Certainly they have some very ancient if long-forgotten
associations, and it is more than likely that they have been brought as
"palladia" with the earliest northern settlers. A similar stone exists
in the centre of the little East Anglian town of Harleston, with a
definite legend of settlement attached to it; and there may be others.
The Coronation Stone of Westminster and the stone in Kingston-on-Thames
are well-known proofs of the ancient sanctity that surrounded such
objects for original reasons that are now lost.
The final battle at Tetford, with its details, are from the Norman poem.
The later English account is rounded off with the disgrace and burning
alive of the false guardian; but for many reasons the earlier seems to
be the more correct account. Certainly the mounds of some great
forgotten fight remain in the Tetford valley, and Havelok is said to
have come to "Carleflure," which, being near Saltfleet, and on the road
to Tetford, may be Canton, where there is a strong camp of what is
apparently Danish type.
Those who can read with any comfort the crabbed Norman-French and Early
English poetic versions will see at once where I have added incidents
that may bring the story into a connected whole, as nearly as possible
on the old Saga lines; and those readers to whom the old romance is new
will hardly wish that I should pull the story to pieces again, to no
purpose so far as they are concerned.
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