Havelok the Dane

Havelok the Dane, also known as Havelok or Lay of Havelok the Dane, is a Middle English romance considered to be part of the Matter of England. The story, however, is also known in two earlier Anglo-Norman versions. Most scholars place Havelok the Dane at the end of the thirteenth century, between 1280 and 1290. The name "Havelok" also has many variations in spelling, and can be found as "Haveloc" or "Havelock."

The story of Havelok is first attested in lines 37–818 of Geoffrey Gaimar's Anglo-Norman Estoire des Engleis of about 1135–40. This was the basis for another Anglo-Norman poem, the Lai d'havelok, which in turn may have influenced Havelok the Dane. Havelok is the second oldest surviving romance written in English, after King Horn; it is believed to have been composed somewhere between 1280–1310. The romance survives in one imperfect version, as well as some fragments. A copy of the 3,001 line poem is available to view in Grimsby Public Library. A new publication of the late 19th-century translation by Walter Skeat is available as The Lay of Havelock the Dane.

Havelok is often categorized as belonging to the so-called Matter of England, because it deals with legends of English history rather than the legends of Rome, France and Britain, the three traditional subjects of medieval romance. The poem is notable for its interest in law and legal practice and its exploration of ideal kingship, as well as for its detailed depiction of working-class life in 13th-century Lincolnshire. It has been called a 'bourgeois' romance because of the high value placed on hard work, virtuous behaviour, and proverbial wisdom.

There is evidence that the legend of Havelok was a popular one, as the town of Grimsby, which features in the story, depicted three of its characters – Havelok, Goldeboru, and Grim – on its town seal in the early 13th century. The story unites the local interest of the founding of Grimsby in Lincolnshire to an interest in the complex national identity of England in the Middle Ages, bringing together Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Danish and British influences.

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