Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln
    Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln
    Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln
    Audiobook8 hours

    Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln

    Written by Charles Watts Whistler

    Narrated by Tony Foster

    5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook


    Troy, Athens, Rome... each has its founding legend. So too does the Lincolnshire town of Grimsby, once the largest fishing port in the world.

    Havelok the Dane probably derives from a folk-tale, orally passed down before assuming written form - first in Anglo-Norman French, later in Middle English verse (c. 1280-1300). It tells of the rescue of the Danish prince from a wicked regent, who has tried to procure Havelok's murder. Grim the fisher, the appointed hit-man, thwarts the plan by spiriting the lad to England, where Grim settles with his family on the coast, adopting Havelok as his foster-son and naming the new community after himself.

    C.W. Whistler's clever adaptation of the tale (published in 1899) draws on the various medieval sources. The English poem is particularly suited to 'novelisation'. It abounds in homely detail, and the hero's progress from half-dead waif to the triumphant fulfilment of his strength and kingly destiny makes a satisfying arc for the development of plot and character. At the same time, the legend's origins in oral performance are suggested through the choice of a first-person narrator, namely Grim's sober-sided son Radbard, whose plain-spoken account conveys something of the older saga tradition.

    Our reader, the gifted Tony Foster, has worked and travelled in Scandinavia. His subtly-inflected narration brings a truly Nordic flavour to this re-creation of life in sixth-century Britain.

    Since Charles Whistler published his novel, both Grimsby and its local heroes have been celebrated from time to time - by Elton John in his album Caribou (1974) and recently in a folk rock musical by local band Merlin's Keep (2014). (Introductory summary by Martin Geeson)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLibriVox
    Release dateAug 25, 2014
    Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln

    Related to Havelok the Dane

    Related audiobooks

    Action & Adventure Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Gods Among Men

      Apr 14, 2022

      Gods Among Men
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Making Of A Queen

      Dec 10, 2021

      The Making Of A Queen
      5 min read

    • Article

      …the Maid Of Norway

      Jun 13, 2020

      …the Maid Of Norway
      2 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Apr 15, 2021

      Troops cross the Irish Sea to help a disgraced king regain his throne Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster (shown below) has not had a good press. According to the historian Gerald of Wales, he was “a man who liked better to be feared by all than lov

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Last Of The English

      Aug 19, 2021

      The Last Of The English
      7 min read

    • Article

      Following In Ransome’s Footsteps

      Nov 16, 2022

      Robert Twigger (Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, £20) SWALLOWS and Amazons for grown-ups? Robert Twigger has inexhaustible curiosity, a childlike desire to explore and bags of energy. You can almost sense John, Susan, Titty and Roger nodding approvingly in th

      5 min read

    • Article

      They Were Always On Parade

      Jan 10, 2024

      They Were Always On Parade
      5 min read

    • Article

      Hergest Ridge

      Jul 7, 2023

      Hergest Ridge
      3 min read

    • Article

      All The World’s A Stage

      Apr 6, 2023

      All The World’s A Stage
      5 min read

    • Article

      Saleroom

      May 1, 2020

      Saleroom
      2 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      Feb 16, 2023

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      6 min read

    • Article

      'The Debatable Land' Probes The History Of A Chink In The Scottish-English Border

      Jun 19, 2018

      British historian Graham Robb explores the land that once supported the descendents of the first king of Scotland.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      Jun 10, 2021

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Nazi Actor Next Door

      Jun 1, 2022

      Deal in Kent has been nominated as ‘one of the best places to live’ in the United Kingdom for the third consecutive year, according to a survey in the Times. The town has transitioned from being a rather rough resort back in the 1950s – natives remem

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Shell Country Alphabet

      Jan 11, 2023

      The Shell Country Alphabet
      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Dec 28, 2022

      I was intrigued by the short story in the November issue's Anniversaries section regarding the peaceful transfer of power from Henry III to his son Edward I –the first such occasion in English history. I wanted to know more about why this particular

      4 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      Aug 4, 2022

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Loyal rebel

      Feb 8, 2020

      The Loyal rebel
      17 min read

    • Article

      New World Marauder

      Dec 12, 2017

      Gangsters aside, pirates are perhaps the most romanticised outlaws of them all. And yet the annals of fiction are packed with larcenous sea dogs whose rakish flair is not so much heavily compromised as non-existent. Robert Louis Stevenson’s anti-hero

      2 min read

    • Article

      Lore Of The Land

      Jan 20, 2022

      Lore Of The Land
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Oct 18, 2023

      The Old Un's Notes
      4 min read

    • Article

      Whispering Windrush

      Aug 2, 2019

      Whispering Windrush
      4 min read

    • Article

      Collecting Puffins

      Jun 11, 2021

      Collecting Puffins
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jan 19, 2023

      While I agree with Fern Riddell that we shouldn’t treat audiences of historical dramas as stupid (The Conversation, Christmas), most people in any audience are not as well-versed in the subject as the programme-makers. Period dramas such as The Crown

      4 min read

    • Article

      Giving Lincolnshire Its Due

      Jun 29, 2022

      MAY we play a word-association game? I say ‘Lincolnshire’ and you reply... Yes, you might struggle to find anything to say about the ancient shire of that name. Perhaps ‘cathedral’ and ‘cabbages’ will float up through the mist of memory. I doubt many

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Havelok the Dane

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words