od cook, who became Earl of Cornwall in the place of the felon
Godrich and his disinherited children; the heroic Ubbe was made Regent
of Denmark for Havelok, who decided to stay and rule England, and all
the noble Danish warriors were rewarded with gifts of gold, and lands
and castles. After a great coronation feast, which lasted for forty
days, King Havelok dismissed the Danish regent and his followers, and
after sad farewells they returned to their own country. Havelok and
Goldborough ruled England in peace and security for sixty years, and
lived together in all bliss, and had fifteen children, who all became
mighty kings and queens.

CHAPTER VI: HOWARD THE HALT

Introduction

In every society and in all periods the obligations of family
affection and duty to kinsmen have been recognised as paramount. In
the early European communities a man's first duty was to stand by his
kinsman in strife and to avenge him in death, however unrighteous the
kinsman's quarrel might be.

How pitiful is the aged Priam's lament that he must needs kiss the
hands that slew his dear son Hector, and, kneeling, clasp the knees of
his son's murderer! How sad is Cuchulain's plaint that his son Connla
must go down to the grave unavenged, since his own father slew him,
all unwitting! One remembers, too, Beowulf's words: "Better it is for
every man that he avenge his friend than that he mourn him much!"
Since, then, family affection, the laws of honour and duty, and every
recognised standard of life demanded that a kinsman should obtain a
full wergild (or money payment) for his relative's death, unless he
chose to take up the blood-feud against the murderer's family, we can
hardly wonder that some of the heroes of early European literature are
heroes of vengeance. Orestes and Electra are Greek embodiments of the
idea of the sacredness of vengeance for murdered kinsfolk, and similar
feelings are revealed in Gudrun's revenge for the murder of Siegfried
in the "Nibelungenlied." To the Teutonic or Celtic warrior there would
be heroism of a noble type in a just vengeance fully accomplished, and
this heroism would be more easily recognised when the wrongdoer was
rich and powerful, the avenger old, poor, and friendless. While
admitting that the hero of vengeance belongs to and represents only
one side of the civilisation of a somewhat barbaric community, we
must allow that the elements of dogged perseverance, dauntless
courage, and resolute