Bibliography

This bibliography lists recent or significant work on some of the texts studied in this course. It is not a complete list and contains only those works which can be found in the CSUN library or accessed through its catalogue. The bibliography is a work in progress, which I update whenever I can, and it may not list articles or books on all the texts in the course.

For general discussion about English romances, see Piero Boitani, English Medieval Narrative in the 13th and 14^th Centuries, trans. Joan Krakover Hall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982). Articles on Havelok the Dane are organised by date of publication. Works published in Medium Aevum, Modern Language Quarterly, Speculum, and Studies in Philology are all available online through the CSUN Library catalogue. If you are searching the catalogue from an off-campus location, you must have your CSUN library card number in order to access the online text.

1. Scott Kleinman, "The Legend of Havelok the Dane and the Historiography of East Anglia." Forthcoming in Studies in Philology 100 (2003). [Argues that the story developed and was re-worked over time due to changing interpretations of East Anglian and English history. This article has not yet appeared in print. Both the full version and a shortened version are available on this web site. ]
   

2. Kabir, Ananya J. "Forging an Oral Style? Havelok and the Fiction of Orality." Studies in Philology 98 (2001), 18-48. [Argues that the poet takes pains to ground his authority in popular tradition by "forging" an oral style which is intended to go undetected.]
   

3. Smithers, G.V. "The Style of Havelok." Medium Aevum57 (1998), 190-218. [Meticulously detailed study of repetition, periphrasis, apostrophe, simile, hyperbole, and other devices, with comparisons to Anglo-Norman rhetorical practice on which these devices may have depended.]
   

4. Reiss, Edmund. "Havelok the Dane and Norse Mythology." Modern Language Quarterly 27 (1996), 115-24. [Reveals Scandinavian mythological traces in several characters of the poem.]
   

5. Liuzza, Roy Michael. "Representation and Readership in the ME Havelok." Journal of English and Germanic Philology 93 (1994), 504-19. [Sees the catalogue of fish as part of a larger system of economic exchange.]
   

6. Bradbury, Nancy Mason. "The Traditional Origins of Havelok the Dane." Studies in Philology 90 (1993), 115-42. [Employs folklore methods for tracing oral origins of the Havelok story as presented in the English poem.]
   

7. Levine, Robert. "Who composed Havelok for Whom?" Yearbook of English Studies 22 (1992), 95-104. [Rejects the characterisation of the poem’s audience as lower class.]
   

8. Scott, Anne. "Language as Convention, Language as Sociolect in Havelok the Dane." Studies in Philology 89 (1992), 137-60. [Views formulaic style of Havelok as an expression of Havelok’s acquisition of "language" or "sociolect" appropriate for a king.]
   

9. Purdon, Liam O. "’Na Yaf He Nouth a Stra’ in Havelok." Philological Quarterly 69 (1990), 377-83. [Argues that the feudal act of renunciation is suggested by the placement, repetition, and language of this particular expression.]
   

10. Mills, Maldwyn. "Havelok’s Return." Medium Aevum 45 (1976), 20-35. [Explores the return scene to shed light on the genesis and unity of the poem.]
    

11. Staines, David. "Havelok the Dane: A Thirteenth-Century Handbook for Princes." Speculum 51 (1976), 602-23. [Argues that Havelok is a mirror for princes with implicit admonitions to treat the lower classes well and observe the rule of law. Sees a number of interesting parallels between Havelok and Edward I.]
    

12. Halverson, J. "Havelok the Dane and Society." Chaucer Review 6 (1971), 142-51. [Supports the view of a non-noble audience for the poem.]
    

13. Hanning, Robert W. "Havelok the Dane: Structure, Symbols, Meaning." Studies in Philology 64 (1967), 586-605. [Argues that despite its lack of aesthetic beauty, the poem is deserving of commendation for its unified structure, for its consistent use of central symbolic acts or devices, and for the way in which structure and symbols cooperate to establish and clarify the work’s central meanings (p. 587).
    

14. Mills, Maldwyn. "Havelok and the Brutal Fisherman." Medium Aevum 36 (1967), 219-30. [Argues that Grim is not as good as he seems.]