[§ 16.] The story is also mentioned by Henry de Knyghton, a canon of Leicester abbey, whose history concludes with the year 1395. But his is no fresh evidence, as it is evidently borrowed from the French Chronicle of Rauf de Boun; see § 7. It is also alluded to in a blundering manner in a short historical compilation extending from the time of Brutus to the reign of Henry VI., and preserved in MS. Cotton Calig. A. 2. At fol. 107 b is the passage— “Ethelwolde, qui generavit filiam de (sic) Haueloke de Denmarke, per quem Danes per cccc. annos postea fecerunt clameum Anglie.” Some omission after the word de has turned the passage into nonsense; but it is noteworthy as expressing the claim of the Danes to the English crown by right of descent from Havelok; a claim which is more clearly expressed in MS. Harl. 63, in which the King of Denmark is represented as sending a herald to Æthelstan (A.D. 927)— “to witte wheder he wold fynde a man to fight with Colbrande[14] for the righ[t]e of the kyngdom Northumbre, that the Danes had claymed byfore by the title of kyng Haueloke, that wedded Goldesburghe the kyngis daughter of Northumbre” —fol. 19.[15] Four hundred years before this date would intimate some year early in the sixth century. Finally, the story is found at a later period in Caxton’s Chronicle (A.D. 1480) as above intimated in § 12; whence it was adopted by Warner, and inserted into his poem entitled Albion’s England; book iv. chap. 20, published in 1586. Warner called it the tale of “Argentile and Curan;” and in this ballad-shape it was reprinted in Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Poetry (vol. ii. p. 261; ed. 1812) with the same title. Not long after, in 1617, another author, William Webster, published a larger poem in six-line stanzas; but this is a mere paraphrase of Warner. The title is— “The most pleasant and delightful historie of Curan, a prince of Danske, and the fayre princesse Argentile,” &c. John Fabyan, in his Concordance of Historyes, first printed in 1516, alludes to the two kings Adelbryght and Edill, only to dismiss the “longe processe” concerning them, as not supported by sufficient authority. See p. 82 of the reprint by Ellis, 4to, 1811.
[§ 17.] The only other two sources whence any further light can be thrown upon our subject are the traditions of Denmark and Grimsby. A letter addressed by Sir F. Madden to Professor Rask elicited a reply which was equivalent to saying that next to nothing is known about it in Denmark. This seems to be the right place to mention a small book of 80 pages, published at Copenhagen in the present year (1868), and entitled “Sagnet om Havelok Danske; fortalt af Kristian Köster.” It contains (1) a version, in Danish prose, of the English poem; (2) a version of the same story, following the French texts of the Arundel and Royal MSS.; and (3) some elucidations of the legend. The author proposes a theory that Havelok is really the Danish king Amlet, i.e. Hamlet; but I have not space here to state all his arguments. As far as I follow them, some of the chief ones are these; that Havelok ought to be found in the list of Danish kings;[16] that Hamlet’s simulation of folly or madness is paralleled by Havelok’s behaviour, as expressed in ll. 945-954 of our poem; and that both Hamlet and Havelok succeeded in fulfilling the revenge which they had long cherished secretly. But I am not much persuaded by these considerations, for, even granting some resemblance in the names,[17] the resemblance in the stories is very slight. But I must refer the reader to the book itself.
[§ 18.] Turning however to local traditions, we find that Camden briefly alludes to the story in a contemptuous manner (p. 353; ed. 8vo, Lond. 1587); but Gervase Holles is far from being disposed to regard it as fabulous. In his MSS. collections for Lincolnshire, preserved in MS. Harl. 6829, he thus speaks of the story we are examining.[18]
“And it will not be amisse, to say something concerning ye Common tradition of her first founder Grime, as ye inhabitants (with a Catholique faith) name him. The tradition it thus. Grime (say they) a poore Fisherman (as he was launching into ye Riuer for fish in his little boate vpon Humber) espyed not far from him another little boate, empty (as he might conceaue) which by ye fauour of ye wynde & tyde still approached nearer & nearer vnto him. He betakes him to his oares, & meetes itt, wherein he founde onely a Childe wrapt in swathing clothes, purposely exposed (as it should seeme) to ye pittylesse [rage] of ye wilde & wide Ocean. He moued with pitty, takes itt home, & like a good foster-father carefully nourisht itt, & endeauoured to nourishe it in his owne occupation: but ye childe contrarily was wholy deuoted to exercises of actiuity, & when he began to write man, to martiall sports, & at length by his signall valour obteyned such renowne, yt he marryed ye King of England’s daughter, & last of all founde who was his true Father, & that he was Sonne to ye King of Denmarke; & for ye comicke close of all; that Haueloke (for such was his name) exceedingly aduanced & enriched his foster-father Grime, who thus enriched, builded a fayre Towne neare the place where Hauelocke was founde, & named it Grimesby. Thus say some: others differ a little in ye circumstances, as namely, that Grime was not a Fisherman, but a Merchant, & that Hauelocke should be preferred to ye King’s kitchin, & there liue a longe tyme as a Scullion: but however ye circumstances differ, they all agree in ye consequence, as concerning ye Towne’s foundation, to which (sayth ye story) Hauelocke ye Danish prince, afterward graunted many immunityes. This is ye famous Tradition concerning Grimsby wch learned Mr. Cambden gives so little creditt to, that he thinkes it onely illis dignissima, qui anilibus fabulis noctem solent protrudere.”
And again, after shewing that by is the Danish for town, and quoting a passage about Havelock’s father being named Gunter, which may be found in Weever (Ancient Funeral Monuments, fol. Lond. 1631, p. 749), he proceeds:
“that Hauelocke did sometymes reside in Grimsby, may be gathered from a great blew Boundry-stone, lying at ye East ende of Briggowgate, which retaines ye name of Hauelock’s-Stone to this day. Agayne ye great priuiledges & immunityes, that this Towne hath in Denmarke aboue any other in England (as freedome from Toll, & ye rest) may fairely induce a Beleife, that some preceding favour, or good turne called on this remuneration. But lastly (which proofe I take to be instar omnium) the Common Seale of ye Towne, & that a most auncient one,” &c. [Here follows a description of the Seal.]
“The singular fact,” adds Sir F. Madden, “alluded to by Holles, of the Burgesses of Grimsby being free from toll at the Port of Elsineur, in Denmark, is confirmed by the Rev. G. Oliver, in his Monumental Antiquities of Grimsby, 8vo, Hull, 1825, who is inclined from that, and other circumstances, to believe the story is not so totally without foundation.” There is also an absurd local story that the church at Grimsby, which has now but one turret, formerly had four, three of which were kicked down by Grim in his anxiety to destroy some hostile vessels. The first fell among the enemy’s fleet; the second dropped in Wellowgate, and is now Havelock’s stone; the third fell within the churchyard, but the fourth his strength failed to move. Perhaps amongst the most interesting notices of the story are the following words by Sir Henry Havelock, whose family seems to have originally resided in Durham. His own account, however, is this. “My father, William Havelock, descended from a family which formerly resided at Grimsby in Lincolnshire, and was himself born at Guisborough in Yorkshire.”[19] And it may at least be said with perfect truth, that if the name of Havelock was not famous formerly, it is famous now.
[§ 19.] The last evidence for the legend is the still-existing seal of the corporation of Great Grimsby. The engraving of this seal, as it appears in the present edition, was made from a copy kindly furnished to the E.E.T.S. by the Mayor of Grimsby, and I here subjoin a description of it, communicated to me by J. Hopkin, Esq., Jun., of Grimsby, which was first printed, in a slightly different form, in Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. xi. p. 41; see also p. 216.
“The ancient Town Seal of Great Grimsby is engraven on a circular piece of brass not very thick; and on the back, which is rather arched, is a small projecting piece of brass, placed as a substitute for a handle, in order when taking an impression the more easily to detach the matrix from the Wax. This seal is in an excellent state of preservation, and is inscribed in Saxon characters ‘Sigillvm Comunitatis Grimebye’ and represents thereon Gryme (‘Gryem’) who by tradition is reported to have been a native of Souldburg in Denmark, where he gained a precarious livelihood by fishing and piracy; but having, as is supposed, during the reign of Ethelbert,[20] been accidentally driven into the Humber by a furious storm, he landed on the Lincolnshire Coast near Grimsby, he being at this time miserably poor and almost destitute of the common necessaries of life; for Leland represents this ‘poor fisschar’ as being so very needy that he was not ‘able to kepe his sunne Cuaran for poverty.’ Gryme, finding a capacious haven adapted to his pursuits, built himself a house and commenced and soon succeeded in establishing a very lucrative Trade with Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Other Merchants having in process of time settled near him, attracted by the commercial advantages offered by this excellent Harbour, they jointly constructed convenient appendages for extensive Trade, and the colony soon rose into considerable importance, and became known at an early period by the name of Grimsby. For not only was Grimsby constituted a borough so early as the seventh century, but Peter of Langtoft speaks of it as a frontier Town and the boundary of a Kingdom erected by the conquests of Egbert in the year 827, which he states included all that portion of the Island which lay between ‘the maritime Towns of Grymsby and Dover.’ So that even at that period, Grimsby must have been a place of peculiar strength and importance. Gryme is represented on the seal as a man of gigantic stature with comparatively short hair, a shaven chin, and a moustache, holding in his right hand a drawn sword and bearing on his left arm a circular shield with an ornate boss and rim. The sleeveless tunic above his under vest is most probably the panzar or panzara of the Danes. Between his feet is a Conic object, possibly intended for a helmet, as it resembles the chapelle-de-fer worn by William Rufus on his Great Seal, and which in the laws of Gula is distinguished as the Steel hufe. On the right hand of Gryme stands his protégé Haveloc (‘Habloc’), whom, during one of his mercantile excursions soon after his arrival in Lincolnshire, Gryme had the good fortune to save from imminent danger of Shipwreck, and who proved to be the Son of Gunter, King of Denmark, and who was therefore conveyed to the British Court, where he subsequently received in marriage Goldburgh, the Daughter of the British Sovereign. Above Gryme is represented a hand, being emblematical of the hand of providence by which Haveloc was preserved, and near the hand is the star which marks the point where the inscription begins and ends. Haveloc made such a favourable representation of his preserver at the British and Danish Courts, that he procured for him many honours and privileges. From the British Monarch Gryme, who had already realised an abundance of wealth, received a charter, and was made the chief governor of Grimsby; and the Danish Sovereign granted to the Town an immunity (which is still possessed by the Burgesses of Grimsby) from all Tolls at the Port of Elsineur. Gryme afterwards lived in Grimsby like a petty prince in his Hereditary Dominions. Above Haveloc is represented a crown and in his right hand is a battle axe, the favourite weapon of the Northmen, and in his right hand is a ring which he is presenting to the British Princess Goldburgh (‘Goldebvrgh’), who stands on the left side of Gryme and whose right hand is held towards the Ring. Over her head is a Regal Diadem, and in her left hand is a Sceptre. Sir F. Madden states that it is certain that this seal is at least as old as the time of Edward I. (and therefore contemporaneous with the MS.) as the legend is written in a character which after the year 1300 fell into disuse, and was succeeded by the black letter, or Gothic.”