
There he lay, and Havelok strode forward and stood between the two, with his face to Griffin, for Ragnar had dropped his axe to rest when his foe fell.
“No blood drawn,” said my brother, “but no more fighting can there be. ”

“ Havelok’s father slain, A.D. 487; his expedition to Denmark, A.D. 507; his reign in England, A.D. 511-531, or a little later. These dates follow a system which is here about 16 years earlier than the dates in the A.S. Chronicle. His results are obtained from totally different considerations. On the whole, let us place Havelok in the sixth century, at some period of his life.
§ 24. It is, perhaps, worthy of a passing remark that some of the circumstances in the Lay may have been suggested by the romantic story of Eadwine of Northumbria, who was also born at the close of the sixth century. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Havelok’s royal lineage is betrayed by his flame breath when he is asleep, a phenomenon which has parallels in the history of Servius Tullius and of Dietrich of Bern. Part of the Havelok legend lingers in local tradition. Havelok destroyed his enemies in Denmark by casting down great stones upon them from the top of a tower, and Grim is said to have kicked three of the turrets from the church tower in his efforts to destroy the enemy’s ships. ”

“ One heard much of Havelok, though, for word of him and his strength and goodliness, and of his kindness moreover, went through the town, with tales of what he had done. But I never heard that any dared to ask him to make a show of himself by doing feats of strength. Only when he came down to the guardroom sometimes with me would he take part in the weapon play that he loved, and the housecarls, who were all tried and good warriors, said that he was their master in the use of every weapon, and it puzzled them to know where he had learned so well, for he yet wore his fisher’s garb. ”

“ Into Sigurd’s haven we sailed on the morning tide, and strange it seemed to me to see the well-known place unchanged as we neared it. My father’s house was there, and Arngeir’s, and the great hall of the jarl towered over all, as I remembered it. Men were building a ship in the long shed where ours had been built, and where the queen had hidden; and the fishing boats lay on the hard as on the day when Havelok had come to us. ”

“ True are the words of the Havamal, the song of the wisdom of Odin, which say, “One may know and no other, but all men know if three know.”
Therefore for all these years my father told none of us the secret of Havelok’s birth; and when Arngeir married my sister Solva he made him take oath that he would not tell what he knew to her, while she, being but a child at the time of the flight, had forgotten how this well-loved brother of hers came to us. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But now the last lurking doubt was gone, and there was no more delay, for the chiefs crowded with shouts of joy to the high place, and they knelt to Havelok and hailed him as king then and there; and so they led him to the great door of the hall, and the mightiest of them raised him high on a wide shield before all the freemen who waited on the green that is round the jarl’s house, and they cried, “Skoal to Havelok the king!”
And there was in answer the most stirring shout that a man may hear—the shout of a host that hail the one for whom they are content to die. ”

“ THE Danish occupation of England has left a very strong mark on our country in various ways—on its place-names, its racial characteristics, its language, its literature, and, in part, on its ideals. The legend of Havelok the Dane, with its popularity and widespread influence, is one result of Danish supremacy. ”

“ I was the only mounted man of my little force, and that rather to save my strength than because I liked riding. I should certainly fight on foot, as would Havelok himself, in the old way. It is not good to trust to the four feet of a horse when one means business.
We bided where we were, waiting to see what these men did, and soon beyond them grew the long cloud of dust starred with shifting sparks that told us that the host of Hodulf was on foot and advancing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ And then men knew who he was indeed, for little by little the secret had been pieced together, if not told from the king’s place, in the years that had passed. And at that there rose and grew a murmur and a cry.
“Havelok, son of Gunnar! Havelok the king!”
Then said Sigurd in a great voice, “Who is for Hodulf of us all? Let no man go hence who is for him.” ”

“ Out of one earth should they be made afresh, as it were, that on the face of earth they shall be one. Pass therefore under the arch, beginning with Havelok.”
Then, while my father spoke strange and ancient runes, Havelok did as he was bidden, kneeling down and creeping under the uplifted turf; and as I came after him he gave me his hand and raised me, and so with each of the other two. And then, unbidden, Arngeir followed, for he too loved Havelok, and would fain be his brother indeed. ”

“ Alsi and his men were supping in the hall, but Goldberga was waiting in her own chamber.
Now the princess thought that, after her message to the king, she would hear no more of the kitchen knave, and so was happier. But all the while she pondered over her dream the thought of Havelok must needs come into it, and that was troublesome. Nevertheless, it was not to be helped, seeing that there was no doubt at all that he and the man of the vision were like to each other as ever were twins. Wherefore if the thought of one must be pleasant so at last must be that of the other. ”