The Lay of Havelok the Dane

This was my first foray into the fields of Middle English beyond the Riverside Chaucer. I thought I might have difficulty because þ is not modernised in this edition. I got used to that very quickly, but what I had not realised is that Havelock is written in an entirely different dialect than I am familiar with. It is virtually Norse. At the start I would sometimes read an entire line and realise that I could not be sure of the meaning of a single word in it. I have to be in Romance mode for Chaucer but I rewired my brain to Germanic and after 20 pages of constantly flipping back and forth to the excellent glossary I suddenly realised I was reading with relative ease… which was handy because this is a fast-paced, lively and immediate show more story. I reminded me a lot of Star Wars. Havelock definitely wears one of the hero's thousand faces. It's written in what must have been, at the time very everyday English. The author's a very good narrative poet. It's rhymed and metred, but the poetry is subservient to the story. There's a great juxtaposition between the miraculous and the mundane. The action is clearly realised and at times it's very funny. A little gem. show less