Bygone Lincolnshire ed by W Andrews Author:William Andrews Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ibavelofe, tbe Dane. By Mabel Peacock. Herknet to me, gode men, Wiues maydnes, and alle men. Of a tale that ich you wile telle, Wo so it wile here... more », and ther-to duelle, The tale is of Hauelok i-maked. EFORE giving an abridged version of the English lay of Havelok, it may, perhaps, be better to say something of the probable sources of the romance which recounts the strange fortunes of the fisherman-prince and his companions. Professor Skeat, who has collected all known references to the legend in the preface to the edition of the lay published by the Early English Text Society, regards the poem as the general result of various narratives connected with the history of North- umbria and Lindesey, at the close, or possibly at the beginning, of the sixth century, gathered round some favourite local (i.e., Lincolnshire) tradition as a nucleus. The earliest mention of the story yet discovered is furnished by the French version of the lay, which was " certainly composed within the first half of the twelfth century"; but there can be little doubt that the legend was already an old one when the Anglo-Norman poet used it as the ground-work for his rhyme. Geffrai Gaimar, who wrote between A.d. 1141 and A.d. 1151, made an abridgement of the French poem, and Havelok is spoken of again in the French Chronicle of Peter de Langtoft, who died early in the reign of Edward II. A chronicle called Le Bruit Dengleterre, or Le Petit Bruit, compiled A.d. 1310, refers to the English form of the legend, which the author speaks of as I' estorie de Grimesby. He must, however, have drawn some of his information from an undiscovered source, for his reference to Havelok's sons is absent from the English and the early French text. Several other allusions to the story are to be foun...« less