And instead of crediting Havelok with the supernatural light bodily, it
has been transferred to the dream which seems to haunt those who have to
do with him.
As to the names of the various characters, they are in the old versions
hardly twice alike. I have, therefore, taken those which seem to have
been modernized from their originals, or preserved by simple
transliteration, and have set them back in what seems to have been their
first form. Gunther, William, and Bertram, for instance, seem to be
modernized from Gunnar, Withelm, and perhaps Berthun; while Sykar,
Aunger, and Gryme are but alternative English spellings of the northern
Sigurd, Arngeir, and Grim.
The device on Havelok's banner in chapter xxi. is exactly copied from
the ancient seal of the Corporation of Grimsby,[1]
which is of the date of Edward the First. The existence of this is
perhaps the best proof that the story of Grim and Havelok is more than a
romance. Certainly the Norse "Heimskringla" record claims an older
northern origin for the town than that of the Danish invasion of
Alfred's time; and the historic freedom of its ships from toll in the
port of Elsinore has always been held to date from the days of its founder.
The strange and mysterious "blue stones" of Grimsby and Louth are yet in
evidence, and those of the former town are connected by legend with
Grim.
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