Animal Imagery and Oral Discourse in Havelok’s First Fight

Abstract

This article explores the complex stylistic dynamics of the description of Havelok’s first fight in the fourteenth-century Middle English romance Havelok the Dane. The episode is characterized by a mishmash of quasi-symbolic imagery and multiple (sometimes contradictory) re-narrations which past scholarship has connected to the poem’s distinctive oral mode of discourse. An examination of the episode’s sources and the diverse imagery of its multiple accounts of the fight reveals the poet’s consciousness of the role of the teller in transforming the tale. The poet makes use of diverse animal imagery (but especially that of the baited bear) to explore the complex ways in which we experience bondage. The poet’s diverse perspectives and dynamically changing imagery lead him to sacrifice any claim to be providing an authoritative historical account of Havelok’s life; instead, he recognizes the fallibility of oral discourse, marshalling it to unlock deeper truths about the social and spiritual nature of bondage revealed by Havelok’s social liberation and acquisition of political authority.

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