SOURCE: "The Date of Havelok," Anglia, Vol. 95, 1977, pp. 20-33.

In the following essay, Jack takes issue with Herlint Meyer-Lindenberg's attempt to date Havelok the Dane more exactly, considering and rejecting all six of his arguments in turn.

Though it would generally be accepted that the Middle English romance Havelok must have been in existence before 1300, there has been little agreement on any very precise date of composition; and indeed an agnostic view of the matter was taken in the edition by Skeat and Sisam, who concluded that it was impossible to determine how much before 1300 the poem may have been composed.¹ Nevertheless, there has been one recent attempt to assign a much more exact date to the poem, for it has been argued by Herlint Meyer-Lindenberg that Havelok must have been composed between the years 1203 and 1216². This has significant implications, as it provides a basis for the further...