From legend to literature: The journey of "Havelok the Dane"

353 Pages·1994·13.251 MB·English

by  Jane Dick Zatta

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From legend to literature: The journey of “Havelok the Dane”
Zatta, Jane Dick, Ph.D.
University of Georgia, 1994
Copyright ©1994 by Zatta, Jane Dick. All rights reserved.
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FROM LEGEND TO LITERATURE: THE JOURNEY OF HAVELOK THE DANE
by
JANE DICK ZATTA
B.A., University of Georgia, 1968
A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment
of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
ATHENS, GEORGIA
1994
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JANE DICK ZATTA
From Legend to Literature: The Journey of Havelok the Dane
(under the direction of JEROME MITCHELL)
The Havelok story appears in thirteen works written
prior to the end of the fourteenth century, of which only
three— the earliest known version contained in Geoffrey
Gaimar's Anglo-Norman chronicle, the Old French Lai
d'Haveloc, and the anonymous Middle English romance Havelok
the Dane— are longer than one hundred lines. A key to
understanding the main interest the Havelok story would have
had in the Middle Ages is the fact that besides the Old
French Lai and the Middle English romance, all the other
versions are contained in chronicles. Thus, it is necessary
to look not only at the existing texts of the story but also
at the tradition of chronicle writing from the twelfth
through the fourteenth centuries. Historians of the Anglo-
Norman rulers in the eleventh and twelfth centuries were
influenced by the rhetorical tradition of history writing
going back to Suetonius, Lucan, Vergil, and Sallust. The
Havelok tale, which began and ended as a chronicle episode,
makes strikingly clear the debt that the romance as a genre
owes to the tradition of the Anglo-Norman rhetorical
histories. The generic markers that distinguish romances
written in England are direct inheritances from the twelfth-
century Brut chronicles of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Gaimar,
Wace, and Benoit who artfully and artificially "aged" their
genre in order to flatter their Norman patrons. By the
fourteenth century, however, there is a clear sense of genre
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specificity separating history from romance that inheres in
subject matter and style. Chronicles entertain a dialectic
relationship with romance, defining themselves comparatively
and specularly by referring continually to the genre markers
that distinguish them. The first two chapters examine the
background of history writing in the twelfth century and the
significance of Gaimar's chronicle. Chapters three through
six consider in detail each of the three major versions of
the Havelok story, as well as possible analogues in
Scandinavian and classical tradition. Chapter seven looks at
the ways in which the reemergence of the Havelok story in
chronicles of the fourteenth century reflects awareness of
generic differences between history and fiction.
INDEX WORDS: Havelok, Anglo-Norman, romance,
Gaimar, twelfth century, fourteenth century,
history, Brut, Middle English, Middle Ages
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© 1994
Jane Dick Zatta
All Rights Reserved
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FROM LEGEND TO LITERATURE: THE JOURNEY OF HAVELOK THE DANE
by
JANE DICK ZATTA
Approved:
QtAsC'lW
ft
Majo^ Professor
M
m /?. / f / 'V
Approved:
Dean of the Graduate School
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Table of Contents
I. The Chronicle Background............................... 1
II. Gaimar's Chronicle .................................... 57
III. Gaimar's Haveloc Episode............................. 105
IV. Havelok Analogues in Scandinavian
and Classical Traditions ............................. 153
V. The Lai d'Haveloc and Gaimar's
Havelok Episode ......................................... 188
VI. The Romance of Havelok the Dan e .................... 230
VII. Havelok in the Fourteenth Century..................276
Bibliography ............................................... 333
iv
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