Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln

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By Listen TheBook Posted on May 31, 2023

In Category - Action & Adventure Fiction, Historical Fiction, Culture & Heritage Fiction

Authors: Charles Watts Whistler In Year : 1900

Book Language: English

Audiobook: Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln

PREFACE
CHAPTER I - GRIM THE FISHER AND HIS SONS
CHAPTER II - KING HODULF'S SECRET
CHAPTER III - HAVELOK, SON OF GUNNAR
CHAPTER IV - ACROSS THE SWAN'S PATH
CHAPTER V - STORM AND SHIPWRECK
CHAPTER VI - THE BEGINNING OF GRIMSBY TOWN
CHAPTER VII - BROTHERHOOD
CHAPTER VIII - BERTHUN THE COOK
CHAPTER IX - CURAN THE PORTER
CHAPTER X - KING ALSI OF LINDSEY
CHAPTER XI - THE COMING OF THE PRINCESS
CHAPTER XII - IN LINCOLN MARKETPLACE
CHAPTER XIII - THE WITAN'S FEASTING
CHAPTER XIV - THE CRAFT OF ALSI THE KING
CHAPTER XV - THE FORTUNE OF CURAN THE PORTER
CHAPTER XVI - A STRANGEST WEDDING
CHAPTER XVII - HOW THE BRIDE WENT HOME
CHAPTER XVIII - JARL SIGURD OF DENMARK
CHAPTER XIX - THE LAST OF GRIFFIN OF WALES
CHAPTER XX - THE OWNING OF THE HEIR
CHAPTER XXI - THE TOKEN OF SACK AND ANCHOR
CHAPTER XXII - KING ALSI'S WELCOME
CHAPTER XXIII - BY TETFORD STREAM
CHAPTER XXIV - PEACE, AND FAREWELL

Troy, Athens, Rome... each has its founding legend. So too does the Lincolnshire town of Grimsby, once the largest fishing port in the world.

Havelok the Dane probably derives from a folk-tale, orally passed down before assuming written form - first in Anglo-Norman French, later in Middle English verse (c. 1280-1300). It tells of the rescue of the Danish prince from a wicked regent, who has tried to procure Havelok's murder. Grim the fisher, the appointed hit-man, thwarts the plan by spiriting the lad to England, where Grim settles with his family on the coast, adopting Havelok as his foster-son and naming the new community after himself.

C.W. Whistler's clever adaptation of the tale (published in 1899) draws on the various medieval sources. The English poem is particularly suited to 'novelisation'. It abounds in homely detail, and the hero's progress from half-dead waif to the triumphant fulfillment of his strength and kingly destiny makes a satisfying arc for the development of plot and character. At the same time, the legend's origins in oral performance are suggested through the choice of a first-person narrator, namely Grim's sober-sided son Radbard, whose plain-spoken account conveys something of the older saga tradition.

Our reader, the gifted Tony Foster, has worked and travelled in Scandinavia. His subtly-inflected narration brings a truly Nordic flavour to this re-creation of life in sixth-century Britain.

Since Charles Whistler published his novel, both Grimsby and its local heroes have been celebrated from time to time - by Elton John in his album Caribou (1974) and recently in a folk rock musical by local band Merlin's Keep (2014). (Introductory summary by Martin Geeson)