CANUTE THE GREAT
995 (_circa_)-1035
AND THE RISE OF DANISH IMPERIALISM DURING THE VIKING AGE
BY
LAURENCE MARCELLUS LARSON, PH.D.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1912
Heroes of the Nations
EDITED BY
Dr. W.C. Davis
FACTA DUCIS VIVENT, OPEROSAQUE
GLORIA RERUM-OVID, IN LIVIAM, 255.
THE HERO'S DEEDS AND HARD-WON
FAME SHALL LIVE
[Illustration: CANUTE AND EMMA--(The King and Queen are presenting a
golden cross to Winchester Abbey, New Minster.) From a miniature
reproduced in _Liber Vitæ_ (Birch).]
TO MY WIFE
LILLIAN MAY LARSON
FOREWORD
Toward the close of the eighth century, there appeared in the waters of
Western Europe the strange dragon fleets of the Northmen, the "heathen,"
or the vikings, as they called themselves, and for more than two hundred
years the shores of the West and the Southwest lived in constant dread
of pillage and piracy. The viking invasions have always been of interest
to the student of the Middle Ages; but only recently have historians
begun to fathom the full significance of the movement. The British Isles
were pre-eminently the field of viking activities. English historians,
however, have usually found nothing in the invasions but two successive
waves of destruction. As an eminent writer has tersely stated it,--the
Dane contributed nothing to English civilisation, for he had nothing to
contribute.
On the other hand, Scandinavian students, who naturally took great pride
in the valorous deeds of their ancestors, once viewed the western lands
chiefly as a field that offered unusual opportunities for the
development of the dormant energies of the Northern race. That Christian
civilisation could not fail to react on the heathen mind was clearly
seen; but this phase of the problem was not emphasised; the importance
of western influences was minimised.
Serious study of the viking age in its broader aspects began about fifty
years ago with the researches of Gudbrand Vigfusson, a young Icelandic
scholar, much of whose work was carried on in England. Vigfusson's work
was parallelled by the far more thorough researches of the eminent
Norwegian philologist, Sophus Bugge. These investigators both came to
the same general conclusion: that Old Norse culture, especially on the
literary side, shows permeating traces of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon
elements; that the Eddic literature was not an entirely native product,
but was largely built up in the viking colonies in Britain from borrowed
materials.
Some years earlier, the Danish antiquarian, J.J.A. Worsaae, had begun to
study the "memorials" of Norse and Danish occupation in Britain, and had
found that the islands in places were overlaid with traces of
Scandinavian conquest in the form of place names. Later Worsaae's
countryman, Dr. J.C.H.R. Steenstrup, carried the research into the
institutional field, and showed in his masterly work, _Normannerne_
(1876-1882), that the institutional development among the Anglo-Saxons
in the tenth and eleventh centuries was largely a matter of adapting and
assimilating Scandinavian elements.
Studies that embodied such differing viewpoints could not fail to call
forth much discussion, some of which went to the point of bitterness.
Recently there has been a reaction from the extreme position assumed by
Professor Bugge and his followers; but quite generally Norse scholars
are coming to take the position that both Sophus Bugge and Johannes
Steenstrup have been correct in their main contentions; the most
prominent representative of this view is Professor Alexander Bugge.
Where two vigorous peoples representing differing types or different
stages of civilisation come into more than temporary contact, the
reciprocal influences will of necessity be continued and profound.
The viking movement had, therefore, its aspects of growth and
development as well as of destruction. The best representative of the
age and the movement, when considered from both these viewpoints, is
Canute the Great, King of England, Denmark, and Norway. Canute began as
a pirate and developed into a statesman. He was carried to victory by
the very forces that had so long subsisted on devastation; when the
victory was achieved, they discovered, perhaps to their amazement, that
their favourite occupation was gone. Canute had inherited the
imperialistic ambitions of his dynasty, and piracy and empire are
mutually exclusive terms.
It is scarcely necessary to say anything further in justification of a
biographical study of such an eminent leader, one of the few men whom
the world has called "the Great." But to write a true biography of any
great secular character of mediæval times is a difficult, often
impossible, task. The great men of modern times have revealed their
inner selves in their confidential letters; their kinsmen, friends, and
intimate associates have left their appreciations in the form of
addresses or memoirs. Materials of such a character are not abundant in
the mediæval sources. But this fact need not deter us from the attempt.
It is at least possible to trace the public career of the subject
chosen, to measure his influence on the events of his day, and to
determine the importance of his work for future ages. And occasionally
the sources may permit a glimpse into the private life of the subject
which will help us to understand him as a man.
The present study has presented many difficulties. Canute lived in an
age when there was but little writing done in the North, though the
granite of the runic monument possesses the virtue of durability. There
is an occasional mention of Canute in the Continental chronicles of the
time; but the chief contemporary sources are the _Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle_, the _Encomium Emmæ_, and the praise lays of the Norse and
Icelandic scalds. The _Chronicle_ was written by a patriotic Englishman
who naturally regarded the Danes with a strong aversion. The _Encomium_,
on the other hand, seems to be the product of an alien clerk, whose
chief purpose was to glorify his patroness, Queen Emma, and her family.
The lays of the scalds are largely made up of nattering phrases, though
among them are woven in allusions to historic facts that are of great
value.
The Anglo-Norman historians and the later monastic annalists in England
have not very much to add to our information about Canute; but in their
accounts they are likely to go to the other extreme from the
_Chronicle_. Too often the monkish writers measured excellence by the
value of gifts to churches and monasteries, and Canute had learned the
value of donations properly timed and placed.
Adam of Bremen wrote a generation later than Canute's day, but, as he
got his information from Canute's kinsmen at the Danish court, his
notices of Northern affairs are generally reliable. There is no Danish
history before the close of the twelfth century, when Saxo wrote the
_Acts of the Danes_. It is evident that Saxo had access to a mass of
sources both written and of the saga type. The world is grateful to the
Danish clerk for preserving so much of this material; but sound,
critical treatment (of which Saxo was probably incapable) would have
enhanced the value of his work.
The twelfth century is also the age of the sagas. These are of uneven
merit and most of them are of slight value for present purposes.
However, the sources on which these are in a measure based, the
fragments of contemporary verse that are extant and much that has not
survived, have been woven into a history, the equal of which for
artistic treatment, critical standards, and true historical spirit will
be difficult to find in any other mediæval literature. Wherever
possible, therefore, reference has been made in this study to Snorre's
_Kings' Sagas_, commonly known as "Heimskringla," in preference to other
saga sources.
In the materials afforded by archæology, the Northern countries are
peculiarly rich, though, for the purposes of this study, these have
their only value on the side of culture. An exception must be made of
the runic monuments (which need not necessarily be classed with
archæological materials), as these often assist in building up the
narrative. More important, perhaps, is the fact that these inscriptions
frequently help us to settle disputed points and to determine the
accuracy of accounts that are not contemporary.
One of the chief problems has been where to begin the narrative. To
begin in the conventional way with childhood, education, and the rest is
not practicable when the place and the year of birth are unknown and the
forms and influences of early training are matters of inference and
conjecture. At the same time it was found impossible to separate the man
from his time, from the great activities that were going on in the lands
about the North Sea, and from the purposes of the dynasty that he
belonged to. Before it is possible to give an intelligent account of how
Canute led the viking movement to successful conquest, some account
must be given of the movement itself. The first chapter and a part of
the second consequently have to deal with matters introductory to and
preparatory for Canute's personal career, which began in 1012.
In the writing of proper names the author has planned to use modern
forms whenever such exist; he has therefore written Canute, though his
preference is for the original form Cnut. King Ethelred's by-name,
"Redeless," has been translated "Ill-counselled," which is slightly
nearer the original meaning than "unready"; "uncounselled" would
scarcely come nearer, as the original seems rather to imply inability to
distinguish good from bad counsel.
In the preparation of the study assistance has been received from many
sources; especially is the author under obligation to the libraries of
the Universities of Illinois, Chicago, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and of
Harvard University; he is also indebted to his colleagues Dean E.B.
Greene, Professor G.S. Ford, and Professor G.T. Flom, of the University
of Illinois, for assistance in the form of critical reading of the
manuscript.
L.M.L.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill., 1911.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE HERITAGE OF CANUTE THE GREAT
CHAPTER II
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND--1003-1013
CHAPTER III
THE ENGLISH REACTION AND THE NORSE REVOLT--1014-1016
CHAPTER IV
THE STRUGGLE WITH EDMUND IRONSIDE--1016
CHAPTER V
THE RULE OF THE DANES IN ENGLAND--1017-1020
CHAPTER VI
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE--1019-1025
CHAPTER VII
CANUTE AND THE ENGLISH CHURCH--1017-1026
CHAPTER VIII
THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
CHAPTER IX
CANUTE AND THE NORWEGIAN CONSPIRACY--1023-1026
CHAPTER X
THE BATTLE OF HOLY RIVER AND THE PILGRIMAGE TO ROME--1026-1027
CHAPTER XI
THE CONQUEST OF NORWAY--1028-1030
CHAPTER XII
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTH
CHAPTER XIII
NORTHERN CULTURE IN THE DAYS OF CANUTE
CHAPTER XIV
THE LAST YEARS--1031-1035
CHAPTER XV
THE COLLAPSE OF THE EMPIRE--1035-1042
APPENDICES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS
CANUTE AND EMMA _Frontispiece_
(The King and Queen are presenting a golden cross to Winchester Abbey,
New Minster.) From a miniature reproduced in _Liber Vitæ_ (Birch.)
THE OLDER JELLING STONE (A)
THE OLDER JELLING STONE (B)
THE LARGER SONDER VISSING STONE
THE LATER JELLING STONE (A)
THE LATER JELLING STONE (B)
THE LATER JELLING STONE (C)
SCANDINAVIAN SETTLEMENTS, BRITAIN AND NORMANDY
THE LARGER AARHUS STONE
THE SJÆLLE STONE
(Runic monument raised to Gyrth, Earl Sigvaldi's brother.)
THE TULSTORP STONE
(Runic monument showing viking ship ornamented with beasts' heads.)
THE HÄLLESTAD STONE
ANGLO-SAXON WARRIORS
(Harl. MS. 603.)
ANGLO-SAXON HORSEMEN
(Harl. MS. 603.)
ANGLO-SAXON WARRIORS
(From a manuscript in the British Museum, reproduced in _Norges
Historie_, i., ii.)
THE RAVEN BANNER
(From the Bayeux Tapestry.)
VIKING RAIDS IN ENGLAND 980-1016
THE SOUTH BALTIC COAST IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY
THE VALLEBERGA STONE
THE STENKYRKA STONE
(Monument from the Island of Gotland showing viking ships.)
AN ENGLISH BISHOP OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY
(From the Bayeux Tapestry.)
POPPO'S ORDEAL
(Altar decoration from about 1100. Danish National Museum.)
HAMMERS OF THOR
(From the closing years of heathendom.)
THE TJÄNGVIDE STONE
(Monument from the Island of Gotland. The stone shows various
mythological figures; see below.)
THE CHURCH AT URNES (NORWAY) (From about 1100.)
RUNIC MONUMENT SHOWS HAMMER OF THOR
THE ODDERNESS STONE
ORNAMENTS (CHIEFLY BUCKLES) FROM THE VIKING AGE
ORNAMENTS (CHIEFLY BUCKLES) FROM THE VIKING AGE
LINES FROM THE OLDEST FRAGMENT OF SNORRE'S
HISTORY (WRITTEN ABOUT 1260). THE
FRAGMENT TELLS THE STORY OF THE
BATTLE OF HOLY RIVER AND THE MURDER
OF ULF
A LONGSHIP
(Model of the Gokstad ship on the waves.)
SCANDINAVIA AND THE CONQUEST OF NORWAY
STIKLESTEAD (From a photograph.)
THE HYBY STONE
(Monument from the first half of the eleventh century; raised to a
Christian as appears from the cross.)
RUNIC MONUMENT FROM UPLAND, SWEDEN
(Showing blending of Celtic and Northern art.)
SCANDINAVIAN (ICELANDIC) HALL IN THE VIKING AGE
THE VIK STONE
(Illustrates the transition from heathendom to Christianity; shows a
mixture of elements, the serpent and the cross.)
THE RAMSUND ROCK
(Representations of scenes from the Sigfried Saga.)
PAINTED GABLE FROM URNES CHURCH
(Norse-Irish ornamentation.)
CARVED PILLAR FROM URNES CHURCH
(Norse-Irish ornamentation.)
THE HUNNESTAD STONE
THE ALSTAD STONE
ANGLO-SAXON TABLE SCENE
(From a manuscript in the British Museum, reproduced in _Norges
Historie_, i., ii.)
MODEL OF THE GOKSTAD SHIP
(Longitudinal sections.)
THE LUNDAGÅRD STONE
(Shows types of ornamentation in Canute's day.)
THE JURBY CROSS, ISLE OF MAN
THE GOSFORTH CROSS, CUMBERLAND
THE PALL OF SAINT OLAF
(Initial in the Flat-isle Book.)
CANUTE THE GREAT
CHAPTER I
THE HERITAGE OF CANUTE THE GREAT
Among the many gigantic though somewhat shadowy personalities of the
viking age, two stand forth with undisputed pre-eminence: Rolf the
founder of Normandy and Canute the Emperor of the North. Both were
sea-kings; each represents the culmination and the close of a great
migratory movement,--Rolf of the earlier viking period, Canute of its
later and more restricted phase. The early history of each is uncertain
and obscure; both come suddenly forth upon the stage of action, eager
and trained for conquest. Rolf is said to have been the outlawed son of
a Norse earl; Canute was the younger son of a Danish king: neither had
the promise of sovereignty or of landed inheritance. Still, in the end,
both became rulers of important states--the pirate became a constructive
statesman. The work of Rolf as founder of Normandy was perhaps the more
enduring; but far more brilliant was the career of Canute.
Few great conquerors have had a less promising future. In the early
years of the eleventh century, he seems to have been serving a military
apprenticeship in a viking fraternity on the Pomeranian coast,
preparatory, no doubt, to the profession of a sea-king, the usual career
of Northern princes who were not seniors in birth. His only tangible
inheritance seems to have been the prestige of royal blood which meant
so much when the chief called for recruits.
But it was not the will of the Norns that Canute should live and die a
common pirate, like his grand-uncle Canute, for instance, who fought and
fell in Ireland[1]: his heritage was to be greater than what had fallen
to any of his dynasty, more than the throne of his ancestors, which was
also to be his. In a vague way he inherited the widening ambitions of
the Northern peoples who were once more engaged in a fierce attack on
the West. To him fell also the ancient claim of the Danish kingdom to
the hegemony of the North. But more specifically Canute inherited the
extensive plans, the restless dreams, the imperialistic policy, and the
ancient feuds of the Knytling dynasty.[2] Canute's career is the history
of Danish imperialism carried to a swift realisation. What had proved a
task too great for his forbears Canute in a great measure achieved. In
England and in Norway, in Sleswick and in Wendland, he carried the plans
of his dynasty to a successful issue. It will, therefore, be necessary
to sketch with some care the background of Canute's career and to trace
to their origins the threads of policy that Canute took up and wove into
the web of empire. Some of these can be followed back at least three
generations to the reign of Gorm in the beginning of the tenth century.
In that century Denmark was easily the greatest power in the North. From
the Scanian frontiers to the confines of modern Sleswick it extended
over "belts" and islands, closing completely the entrance to the Baltic.
There were Danish outposts on the Slavic shores of modern Prussia; the
larger part of Norway came for some years to be a vassal state under the
great earl, Hakon the Bad; the Wick, which comprised the shores of the
great inlet that is now known as the Christiania Firth, was regarded as
a component part of the Danish monarchy, though in fact the obedience
rendered anywhere in Norway was very slight.
In the legendary age a famous dynasty known as the Shieldings appears to
have ruled over Danes and Jutes. The family took its name from a
mythical ancestor, King Shield, whose coming to the Daneland is told in
the opening lines of the Old English epic _Beowulf_. The Shieldings
were worthy descendants of their splendid progenitor: they possessed in
full measure the royal virtues of valour, courage, and munificent
hospitality. How far their exploits are to be regarded as historic is a
problem that does not concern us at present; though it seems likely that
the Danish foreworld is not without its historic realities.
Whether the kings of Denmark in the tenth century were of Shielding
ancestry is a matter of doubt; the probabilities are that they sprang
from a different stem. The century opened with Gorm the Aged, the
great-grandfather of Canute, on the throne of Shield, ruling all the
traditional regions of Denmark,--Scania, the Isles, and Jutland--but
apparently residing at Jelling near the south-east corner of the
peninsula, not far from the Saxon frontier. Tradition remembers him as a
tall and stately man, but a dull and indolent king, wanting in all the
elements of greatness.[3] In this case, however, tradition is not to be
trusted. Though we have little real knowledge of Danish history in
Gorm's day, it is evident that his reign was a notable one. At the close
of the ninth century, the monarchy seems to have faced dissolution; the
sources tell of rebellious vassals, of a rival kingdom in South Jutland,
of German interference in other parts of the Jutish peninsula.[4] Gorm's
great task and achievement were to reunite the realm and to secure the
old frontiers.
Though legend has not dealt kindly with the King himself, it has
honoured the memory of his masterful Queen. Thyra was clearly a superior
woman. Her nationality is unknown, but it seems likely that she was of
Danish blood, the daughter of an earl in the Holstein country.[5] To
this day she is known as Thyra Daneboot (Danes' defence)--a term that
first appears on the memorial stone that her husband raised at Jelling
soon after her death. In those days Henry the Fowler ruled in Germany
and showed hostile designs on Jutland. In 934, he attacked the viking
chiefs in South Jutland and reduced their state to the position of a
vassal realm. Apparently he also encouraged them to seek compensation in
Gorm's kingdom. To protect the peninsula from these dangers a wall was
built across its neck between the Schley inlet and the Treene River.
This was the celebrated Danework, fragments of which can still be seen.
In this undertaking the Queen was evidently the moving force and spirit.
Three years, it is said, were required to complete Thyra's great
fortification. The material character of the Queen's achievement
doubtless did much to preserve a fame that was highly deserved; at the
same time, it may have suggested comparisons that were not to the
advantage of her less fortunate consort. The Danework, however, proved
only a temporary frontier; a century later Thyra's great descendant
Canute pushed the boundary to the Eider River and the border problem
found a fairly permanent solution.
In the Shielding age, the favourite seat of royalty was at Lethra
(Leire) in Zealand, at the head of Roeskild Firth. Here, no doubt, was
located the famous hall Heorot, of which we read in _Beowulf_. There
were also king's garths elsewhere; the one at Jelling has already been
mentioned as the residence of Gorm and Thyra. After the Queen's death
her husband raised at Jelling, after heathen fashion, a high mound in
her honour, on the top of which a rock was placed with a brief runic
inscription:
Gorm the king raised this stone in memory of Thyra his wife,
Denmark's defence.[6]
The runologist Ludvig Wimmer believes that the inscription on the older
Jelling stone dates from the period 935-940; a later date is scarcely
probable. The Queen evidently did not long survive the famous "defence."
A generation later, perhaps about the year 980, Harold Bluetooth, Gorm's
son and successor, raised another mound at Jelling, this one,
apparently, in honour of his father. The two mounds stand about two
hundred feet apart; at present each is about sixty feet high, though the
original height must have been considerably greater. Midway between them
the King placed a large rock as a monument to both his parents, which in
addition to its runic dedication bears a peculiar blending of
Christian symbols and heathen ornamentation. The inscription is also
more elaborate than that on the lesser stone:
Harold the king ordered this memorial to be raised in honour of
Gorm his father and Thyra his mother, the Harold who won all
Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians.[7]
[Illustration: THE OLDER JELLING STONE, A]
[Illustration: THE OLDER JELLING STONE, B]
In one sense the larger stone is King Harold's own memorial. It is to be
observed that the inscription credits the King with three notable
achievements: the unification of Denmark, the conquest of Norway, and
the introduction of Christianity. The allusion to the winning of Denmark
doubtless refers to the suppression of revolts, perhaps more
specifically to the annihilation of the viking realm and dynasty south
of the Danework (about 950).[8] In his attitude toward his southern
neighbours Harold continued the policy of Gorm and Thyra: wars for
defence rather than for territorial conquest.
It is said that King Harold became a Christian (about 960) as the result
of a successful appeal to the judgment of God by a zealous clerk named
Poppo. The heated iron (or iron gauntlet, as Saxo has it) was carried
the required distance, but Poppo's hand sustained no injury. Whatever be
the truth about Poppo's ordeal, it seems evident that some such test
was actually made, as the earliest account of it, that of Widukind of
Corvey, was written not more than a decade after the event.[9] The
importance of the ordeal is manifest: up to this time the faith had made
but small headway in the Northern countries. With the conversion of a
king, however, a new situation was created: Christianity still had to
continue its warfare against the old gods, but signs of victory were
multiplying. One of the first fruits of Harold Bluetooth's conversion
was the Church of the Holy Trinity, built at Roeskild by royal
command,[10]--a church that long held an honoured place in the Danish
establishment. In various ways the history of this church closely
touches that of the dynasty itself: here the bones of the founder were
laid; here, too, his ungrateful son Sweyn found quiet for his restless
spirit; and it was in this church where Harold's grandson, Canute the
Great, stained and violated sanctuary by ordering the murder of Ulf, his
sister's husband.
In the wider activities of the tenth century, Harold Bluetooth played a
large and important part. About the time he accepted Christianity, he
visited the Slavic regions on the south Baltic coasts and established
his authority over the lands about the mouth of the Oder River. Here he
founded the stronghold of Jomburg, the earls and garrisons of which
played an important part in Northern history for more than two
generations. The object of this expansion into Wendland was no doubt
principally to secure the Slavic trade which was of considerable
importance and which had interested the Danes for more than two
centuries.[11] As the Wendish tribes had practically no cities or
recognised markets, the new establishment on the banks of the Oder soon
grew to be of great commercial as well as of military importance.
[Illustration: THE LATER JELLING STONE, A.]
[Illustration: THE LARGER SONDER VISSING STONE]
During the same period Harold's attention was turned to Norway where a
difficult situation had arisen. Harold Fairhair, the founder of the
Norse monarchy, left the sovereignty to his son Eric (later named
Bloodax); but the jealousies of Eric's many brothers combined with his
own cruel régime soon called forth a reaction in favour of a younger
brother, Hakon the Good, whose youth had been spent under Christian
influences at the English court. King Hakon was an excellent ruler, but
the raids of his nephews, the sons of Eric, caused a great deal of
confusion. The young exiles finally found a friend in Harold Bluetooth
who even adopted one of them, Harold Grayfell, as his own son.[12]
The fostering of Harold Grayfell had important consequences continuing
for two generations till the invasion of Norway by Canute the Great.
With a force largely recruited in Denmark, the sons of Eric attacked
Norway and came upon King Hakon on the island of Stord where a battle
was fought in which the King fell (961). But the men who had slain their
royal kinsman found it difficult to secure recognition as kings: the
result of the battle was that Norway was broken up into a number of
petty kingdoms and earldoms, each aiming at practical independence.
A few years later there appeared at the Danish court a young, handsome,
talented chief, the famous Earl Hakon whose father, Sigurd, earl in the
Throndelaw, the sons of Eric had treacherously slain. The King of
Denmark had finally discovered that his foster-son was anything but an
obedient vassal, and doubtless rejoiced in an opportunity to interfere
in Norwegian affairs. Harold Grayfell was lured down into Jutland and
slain. With a large fleet the Danish King then proceeded to Norway. The
whole country submitted: the southern shores from the Naze eastward were
added to the Danish crown; the Throndelaw and the regions to the north
were apparently granted to Earl Hakon in full sovereignty; the rest was
created into an earldom which he was to govern as vassal of the King of
Denmark.[13]
A decade passed without serious difficulties between vassal and
overlord, when events on the German border brought demands on the earl's
fidelity to which the proud Norseman would not submit. It seems
probable that King Harold in a vague way had recognised the overlordship
of the Emperor; at any rate, in 973, when the great Otto was celebrating
his last Easter at Quedlingburg, the Danish King sent embassies and
gifts.[14] A few weeks later the Emperor died and almost immediately war
broke out between Danes and Saxons.
[Illustration: THE LATER JELLING STONE, C]
[Illustration: THE LATER JELLING STONE, B]
Hostilities soon ceased, but the terms of peace are said to have
included a promise on Harold's part to introduce the Christian faith
among his Norwegian subjects. Earl Hakon had come to assist his
overlord; he was known to be a zealous heathen; but King Harold seized
him and forced him to receive baptism. The earl felt the humiliation
keenly and as soon as he had left Denmark he repudiated the Danish
connection and for a number of years ruled in Norway as an independent
sovereign.[15] King Harold made an attempt to restore his power but with
small success. However, the claim to Norway was not surrendered; it was
successfully revived by Harold's son Sweyn and later still by his
grandson Canute.
Earl Hakon's revolt probably dates from 974 or 975; King Harold's raid
along the Norse coasts must have followed within the next few years. The
succeeding decade is memorable for two notable expeditions, the one
directed against King Eric of Sweden, the second against Hakon of
Norway. In neither of these ventures was Harold directly interested;
both were undertaken by the vikings of Jom, though probably with the
Danish King's approval and support. The Jomvikings were in the service
of Denmark and the defeat that they suffered in both instances had
important results for future history. The exact dates cannot be
determined; but the battles must have been fought during the period
980-986.
In those days the command at Jomburg was held by Styrbjörn, a nephew of
the Swedish King. Harold Bluetooth is said to have given him the earl's
title and his daughter Thyra to wife; but this did not satisfy the
ambitious prince, whose desire was to succeed his uncle in Sweden.
Having induced his father-in-law to permit an expedition, he sailed to
Uppland with a strong force. The battle was joined on the banks of the
Fyris River where King Eric won a complete victory. From that day he was
known as Eric the Victorious.[16]
Styrbjörn fell in the battle and Sigvaldi, the son of a Scanian earl,
succeeded to the command at Jomburg. In some way he was induced to
attack the Norwegian earl. Late in the year the fleet from the Oder
stole northwards along the Norse coast hoping to catch the earl
unawares. But Hakon's son Eric had learned what the vikings were
planning and a strong fleet carefully hid in Hjörunga Bay lay ready to
welcome the invader.
The encounter at Hjörunga Bay is one of the most famous battles in Old
Norse history. During the fight, says the saga, Earl Hakon landed and
sacrificed his young son Erling to the gods. The divine powers promptly
responded: a terrific hailstorm that struck the Danes in their faces
helped to turn the tide of battle, and soon Sigvaldi was in swift flight
southwards.[17]
As to the date of the battle we have no certain knowledge; but Munch
places it, for apparently good reasons, in 986. Saxo is probably correct
in surmising that the expedition was inspired by King Harold.[18] As to
the significance of the two defeats of the Jomvikings, there can be but
one opinion: northward expansion of Danish power had received a decisive
check; Danish ambition must find other fields.
The closing years of Harold's life were embittered by rebellious
movements in which his son Sweyn took a leading part. It is not possible
from the conflicting accounts that have come down to us to determine
just why the Danes showed such restlessness at this time. It has been
thought that the revolts represented a heathen reaction against the new
faith, or a nationalistic protest against German influences; these
factors may have entered in, but it is more likely that a general
dissatisfaction with Harold's rule caused by the ill success of his
operations against Germans, Swedes, and Norwegians was at the bottom of
the hostilities. The virile personality of the young prince was
doubtless also a factor. To later writers his conduct recalled the
career of Absalom; but in this instance disobedience and rebellion had
the victory. Forces were collected on both sides; battles were fought
both on land and on sea. Finally during a truce, the aged King was
wounded by an arrow, shot, according to saga, from the bow of Toki, the
foster-father of Sweyn. Faithful Henchmen carried the dying King across
the sea to Jomburg where he expired on All Saints' Day (November 1),
probably in 986, the year of the defeat at Hjörunga Bay. His remains
were carried to Roeskild and interred in the Church of the Holy
Trinity.[19]
Of Harold's family not much is known. According to Adam of Bremen his
queen was named Gunhild, a name that points to Scandinavian
ancestry.[20] Saxo speaks of a Queen Gyrith, the sister of
Styrbjörn.[21] On a runic monument at Sönder Vissing, not far from the
garth at Jelling, we read that
Tova raised this memorial,
Mistiwi's daughter,
In memory of her mother,
Harold the Good
Gorm's son's wife.[22]
Tova might be a Danish name, but Mistiwi seems clearly Slavic. It may be
that Harold was thrice married; it is also possible that Tova in
baptism received the name Gunhild. Gyrith was most likely the wife of
his old age. The question is important as it concerns the ancestry of
Canute the Great. If Tova was Canute's grandmother (as she probably was)
three of his grandparents were of Slavic blood.
Of Harold's children four are known to history. His daughter Thyra has
already been mentioned as the wife of the ill-fated Styrbjörn. Another
daughter, Gunhild, was the wife of an Anglo-Danish chief, the ealdorman
Pallig. Two sons are also mentioned, Sweyn and Hakon. Of these Sweyn, as
the successor to the kingship, is the more important.
The accession of Sweyn Forkbeard to the Danish throne marks an era in
the history of Denmark. Harold Bluetooth had not been a weak king: he
had enlarged his territories; he had promoted the cause of the Christian
faith; he had striven for order and organised life. But his efforts in
this direction had brought him into collision with a set of forces that
believed in the old order of things. In Harold's old age the Danish
viking spirit had awakened to new life; soon the dragons were sailing
the seas as of old. With a king of the Shielding type now in the
high-seat at Roeskild, these lawless though energetic elements found not
only further freedom but royal favour and leadership.
It would seem that the time had come to wipe away the stain that had
come upon the Danish arms at Hjörunga Bay; but no immediate move was
made in that direction. Earl Hakon was still too strong, and for a
decade longer he enjoyed undisputed possession of the Norwegian
sovereignty. Sweyn did not forget the claims of his dynasty, but he
bided his time. Furthermore, this same decade saw larger plans
developing at the Danish court. Norway was indeed desirable, but as a
field of wider activities it gave no great promise. Such a field,
however, seemed to be in sight: the British Isles with their numerous
kingdoms, their large Scandinavian colonies, and their consequent lack
of unifying interests seemed to offer opportunities that the restless
Dane could not afford to neglect.
The three Scandinavian kingdoms did not comprise the entire North: in
many respects, greater Scandinavia was fully as important as the home
lands. It is not necessary for present purposes to follow the eastward
stream of colonisation that transformed the Slavic East and laid the
foundations of the Russian monarchy. The southward movement of the Danes
into the regions about the mouth of the Oder will be discussed more in
detail later. The story of Sweyn and Canute is far more concerned with
colonising movements and colonial foundations in the West. Without the
preparatory work of two centuries, Canute's conquest of the Anglo-Saxon
kingdom would have been impossible.
The same generation that saw the consolidation of the Norse tribes into
the Norwegian kingdom also saw the colonisation of the Faroe Islands and
Iceland. A century later Norsemen were building homes on the bleak
shores of Greenland. Less than a generation later, in the year 1000,
Vineland was reached by Leif the Lucky.[23] Earlier still, perhaps a
century or more before the Icelandic migration, the Northmen had begun
to occupy parts of the British Isles. The ships that first sought and
reached North Britain probably sailed from two folklands (or shires) in
Southwestern Norway, Hordaland and Rogaland, the territories about the
modern ports of Bergen and Stavanger. Due west from the former city lie
the Shetland Islands; in the same direction from Stavanger are the
Orkneys. It has been conjectured that the earliest Scandinavian
settlements in these parts were made on the shores of Pentland Firth,
on the Orkneys and on the coast of Caithness. Thence the journey went
along the north-western coast of Scotland to the Hebrides group, across
the narrow straits to Ireland, and down to the Isle of Man.[24]
The Emerald Isle attracted the sea-kings and the period of pillage was
soon followed by an age of settlement. The earliest Norse colony in
Ireland seems to have been founded about 826, on the banks of the
Liffey, where the city of Dublin grew up a little later, and for
centuries remained the centre of Norse power and influence on the
island. Other settlements were established at various points on the east
coast, notably at Wicklow, Wexford, and Waterford, which names show
clearly their Norse origin. About 860 a stronghold was built at
Cork.[25]
Toward the close of the eighth century the vikings appeared in large
numbers on the coasts of Northern England. Two generations later they
had destroyed three of the four English kingdoms and were organising the
Danelaw on their ruins. Still later Rolf appeared with his host of
Northmen in the Seine Valley and founded the Norman duchy.
It must not be assumed that in these colonies the population was
exclusively Scandinavian. The native elements persisted and seem, as a
rule, to have lived on fairly good terms with the invaders. It is likely
that wherever these energetic Northerners settled they became the
dominant social force; but no feeling of contempt or aloofness appears
to have been felt on either side after the races had learned to know
each other. Intermarriage was frequent, not only between Dane and Angle,
but between Celt and Norseman as well. In time the alien was wholly
absorbed into the native population; but in the process the victorious
element underwent a profound transformation which extended to social
conventions as well as to race.[26]
The largest of these colonies was the Danelaw, a series of Danish and
Norse settlements extending from the Thames to the north of England.
According to an English writer of the twelfth century, it comprised York
and fourteen shires to the south.[27] The area controlled was evidently
considerably larger than the region actually settled; and in some of
the shires the Scandinavian population was probably not numerous. Five
cities in the Danelaw enjoyed a peculiar pre-eminence. These were
Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Stamford. It has been
conjectured that these were garrison towns held and organised with a
view to securing the obedience of the surrounding country.[28] If this
be correct, we should infer that the population beyond the walls was
largely Anglian. The Five Boroughs seem to have had a common
organisation of a republican type: they formed "the first federation of
boroughs known in this island, and in fact the earliest federation of
towns known outside of Italy."[29] Part of the Danelaw must have
contained a large Scandinavian element, especially the shires of Lincoln
and York.[30] There were also Danish and Norwegian settlements in
England outside the Danelaw in its narrower sense: in the north-western
shires and in the Severn Valley, perhaps as high up as Worcestershire.[31]
Danish power in England seems to have centered about the ancient city of
York. It would be more nearly correct to speak of Northumbria in the
ninth and tenth centuries as a Norse than as a Danish colony; but the
Angles made no such distinction. The population must also have contained
a large English element. A native ecclesiastic who wrote toward the
close of the tenth century speaks with enthusiasm of the wealth and
grandeur of York.
The city rejoices in a multitude of inhabitants; not fewer than
30,000 men and women (children and youths not counted) are numbered
in this city. It is also filled with the riches of merchants who
come from everywhere, especially from the Danish nation.[32]
In some respects the Danelaw is the most important fact in the history
of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy: it was the rock on which Old English
nationality foundered. By the middle of the tenth century, Saxon England
was practically confined to the country south of the Thames River and
the western half of the Midlands, a comparatively small area surrounded
by Scandinavian and Celtic settlements. If this fact is fully
appreciated, there should be little difficulty in understanding the
loss of English national freedom in the days of Sweyn and Canute. The
English kings did, indeed, exercise some sort of suzerain authority over
most of the neighbouring colonies, but this authority was probably never
so complete as historians would have us believe.
It is worth noting that the scribe whom we have quoted above speaks of
the Danes, not as pirates but as merchants. The tenth century was, on
the whole, so far as piratical expeditions are concerned, an age of
peace in the North. The word viking is old in the mediæval dialects, and
Scandinavian pirates doubtless visited the shores of Christian Europe at
a very early date. But the great viking age was the ninth century, when
the field of piratical operations covered nearly half of Europe and
extended from Iceland to Byzantium. The movement culminated in the last
quarter of the century and was followed by a constructive period of
nearly one hundred years, when society was being reorganised or built
anew in the conquered lands. The Icelandic republic was taking form. The
Norman duchy was being organised. The Northmen in the Danelaw were being
forced into political relations with the Saxon kings. Trade began to
follow new routes and find new harbours. The older Scandinavian cities
acquired an added fame and importance, while new towns were being
founded both in the home lands and in the western islands.
[Illustration: SCANDINAVIAN SETTLEMENTS, BRITAIN AND NORMANDY]
This lull in the activities of the sea-kings gave the western rulers
an opportunity to regain much that had been lost. In England the
expansion of Wessex which had begun in the days of Alfred was continued
under his successors, until in Edgar's day one lord was recognised from
the Channel to the Forth. But with Edgar died both majesty and peace.
About 980 the viking spirit was reawakened in the North. The raven
banner reappeared in the western seas, and soon the annals of the West
began to recount their direful tales. Among all the chiefs of this new
age, one stands forth pre-eminent, Sweyn with the Forked Beard, whose
remarkable achievement it was to enlist all this lawless energy for a
definite purpose, the conquest of Wessex.
In 979 Ethelred the Ill-counselled was crowned king of England and began
his long disastrous reign. If we may trust the Abingdon chronicler, who,
as a monk, should be truthful, England was duly warned of the sorrows to
come. For "in that same year blood-red clouds resembling fire were
frequently seen; usually they appeared at midnight hanging like moving
pillars painted upon the sky." The King was a mere boy of ten summers;
later writers could tell us that signs of degeneracy were discovered in
the prince as early as the day of his baptism. On some of his
contemporaries, however, he seems to have made a favourable impression.
We cannot depend much on the praises of a Norse scald who sang in the
King's presence; but perhaps we can trust the English writer who
describes him as a youth of "elegant manners, handsome features, and
comely appearance."[33]
That Ethelred proved an incompetent king is beyond dispute. Still, it is
doubtful whether any ruler with capabilities less than those of an
Alfred could have saved England in the early years of the eleventh
century. For Ethelred had succeeded to a perilous inheritance. In the
new territorial additions to Wessex there were two chief elements,
neither of which was distinctly pro-Saxon: the Dane or the half-Danish
colonist was naturally hostile to the Saxon régime; his Anglian
neighbour recalled the former independence of his region as Mercia, East
Anglia, or Northumbria, and was weak in his loyalty to the southern
dynasty. The spirit of particularism asserted itself repeatedly, for it
seems unlikely that the many revolts in the tenth century were Danish
uprisings merely.
It seems possible that Ethelred's government might have been able to
maintain itself after a fashion and perhaps would have satisfied the
demands of the age, had it not been that vast hostile forces were just
then released in the North. These attacked Wessex from two directions:
fleets from the Irish Sea ravaged the Southwest; vikings from the East
entered the Channel and plundered the southern shores. It is likely that
in the advance-guard of the renewed piracy, Sweyn Forkbeard was a
prominent leader. We have seen that during the last years of Harold's
reign, there were trouble and ill-feeling between father and son. These
years, it seems, the undutiful prince spent in exile and piratical
raids. As the Baltic would scarcely be a safe refuge under the
circumstances, we may assume that those seven years were spent in the
West.[34]
In the second year of Ethelred's reign the incursions began: "the great
chief Behemoth rose against him with all his companions and engines of
war."[35] In that year Chester was plundered by the Norsemen; Thanet and
Southampton were devastated by the Danes. The troubles at Chester are of
slight significance; they were doubtless merely the continuation of
desultory warfare in the upper Irish Sea. But the attack on Southampton,
the port of the capital city of Winchester, was ominous: though clearly
a private undertaking it was significant in revealing the weakness of
English resistance. The vikings probably wintered among their countrymen
on the shores of the Irish Sea, for South-western England was again
visited and harried during the two succeeding years.
For a few years (983-986) there was a lull in the operations against
England. The energies of the North were employed elsewhere: this was
evidently the period of Styrbjörn's invasion of Sweden and Sigvaldi's
attack on Norway with the desperate battles of Fyris River and Hjörunga
Bay. But, in 986, viking ships in great numbers appeared in the Irish
Sea.[36] Two years later a fleet visited Devon and entered Bristol
Channel. It is probable that Norman ships took part in this raid; at any
rate the Danes sold English plunder in Normandy.
In 991, the attack entered upon a new phase. Earlier the country had
suffered from raids in which no great number of vikings had taken part
in any instance; now they came in armies and the attack became almost an
invasion. That year a fierce battle was fought near Maldon[37] in Essex
where one of the chief leaders of the vikings was an exiled Norwegian
prince, Olaf Trygvesson, who four years later restored the Norwegian
throne. It is likely, therefore, that the host was not exclusively
Danish but gathered from the entire North.
The fight at Maldon was a crushing defeat for the English and
consternation ruled in the councils of the irresolute King. Siric, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and two ealdormen were sent as an embassy to
the viking camp to sue for peace. A treaty was agreed to which seems to
imply that the host was to be permitted to remain in East Anglia for an
undefined time. The vikings promised to defend England against any other
piratical bands, thus virtually becoming mercenaries for the time being.
In return Ethelred agreed to pay a heavy tribute and to furnish
provisions "the while that they remain among us."[38] Thus began the
Danegeld which seems to have developed into a permanent tax in the reign
of Canute.
The next year King Ethelred collected a fleet in the Thames in the hope
of entrapping his new allies; but treason was abroad in England and the
plan failed.[39] The following year the pirates appeared in the Humber
country; here, too, the English defence melted away. After relating the
flight of the Anglian leaders, Florence of Worcester adds significantly,
"because they were Danes on the paternal side."[40]
The next year (994) King Sweyn of Denmark joined the fleet of Olaf and
his associates and new purposes began to appear. Instead of seeking
promiscuous plunder, the invaders attempted to reduce cities and
strongholds. Once more the English sued for peace on the basis of
tribute.[41] Sweyn evidently returned to Denmark where his presence
seems to have been sorely needed. For two years England enjoyed
comparative peace. The energies of the North found other employment: we
read of raids on the Welsh coast and of piratical expeditions into
Saxony; interesting events also occurred in the home lands. To these
years belong the revolt of the Norsemen against Earl Hakon, and perhaps
also the invasion of Denmark by Eric the Victorious.
Thirty years of power had developed tyrannical passions in the Norwegian
Earl. According to the sagas he was cruel, treacherous, and licentious.
Every year he became more overbearing and despotic; every year added to
the total of discontent. Here was Sweyn Forkbeard's opportunity; but he
had other irons in the fire, and the opportunity fell to another. About
995 a pretender to the Norse throne arrived from the West,--Olaf
Trygvesson, the great-grandson of Harold Fairhair.
Our earliest reliable information as to Olaf's career comes from English
sources; they tell of his operations in Britain in 991 and 994 and the
circumstances indicate that the intervening years were also spent on
these islands. While in England he was attracted to the Christian faith,
a fact that evidently came to be known to the English, for, in the
negotiations of 994, particular attention was paid to the princely
chieftain. An embassy was sent to him with Bishop Alphege as leading
member, and the outcome was that Olaf came to visit King Ethelred at
Andover, where he was formally admitted to the Christian communion,
Ethelred acting as godfather.[42]
At Andover, Olaf promised never to come again to England "with unpeace";
the Chronicler adds that he kept his word. With the coming of spring he
set out for Norway and never again saw England as friend or foe. We do
not know what induced him at this time to take up the fight with Hakon
the Bad; but doubtless it was in large measure due to urging on the part
of the Church. For Olaf the Viking had become a zealous believer; when
he landed in Norway he came provided with priests and all the other
necessaries of Christian worship. It is not necessary to tell the story
of the Earl's downfall,--how he was hounded into a pig-sty where he died
at the hands of a thrall. Olaf was soon universally recognised as king
and proceeded at once to carry out his great and difficult purpose: to
christianise a strong and stubborn people (995).[43]
As to the second event, the invasion of Sweyn's dominions by the King of
Sweden, we cannot be so sure, as most of the accounts that have come
down to us are late and difficult to harmonise. Historians agree that,
some time toward the close of his reign, King Eric sought revenge for
the assistance that the Danish King had given his nephew Styrbjörn in
his attempt to seize the Swedish throne. The invasion must have come
after Sweyn's accession (986?) and before Eric's death, the date of
which is variously given as 993, 995, 996.[44] If Eric was still ruling
in 994 when Sweyn was absent in England, it is extremely probable that
he made use of a splendid opportunity to seize the lands of his enemy.
This would explain Sweyn's readiness to accept Ethelred's terms in the
winter of 994-995.[45]
After the death of King Eric, new interests and new plans began to
germinate in the fertile mind of Sweyn the Viking. Late in life the
Swedish King seems to have married a young Swedish woman who is known to
history as Sigrid the Haughty. Sigrid belonged to a family of great
wealth and prominence; her father Tosti was a famous viking who had
harvested his treasures on an alien shore. Eric had not long been dead
before wooers in plenty came to seek the hand of the rich dowager. So
importunate did they become that the Queen to get rid of them is said to
have set fire to the house where two of them slept. Olaf Trygvesson was
acceptable, but he imposed an impossible condition: Sigrid must become a
Christian. When she finally refused to surrender her faith, the King is
said to have stricken her in the face with his gauntlet. The proud Queen
never forgave him.
Soon afterwards Sigrid married Sweyn Forkbeard who had dismissed his
earlier consort, Queen Gunhild, probably to make room for the Swedish
dowager. We do not know what motives prompted this act, but it was no
doubt urged by state-craft. In this way the wily Dane cemented an
alliance with a neighbouring state which had but recently been
hostile.[46]
The divorced Queen was a Polish princess of an eminent Slavic family;
she was the sister of Boleslav Chrobri, the mighty Polish duke who later
assumed the royal title. When Gunhild retired to her native Poland, she
may have taken with her a small boy who can at that time scarcely have
been more than two or three years old, perhaps even younger. The boy was
Canute, the King's younger son, though the one who finally succeeded to
all his father's power and policies. The only information that we have
of Canute's childhood comes from late and not very reliable sources: it
is merely this, that he was not brought up at the Danish court, but was
fostered by Thurkil the Tall, one of the chiefs at Jomburg and brother
of Earl Sigvaldi.[47] The probabilities favour the accuracy of this
report. It was customary in those days to place boys with
foster-fathers; prominent nobles or even plain franklins received
princes into their households and regarded the charge as an honoured
trust. Perhaps, too, a royal child would be safer among the warriors of
Jomburg than at the court of a stepmother who had employed such drastic
means to get rid of undesirable wooers. The character of his early
impressions and instruction can readily be imagined: Canute was trained
for warfare.
When the young prince became king of England Thurkil was exalted to a
position next to that of the ruler himself. After the old chief's death,
Canute seems to have heaped high honours on Thurkil's son Harold in
Denmark. We cannot be sure, but it seems likely that this favour is to
be ascribed, in part, at least, to Canute's affection for his
foster-father and his foster-brother.
In those same years another important marriage was formed in Sweyn's
household: the fugitive Eric, the son of Earl Hakon whose power was now
wielded by the viking Olaf, had come to Denmark, where Sweyn Forkbeard
received him kindly and gave him his daughter Gytha in marriage. Thus
there was formed a hostile alliance against King Olaf with its directing
centre at the Danish court. In addition to his own resources and those
of his stepson in Sweden, Sweyn could now count on the assistance of the
dissatisfied elements in Norway who looked to Eric as their natural
leader.
It was not long before a pretext was found for an attack. Thyra, Sweyn's
sister, the widow of Styrbjörn, had been married to Mieczislav, the Duke
of Poland. In 992, she was widowed the second time. After a few years,
perhaps in 998, Olaf Trygvesson made her queen of Norway. Later events
would indicate that this marriage, which Olaf seems to have contracted
without consulting the bride's brother, was part of a plan to unite
against Sweyn all the forces that were presumably hostile,--Poles,
Jomvikings, and Norsemen.[48]
The saga writers, keenly alive to the influence of human passion on the
affairs of men, emphasise Sigrid's hatred for Olaf and Thyra's anxiety
to secure certain possessions of hers in Wendland as important causes of
the war that followed. Each is said to have egged her husband to the
venture, though little urging can have been needed in either case. In
the summer of 1000, a large and splendid Norwegian fleet appeared in the
Baltic. In his negotiations with Poles and Jomvikings, Olaf was
apparently successful: Sigvaldi joined the expedition and Slavic ships
were added to the Norse armament. Halldor the Unchristian tells us that
these took part in the battle that followed: "The Wendish ships spread
over the bay, and the thin beaks gaped with iron mouths upon the
warriors."[49]
Sweyn's opportunity had come and it was not permitted to pass. He
mustered the Danish forces and sent messages to his stepson in Sweden
and to his son-in-law Eric. Sigvaldi was also in the alliance. Plans
were made to ambush the Norse King on his way northward. The
confederates gathered their forces in the harbour of Swald, a river
mouth on the Pomeranian coast a little to the west of the isle of Rügen.
Sigvaldi's part was to feign friendship for Olaf and to lead him into
the prepared trap. The plan was successfully carried out. A small part
of King Olaf's fleet was lured into the harbour and attacked from all
sides. The fight was severe but numbers prevailed. Olaf's own ship,
the famous _Long Serpent_, was boarded by Eric Hakonsson's men, and the
King in the face of sure capture leaped into the Baltic.[50]
[Illustration: THE LARGER AARHUS STONE]
[Illustration: THE SJÆLLE STONE (Runic monument raised to Gyrth, Earl
Sigvaldi's brother.)]
The victors had agreed to divide up Norway and the agreement was carried
out. Most of the coast lands from the Naze northwards were given to Earl
Eric. The southern shores, the land from the Naze eastwards, fell to
King Sweyn. Seven shires in the Throndhjem country and a single shire in
the extreme Southeast were assigned to the Swedish King; but only the
last-mentioned shire was joined directly to Sweden; the northern regions
were given as a fief to Eric's younger brother Sweyn who had married the
Swede-king's daughter. Similarly Sweyn Forkbeard enfeoffed his
son-in-law Eric, but the larger part he kept as his own direct
possession.[51]
The battle of Swald was of great importance to the policies of the
Knytlings. The rival Norse kingdom was destroyed. Once more the Danish
King had almost complete control of both shores of the waterways leading
into the Baltic. Danish hegemony in the North was a recognised fact.
But all of Norway was not yet a Danish possession--that ambition was
not realised before the reign of Canute. And England was still
unconquered.
[Illustration: DANISH COINS FROM THE REIGN OF CANUTE, MINTED AT ODENSE,
VIBORG, HEATHBY.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Saxo Grammaticus, _Gesta Danorum_, 321.
[2] The saga writers call the members of the Danish dynasty the
Knytlings, from its foremost representative Canute (Knut).
[3] Saxo, _Gesta Danorum_, 318.
[4] Wimmer, _De danske Runemindesmærker_, I., ii., 71-72.
[5] _Danmarks Riges Historie_, i., 293.
[6] Wimmer, _De danske Runemindesmærker_, I., ii., 15.
[7] Wimmer, _De danske Runemindesmærker_, I., ii., 28-29.
[8] _Ibid._, 72.
[9] _Danmarks Riges Historie_, i., 335-336. Saxo, _Gesta Danorum_, 338.
Saxo places the ordeal in the reign of Harold's successor.
[10] Adamus, _Gesta Hammenburgensis Ecclesicæ Pontificum_, ii., c. 26.
[11] _Danmarks Riges Historie_, i., 322-324.
[12] Snorre, _Saga of Hakon the Good_, cc. 3, 4, 5, 10.
[13] Snorre, _Olaf Trygvesson's Saga_, c. 15. See also Munch, _Del
norske Folks Historie_, I., ii., 53.
[14] Thietmar, _Chronicon_, ii., c. 20.
[15] Snorre, _Olaf Trygvesson's Saga_, cc. 24, 26-28.
[16] _Danmarks Riges Historie_, i., 340-341.
[17] Snorre, _Olaf Trygvesson's Saga_, cc. 35-52.
[18] _Gesta Danorum_, 327.
[19] Adamus, _Gesta_, ii., c. 26. Saxo, _Gesta_, 332.
[20] _Gesta_, ii., cc. 3, 26.
[21] _Gesta_, 325.
[22] Wimmer, _De danske Runemindesmærker_, I., ii., 78 ff.
[23] The American shores were evidently too far distant for successful
colonisation; but the visits to the far West clearly did not cease with
the journeys of Leif and his associates. Vineland is mentioned in a
runic monument from the eleventh century which records an expedition to
the West that seems to have ended disastrously:
"They came out [upon the ocean] and over wide stretches [of land] and in
need of dry clothes for changes and of food toward Vineland and over icy
wastes in the wilderness. Evil may deprive one of good fortune so that
death comes early."
This inscription, which is the earliest document that mentions the New
World, was found at Hönen in South-eastern Norway. The original has been
lost, but copies are extant. The translation is from Bugge's rendering
into modern Norse. (_Norges Historie_, I., ii., 285.)
[24] Bugge, _Vihingerne_, i., 135 ff.
[25] "All along the Irish coast from Belfast to Dublin and Limerick
there still remains an unbroken series of Norse place names, principally
the names of firths, islands, reefs, and headlands, which show that at
such points the fairway has been named by Northmen." _Norges Historie_,
I., ii., 87; see also pp. 73-76. (Bugge.)
[26] Of this process and its results Normandy furnishes the best
illustration. The population of Rollo's duchy soon came to be a mixture
of races with French as the chief element, though in some sections, as
the Cotentin and the Bessin, the inhabitants clung to their Scandinavian
speech and customs for a long time. Steenstrup, _Normannerne_, i.,
175-179.
[27] Simeon of Durham, _Opera Omnia_, ii., 393. The area varied at
different periods; but the earlier Danelaw seems to have comprised
fifteen shires. See Steenstrup, _Normannerne_, iv., 36-37.
[28] Steenstrup, _Normannerne_, iv., 40-43.
[29] _Saga Book of the Viking Club_, VI., i., 23 (Bugge). See also
Collingwood, _Scandinavian Britain_, 109. The federation was later
enlarged till it included Seven Boroughs. _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 1015.
[30] The Danish antiquarian Worsaae found more than four hundred Norse
place names in Yorkshire alone. While his list cannot be regarded as
final, it will probably be found to be fairly correct. The subject of
English place names has not yet been fully investigated. Recent studies
are those by F.M. Stenton, _The Place Names of Berkshire_ (Reading,
1911), H.C. Wyld and T.O. Hirst, _The Place Names of Lancashire_
(London, 1911), and F.W. Moorman, _The Place Names of the West Riding of
Yorkshire_ (Leeds, 1910).
[31] Steenstrup, _Normannerne_, iii., 228.
[32] _Historians of the Church of York_, i., 454.
[33] _Historians of the Church of York_, i., 455. For a fragment of a
lay in praise of Ethelred see _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, ii., iii.
[34] Saxo gives the period as seven years (_Gesta_, 337). But his
account is confused and unreliable; seven must be taken as a round
number. Still, the period between the renewal of the raids in England
and Sweyn's accession covers nearly seven years.
[35] _Historians of the Church of York_, i., 455.
[36] Steenstrup, _Normannerne_, iii., 221.
[37] The English were led by the East Anglian ealdorman Byrhtnoth, whose
valour and death are told in what is perhaps the finest poem in Old
English literature. See Grein-Wülker, _Bibliothek der angelsächsischen
Poesie_, i., 358-373.
[38] For the treaty see Liebermann, _Gesetze der Angelsachsen_, i.,
220-225.
[39] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 992, 993. As the betrayer, Alfric, had a
part in the treaty-making of the year before, he may have looked on the
new plans as dishonourable.
[40] _Chronicon_, i., 150-151.
[41] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 994.
[42] Taranger, _Den angelsaksiske Kirkes Indflydelse paa den norske_,
125.
[43] Snorre, _Olaf Trygvesson's Saga_, cc. 47-50.
[44] Steenstrup favours the earlier date (_Danmarks Riges Historie_, i.,
371); Munch sees reasons for a later year (_Det norske Folks Historie_,
I., ii., 102).
[45] That serious business was awaiting Sweyn in his own country is
evident from two runic inscriptions that have been found in the Jutish
borderland: the Heathby (or Vedelspang) Stone and the Danework Stone.
The former was raised by "Thorolf, Sweyn's housecarle" in memory of a
companion "who died when brave men were besieging Heathby." The second
was raised by Sweyn himself in memory of Skartha, his housecarle, "who
had fared west to England but now died at Heathby." The expedition to
the West may have been the one that Sweyn undertook in 994. One stone
mentions the siege of Heathby, but Heathby was destroyed shortly before
1000. The siege therefore probably dates from 995 or one of the
following years; but whether the enemy was a part of Eric's forces
cannot be determined. For the inscriptions see Wimmer, _De danske
Runemindesmærker_, I., ii., 113, 117.
[46] Snorre, _Olaf Trygvesson's Saga_, cc. 43, 60-61, 91.
[47] _Flateyarbók_, i., 203.
[48] Snorre tells us (_Olaf Trygvesson's Saga_, c. 92) that Thyra had
fled from her husband, who is mistakenly called Boleslav, and had come
as a fugitive to Olaf's court. So attractive did she prove to the
sympathetic King that he promptly married her. The account is evidently
largely fiction; there seems to have been a good understanding between
Olaf and Boleslav when the Norse Beet came south in 1000. In the account
given above I have followed Bugge (_Norges Historie_, I., ii., 271).
[49] _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, ii., 101 (Vigfusson's translation).
[50] The chief authorities on the battle of Swald are Snorre and Adam of
Bremen. There seems also to be an allusion to the fight in an
inscription on a runic monument, the Aarhus Stone, which was raised by
four men, presumably warriors, in memory of a comrade "who died on the
sea to the eastward when the kings were fighting." Wimmer, _De danske
Runemindesmærker_, I., ii., 133
[51] _Norges Historie_, I., ii., 285-286.