4 G. STOEM. HAVELOK TELE DANE AND THE NOKSE KING OLAE KUAEAN. 



The lay d'Aveloc is come to the Norman poet from the Welsh, 

 if we may trust to the words of the poet and the evidence of 

 philology. But it is evident from the story, that the tradition is 

 of local origin; the original ballad must have been composed in 

 Lincolnshire, among the places named in the poem (Lincoln, Thet- 

 ford, Grimsby). And the partiality for Aveloc against his English 

 foes makes it as evident, that the original poem is come up among 

 the Danes of Lincolnshire, not the English. 



It we study the English poem of Havelok, we have to notice 

 that the scene of the story is enlarged. Havelok is not king of 

 Danmark and Lincolnshire, but of all England; the later poet 

 has forgotten the battles of the English kings in the 10 th century 

 for recovering Mercia from the Danes, but he does remember the 

 conquest of all England by the Danes i. e. the history of king 

 Canute, and of course he turns Haveloc into a predecessor of 

 this conqueror. It is then curious to see where he has found the 

 name of Haveloc's father, for the name „Birkabeyn" has also its 

 history. The events of the great Norwegian king Sverre was noti- 

 ced in England by the Latin chronicler, who is known by the name 

 ofBenedict of Peterbourgh ca. A. D. 1180-90; but soon afterwards 

 this chronicle was rewritten by Roger of Howden, who adds a sur- 

 name for the norwegian usurper; he calls him „rex Swerre Birke- 

 bain", taking the nickname of the royal partisans for a surname 

 of the king. This word might therefore in the 13th century be 

 used as a proper name for a Scandinavian king and be employed 

 in- a romantic tale of a Danish prince. For from the time of 

 Canute the Danes in England became identical with Scandinavians, 

 and thus it seems quite casual, that the originally Norse king 

 Olave, although the tale makes him Danish, has a father of Nor- 

 wegian origin given to him. 



The Dano-English tale of Havelok has of course no place 

 for the battle of Brunanburgh, where the Norse king Olave Kuaran 

 along with his cousin from Dublin (Olave son of Godfrid) and his 

 father-in-law king Constantine were put to flight by the English 

 king Athelstan. But the open space is filled up by an English 



