[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).