The Anglo-Norman Lay of Haveloc: Text and Translation eds. by Glyn S. Burgess and Leslie C. Brook (review)

With the publication of the present volume, the project of editing all extant non-Marie-de-France lays composed in Old French is now complete. The lay of Haveloc, named for its titular main character, is an unusual example of this genre, with its focus on kingship and inheritance rather than on a romantic relationship. The Introduction to the edition provides an outline of the main structural elements of the anonymous work, which was composed in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century and is extant in only two manuscripts; in addition to a discussion of the main themes and sources of the work. The lay is edited from the manuscript H, London, College of Arms, Arundel XIV, and presented alongside a translation then followed by an edition of the second manuscript (P, Cologny-Genève, Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, Codex Bodmer 82). Both manuscripts have been the subject of earlier editions, although H has been mainly neglected since the nineteenth century, and Alexander Bell's edition of P, actually a composite of the two manuscripts, is now difficult to find (Le Lai d'Haveloc and Gaimar's Haveloc Episode (Manchester: University Press, 1925)), so a new, critical edition of both manuscripts was overdue. The two manuscripts offer independent redactions derived from a common source and the Introduction underlines their differences through a comparison of the two texts. This would have been better highlighted by editing them on facing pages, although the inclusion of a facing translation of the lay is a welcome addition. The lay of Haveloc was later incorporated into the medieval British historiographical tradition, and this book allows a complete overview of the Haveloc episode in this tradition through the inclusion of texts and translations drawn from five Anglo-Norman, eight Middle English, and five Latin chronicles in a series of appendices beginning with a translation (but not the text) of the Haveloc episode from the Estoire des Engleis (Geffrai Gaimar, Estoire des Engleis / History of the English, ed. and trans. by Ian Short (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)), while a comparison of the lay to the Middle English lay of Havelok (Havelok, ed. by G. V. Smithers (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987)) is provided in the Introduction. The relationship between the multiple extant versions is not straightforward, and the editors highlight the variation in structure, chronology, and personal names between them. The editors conclude with a brief summary of the Haveloc accounts in medieval and post-medieval historiographical works, having thoroughly laid the groundwork for a fuller analysis of the appeal of this tale across languages and genres.