If our chronology is correct, the summer of 1030 saw the Northern Empire threatened from two directions; in Norway it took the form of revolt; in Normandy that of threatened invasion. In both instances legitimate claimants aimed to dislodge a usurper. The danger from the South was by far the greater; Olaf's harsh rule had not yet been forgotten by the Norsemen, nor had they yet experienced the rigours of alien rule. England was quiet and apparently contented; but what effect the pretensions of the Ethelings would have on the populace no one could know. We may be sure that Canute was ready for the invader; but so long as the Norwegian troubles were still unsettled, he wisely limited himself to defensive operations.
It is also related, though not by any contemporary writer, that Canute was dangerously ill at the time of the Norman trouble, and that he at one time expressed a willingness to divide the English kingdom with the Ethelings.[357] Whether he was ill or not, such an offer does not necessitate the inference either of despair or of fear for the outcome. The offer if made was doubtless a diplomatic one, on par with the promises to the Norwegian rebels, made for the purpose of gaining time, perhaps, until Norway was once more pacified.
But fortune had not deserted the great Dane. When autumn came in 1030, the war clouds had passed and the northern skies were clear and cheerful. Canute's Norwegian rival had gone to his reward; his Norman rival was absorbed in other interests. Without question Canute was now Emperor of the North.
FOOTNOTES:
[327] Det norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 673.
[328] Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ii., 157 (Vigfusson's translation with slight changes).
[329] Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ii., 134.
[330] Snorre, Saga of Saint Olaf, c. 161.
[331] Munch, Det norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 741.
[332] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1028.