“When we came o’er the wave, you cub, when we came o’er the wave,
To me one ring, to thee two rings, the mighty Canute gave;
One mark to me,
Four marks to thee,
A sword, too, fine and brave.
Now God knows well,
And skalds can tell,
What justice here would crave.”
When Sigvat came back to Norway and presented himself before Olaf, who some time before had made him his marshal, the King was about to sit down to table. Sigvat saluted him, but Olaf only looked at him, and said not a word. Then Sigvat and those who were standing by saw that Olaf knew well that Sigvat had been in England and had been received by King Canute. As the old proverb says, “Many are the ears of a king.” The King said to Sigvat the skald: “I do not know if thou art my marshal or if thou hast become one of Canute’s followers.” Then Sigvat answered the King in verse, telling him that Canute had invited him to stay with him, but that he preferred to be at home with Olaf. After that King Olaf gave Sigvat the same seat close to himself that he had had before, and the skald was in as high favour as ever with the King.
Things went on for some time in this way, Canute passing backward and forward between England and Denmark, and ever gathering more ships for the final struggle with Olaf and the Swedish King. He himself had a dragon ship, said to have had sixty banks of rowers, and the head gilt all over. Earl Hakon had another dragon ship of forty banks, with a gilt figure-head. The sails of both were in stripes of blue, red, and green, and the vessels were painted from above the water-line, and all that belonged to their equipment was most splendid. They had a vast number of men sailing in the ships. On the other side the Kings of Norway and Sweden set out also, but as soon as it was noised that Canute the Old was on the seas no one thought of going into the service of these two kings. When the Kings heard that Canute was coming against them they held a council as to what they should do. They were then lying with their fleet in the Helga River, in the south of Sweden, and Canute was coming straight upon them with a war-force one-half greater than that of both of them put together. King Olaf, who was very skilful in making plans, went with his people up the country into the forest. The river flowed out of a lake in the forest, and he set his men to cut down trees and dam up the lake where the river emerged with logs and turf, at the same time turning all the surrounding streams into the lake, so that it rose very high. All along the river-bed they laid large logs of timber. Then they waited till they got tidings from the Swedish King (who had moved his fleet into concealment round the cliffs not far from the mouth of the river) that King Canute’s ships were close at hand. Canute arrived with his fleet toward the close of day, and seeing the harbour empty, he went into it with as many ships as he could, the larger vessels lying outside in the open water. In the morning, when it was light, a great part of his men went on shore, some to amuse themselves, some to converse with sailors from the other ships. They observed nothing until the water of the river began to rise, and then came rushing down in a flood, carrying huge trees in its course, which drove in among the ships, damaging all they struck. Olaf had broken up his dam and let loose the whole body of water from the lake. In a few moments the whole of the low country was under water, and the men on shore were all swept away and drowned. Those on board cut their cables, and were swept out before the stream and scattered here and there. The great dragon ship which Canute was in was borne forward by the flood, and because of her size she was unwieldy, and they could not prevent her from driving in amongst the Norwegian and Swedish ships, whose crews immediately tried to board her, but her height was so great and she was so well defended that she was not easy to attack. Seeing that Canute’s ships were gradually collecting again, and finding that little more was to be gained by an uneven fight, King Olaf stood off and out to sea, and, observing that Canute did not follow, sailed away eastward toward Sweden. Many of the Swedish crew were so home-sick that they made for home, until the Swedish King had few followers left, and Olaf was much perplexed what to do. Finally he determined to send his ships eastward to the care of the King of Sweden, and he himself with the bulk of his army set out to march on foot across Sweden and so back to Norway, carrying their goods as best they might on pack-horses. Some of the men were old and did not like this plan. One of them, Harek of Throtta, who was aged and heavy, and who had been on shipboard all his life, said to the King that it was evident he could not go, nor had he any desire to leave his ship with other men. The King replied: “Come with us, Harek, and we will carry thee when thou art tired of walking.” But Harek waited until the King’s party had set off, and then he slipped down to his own ship, took down its flag and mast and sail, and covered all the upper part of the vessel with some grey canvas, and put only two or three men sitting fore and aft where they could be seen, while the others sat down low in the vessel. In this way he made it appear that it was only a merchant ship, and not a war-vessel, and so it slipped past Canute’s fleet without attack. As soon as they were well beyond Canute’s fleet they sprang up, hoisted the sails and flag and tore off the coverings, and then Canute’s men saw that they had let a war-ship escape them. Some of them thought it might even have been Olaf himself, but Canute said he was too prudent to sail with a single ship through the Danish fleet, and that more likely it was Harek’s ship, or some one like him. Then his men suspected that he had come to a friendly understanding with Harek to let him pass safely, and it became known that they were on good terms after that. Harek went his way, and never stopped till he came safe home to his own house in Halogaland. As he was sailing he sang this ditty: