Canute the Great was at last ready with his fleet, and left the land;
and a vast number of men he had, and ships frightfully large. He himself
had a dragon-ship, so large that it had sixty banks of rowers, and the
head was gilt all over. Earl Hakon had another dragon of forty banks,
and it also had a gilt figure-head. The sails of both were in stripes
of blue, red, and green, and the vessels were painted all above
the water-stroke; and all that belonged to their equipment was most
splendid. They had also many other huge ships remarkably well fitted
out, and grand. Sigvat the skald talks of this in his song on Canute:--
"Canute is out beneath the sky--
Canute of the clear blue eye!
The king is out on the ocean's breast,
Leading his grand fleet from the West.
On to the East the ship-masts glide,
Glancing and bright each long-ship's side.
The conqueror of great Ethelred,
Canute, is there, his foemen's dread:
His dragon with her sails of blue,
All bright and brilliant to the view,
High hoisted on the yard arms wide,
Carries great Canute o'er the tide.
Brave is the royal progress--fast
The proud ship's keel obeys the mast,
Dashes through foam, and gains the land,
Raising a surge on Limfjord's strand."
It is related that King Canute sailed with this vast force from England,
and came with all his force safely to Denmark, where he went into
Limfjord, and there he found gathered besides a large army of the men of
the country.