See Marshman, Life of Havelock (1860); L. J. Trotter, The Bayard of India (1903); F. M. Holmes, Four Heroes of India; G. B. Smith, Heroes of the Nineteenth Century (1901); and A. Forbes, Havelock (“English Men of Action” series, 1890).
HAVELOK THE DANE, an Anglo-Danish romance. The hero,
under the name of Cuheran or Cuaran, was a scullion-jongleur
at the court of Edelsi (Alsi) or Godric, king of Lincoln and
Lindsey. At the same court was brought up Argentille or
Goldborough, the orphan daughter of Adelbrict, the Danish
king of Norfolk, and his wife Orwain, Edelsi’s sister; and
Edelsi, to humiliate his ward, married her to the scullion Cuaran.
But, inspired by a vision, Cuaran and Goldborough set out for
Grimsby, where Cuaran learned that Grim, his supposed father,
was dead. His foster-sister, moreover, told him that his real
name was Havelok, that he was the son of Gunter (or Birkabeyn),
king of Denmark, and had been rescued by Grim, who though
a poor fisherman was a noble in his own country, when Gunter
perished by treason. The hero then wins back his own and
Goldborough’s kingdoms, punishing traitors and rewarding the
faithful. The story exists in two French versions: as an interpolation
between Geffrei Gaimar’s Brut and his Estorie des
Engles (c. 1150) and in the Anglo-Norman Lai d’Havelok (12th
century). The English Havelok (c. 1300) is written in a Lincolnshire
dialect and embodies abundant local tradition. A short
version of the tale is interpolated in the Lambeth MS. of Robert
Mannyng’s Handlyng Synne. The story reappears more than
once in English literature, notably in the ballad of “Argentille
and Curan” in William Warner’s Albion’s England. The name
of Havelok (Habloc, Abloec, Abloyc) is said to correspond in
Welsh to Anlaf or Olaf. Now the historical Anlaf Curan was the
son of a Viking chief Sihtric, who was king of Northumbria in
925 and died in 927. Anlaf Sihtricson was driven into exile by
his stepmother’s brother Æthelstan, and took refuge in Scotland
at the court of Constantine II., whose daughter he married.
He was defeated with Constantine[1] at Brunanburh (937), but
was nevertheless for two short periods joint ruler in Northumbria
with his cousin Anlaf Godfreyson. He reigned in Dublin till 980,
when he was defeated. He died the next year as a monk at Iona.
Round the name of Anlaf Curan a number of legends rapidly
gathered, and the legend of the Danish hero probably filtered
through Celtic channels, as the Welsh names of Argentille and
Orwain indicate. The close similarity between the Havelok
saga and the story of Hamlet (Amlethus) as told by Saxo Grammaticus
was pointed out long ago by Scandinavian scholars.
The individual points they have in common are found in other
legends, but the series of coincidences between the adventurous
history of Anlaf Curan and the life of Amlethus can hardly be
fortuitous. Interesting light is thrown on the whole question by
Professor I. Gollancz (Hamlet in Iceland, 1898) by the identification
of Amhlaide—who is said by Queen Gormflaith[2] in the
Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters to have slain Niall
Glundubh—with Anlaf’s father Sihtric. The exploits of father
and son were likely to be confused.
The mythical elements in the Havelok story are numerous. Argentille, as H. L. Ward points out, is a disguised Valkyrie. Like Svava she inspired a dull and nameless youth, and as Hild raised the dead to fight by magic, so Argentille in Havelok and Hermuthruda in Amleth prop up dead or wounded men with stakes to bluff the enemy. 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. John Weever (Antient Funerall Monuments, 1631, p. 749) says that the privilege of the town in Elsinore, where its merchants were free from toll, was due to the interest of Havelok, the Danish prince, and the common seal of the town of Grimsby represents Grim, with “Habloc” on his right hand and Goldeburgh on his left.
The English MS. of Havelok (MSS. Laud Misc. 108) in the Bodleian library is unique. It was edited for the Roxburghe Club by Sir F. Madden in 1828. This edition contains, besides the English text, the two French versions. There are subsequent editions by W. W. Skeat (1868) for the E.E. Text Society, by F. Holthausen (London, New York and Heidelberg, 1901), and by W. W. Skeat (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1902, where further bibliographical references will be found); and a modern English version by Miss E. Hickey (London, 1902). Gaimar’s text and the French lai are edited by Sir T. D. Hardy and C. F. Martin in Rerum Brit. med. aev. scriptores, vol. i. (1888). See also the account of the saga by H. L. Ward (Cat. of Romances, i. 423–446); for the identification of Havelok with Anlaf Curan see G. Storm, Englische Studien (1880), iii. 533, a reprint of an earlier article; E. K. Putnam, The Lambeth Version of Havelok (Baltimore, 1900).
HAVERFORDWEST (Welsh Hwlfordd, the English name
being perhaps a corruption of the Scandinavian Hafna-Fjord),
the chief town of Pembrokeshire, S. Wales, a contributory
parliamentary and municipal borough, and a county of itself
with its own lord-lieutenant. Pop. (1901), 6007. It is picturesquely
situated on the slopes overlooking the West Cleddau river,
which is here crossed by two stone bridges. It has a station on
the Great Western Railway on the east side of the river, and
when viewed from this point the town presents an imposing
appearance with its castle-keep and its many ancient buildings.
The river is tidal and navigable for vessels of not more than
150 tons. Coal, cattle, butter and grain are exported, but the
commercial importance of the place has greatly declined, as the
many ruined warehouses near the river plainly testify. The
old walls and fortifications have almost disappeared, but Haverfordwest
is still rich in memorials of its past greatness. The huge
castle-keep, which dominates the town, was probably built by
Gilbert de Clare, early in the 12th century; formerly used as
the county gaol, it now serves as the police-station. The large
church of St Mary, at the top of the steep High Street, has fine
clerestory windows, clustered columns and an elaborate carved-oak
ceiling of the 15th century; it contains several interesting
monuments of the 17th and 18th centuries, some of which
commemorate members of the family of Philipps of Picton Castle.
At the N. corner of the adjacent churchyard stands an ancient
building with a vaulted roof, once the record office, but now used
as a fish-market. St Martin’s, with a low tower and spire, close
to the castle, is probably the oldest church in the town, but has
been much modernized. Near St Thomas’s church on the Green
stands an old Moravian chapel which is closely associated with
the great scholar and divine, Bishop John Gambold (1711–1771).
In a meadow on the W. bank of the river are the considerable
remains of the Augustinian Priory of St Mary and St Thomas,
built by Robert de Hwlfordd, lord of Haverford, about the year
1200. On the E. bank are the suburbs of Cartlet and Prendergast,
the latter of which contains the ancient parish church of
St David and the ruins of a large mansion originally built by
Maurice de Prendergast (12th century) and subsequently the
seat of the Stepney family. A little to the S. of the town are the
remains of Haroldstone, once the residence of the powerful
Perrot family. The charities belonging to the town, which
include John Perrot’s bequest (1579), yielding about £350
annually for the improvement of the town, and Tasker’s charity
school (1684), are very considerable.
Haverfordwest owes its origin to the advent of the Flemings, who were permitted by Henry I. to settle in the hundred of Roose, or Rhôs, in the years 1106–1108, in 1111, and again in 1156. English is exclusively spoken in the town and district, and its inhabitants exhibit their foreign extraction by their language, customs and appearance. Haverfordwest is, in fact, the capital of that English-speaking portion of Pembrokeshire, which has been nicknamed “Little England beyond Wales.”
- ↑ H. L. Ward (Cat. of Romances, i. 426) suggests that it was the mention of Constantine in the Havelock legend which led Gaimar to place the tale in the 6th century in the days of the Constantine who succeeded King Arthur. Gaimar voices more than once an Anglo-Danish legend of a Danish dynasty in Britain anterior to the Saxon invasion.
- ↑ A different person from the second wife of Anlaf Curan, also Gormflaith, who forms another link with Amlethus, as she was a woman of the Hermuthruda type and married her husband’s conqueror.
