CHRISTIANIA VIDENSK.-SELSK. FORHANDL. 18 7 9. NO. 10- 5 



tale, which represents Aveloc as the declared foe of the English 

 people. This tale was known in metrical form at the beginning 

 of the 14 t]l century, and still we find in „Bishop Percys Folio- 

 Manuscript" (vol. II, p. 509—49) a ballad on this battle, the duel 

 of the celebrated hero Guy of Warwick with the heathen giant 

 Colebrand. Here „Avelocke, king of Danmark", comes with a 

 mighty force to England, and with him the „ giant stiff and stark" 

 Colebrand, who has sworn to subdue all England. No English 

 knight dåres figt him except the old forgotten Guy, who on God's 

 demand is ready to fight for Englands right, „that I may England 

 ont of thraldom bring". In the duel, which is described at length, 

 Guy cuts of the giantfs hand and head „with a Danish axe", the 

 Danish king flees back to Denmark „with sorrow and mickle care", 

 and gives up his claims to England. 



In another MS. of the poem the heathen king is, as in hi- 

 story, named Anlaf, and this is probably the older version; in 

 changing Anlaf into Avelocke the author or the scribe of the poem 

 acknowledges the identity of the two persons. 



