Havelock the Dane

Development of the story

This was the basis for a few other Anglo-Norman poems, the Lai d'havelok, which in turn may have influenced Havelok the Dane. Havelok is the second oldest surviving romance written in English, after King Horn; it is believed to have been composed somewhere between 1285 and 1310. The romance survives in one imperfect version in the Bodleian Library in Oxford University, as well as some fragments. A copy of the 3,001 line poem is available to view in Grimsby Public Library. A new publication of the late 19th-century translation by Walter Skeat is available as The Lay of Havelock the Dane.