Havelok's Floodlight Strikes Again

Aboute þe middel of þe nith

Wok ubbe, and saw a mikel lith

In þe bour þat hauelok lay,

Also brith so it were day.

“Deus!” quoth ubbe, “hwat may þis be?
Betere is i go miself, and se:
Hweþer he sitten nou, and wesseylen,
Or of ani shotshipe to-deyle,
Þis tid nithes, also foles;
Þan birþe men casten hem in poles,

Or in a grip, or in þe fen:
Nou ne sitten none but wicke men,

Glotuns, reu[e]res, or wicke þeues,
Bi crist, þat alle folk onne leues!”

(ll. 2092-2105).

So Ubbe has just made Havelok a knight, after all of Bernard's people "Litle and mikle, yunge and holde" (l. 2014) swear that Bernard has told the truth about Havelok's feats against the bandits.  He's taken Havelok under his wing, invited him home, promised to protect Havelok's wife... and now when he sees a bright light in the middle of the night, he assumes the worst.  Is Havelock wassailing at midnight?  Engaging in folly or frivolity at this time of night?!  Such men should be cast in pools!  No one's up at this hour but wicked men, gluttons, robbers, or wicked thieves!!

But he peeps in and sees the light coming from Havelok's mouth as he and Goldeborw are fast asleep, lying still as stones.  So he calls in a witness or two, both timid (arwe) and keen, knights and servants -- ok, it's actually "Mo þan an hundred, with-uten leye" (l. 2117).  No big deal.

And just how bright was this light?

So stod ut of his mouth a glem,

Rith al swilk so þe sunne-bem;

Þat al so lith wa[s] þare, bi heuene!

So þer brenden serges seuene,

And an hundred serges ok:

Þat durste hi sweren on a bok.

(ll. 2122-7).  So it's like a sun-beam, bright as the burning of 107 wax tapers.

But Havelok doesn't need to worry about being gawped at while he's asleep, right?  I mean, unlike Gawain, he probably sleeps in a shift or something.  No?  Or at least he and Goldeborw are probably under the covers.  No?  Or, um, well alrighty then.  Guess the 100+ witnesses get a free peep show:

And hauelok lay on his lift side,

In his armes his brithe bride.

Bi þe pappes he leyen naked:

So faire two weren neuere maked

In a bed to lyen samen:—

Þe knithes þouth of hem god gamen,

Hem forto shewe, and loken to.

(ll. 2030-6)

Then they see a bright cross on his back, and that clinches it.

How do they react?

Hise fet he kisten an hundred syþes,

Þe tos, þe nayles, and þe lithes,

So þat he bigan to wakne,

(ll. 2162-64).  Now Havelok assumes the worst: "he wende he wooden him slo, / Or elles binde him, and do wo."