Havelok the Dane

Continuing on my reading foray into medieval things, I took up another book by Kevin Crossley-Holland.  This is Havelock the Dane (1964), which was Crossley-Holland's first book, and is a retelling of a legend originating around Lincolnshire (and the town of Grimsby), written down as a poem in the late thirteenth century. It's an almost-typical medieval story. Two kings, one in England and the other in Denmark, are dying, and appoint a Regent or Steward to rule the realm while their children grow up. The Regent (in England) and the Steward (in Denmark)  both prove evil and treacherous, and in England the princess Goldborough is imprisoned, while in Denmark the two princesses are murdered while their brother prince Havelok survives only because he is taken away to England by the kindly fisherman who the Steward had ordered to kill the boy. Inevitably, Goldborough and Havelok are united, and both regain the rule of their lands. Overall it's a decent romance but not on the high level of Beowulf or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. 

Wordhoard: Anglo-Saxon Stories

After my recent experience with Kevin Crossley-Holland's Wulf, I wondered whether I should bother with his collaboration, with Jill Paton Walsh, on Wordhoard: Anglo-Saxon Stories (1969), a slim book containing eight tales. I'd already bought the book, so I figured I'd read it anyway. I'm glad I did. The tales are gathered in pretty much historical order, chronologically, from early Anglo-Saxon times on to the final story set at the time of the Norman Conquest. What they do is to tell stories of various people, mostly ones unknown to history, and of the intersection of their lives with better known figures. The style of the telling varies. Some tales are more vibrant, others more introspective.  At first I wondered if the difference was related to which author wrote the tale, but after finding the key (on the table of contents, the authors initials are given after the page number, so one learns that Paton Walsh wrote four, and Crossley-Holland wrote four) the observed stylistic differences are not so easily accounted for. Crossley-Holland's tales usually have the more relevant historical association, as in "The Horseman," in which a deserter from the Battle of Maldon seeks assistance from the children of a  man who had left them and went on to be slaughtered, or in the final tale, "The Eye of the Hurricane," in which King Harold is dying on the battlefield in 1066 and recalls better moments in his life. Overall, it's a decent collection.

Wulf

Wulf (1988), by Kevin Crossley-Holland, is a revised omnibus of three very short books comprising "The Sea Stranger" trilogy, The Sea Stranger (1973), The Fire-Brother (1975), and The Earth-Father (1976). It's set in seventh-century England, on the east coast of Essex. It follows a young boy named Wulf and his friendship with Cedd, a historical figure and Christian missionary who founded a monastery in Ythancestir (modern Bradwell-on-Sea) in the 650s and later became a bishop. The book is clearly intended for the young adult audience. I approached it expecting a coming of age tale, with (I hoped) some vivid historical detail, but what I found instead is basically a piece of Christian propaganda. The characters are simplified down to the willing and eager acolyte, and his kindly and knowledgeable master. Yawn. This kind of stuff was trite when it was first published forty-some years ago, and it hasn't gotten any more palatable with the passing decades. 

The Green Children

I happened upon an interesting reference to this book by Kevin Crossley-Holland, so I secured a copy.  Early in his career, Crossley-Holland published a number of reworkings of early Germanic literature, from Beowulf and King Horn to Havelok the Dane. Most of them are the size of short novels, whereas The Green Children (1966) is basically a short story, published as a picture book, illustrated by Margaret Gordon. 

The origin of Crossley-Holland's version of The Green Children is found in two accounts of a twelfth century happening in Suffolk in East Anglia. One day two green children are found by peasants and brought to the local lord.  They can't speak English and are hungry but won't eat anything offered to them until they see some freshly cut beans. The beans satisfy their hunger, but over time the boy gradually withers away and dies.  The girl learns English and begins to eat normally, so that her green coloring diminishes.She notes that she and her brother came from an underground realm, and got lost in caves before emerging in the sunshine in a world new to them.

That's pretty much the whole tale in a nutshell.  I liked the story, but thought less of the illustrations.