With Erling Canute's envoys came north and brought much wealth with them. They fared widely during the winter, paying out the money that Canute had promised for support in the autumn before; but they also gave money to others and thus bought their friendship for Canute; and Erling supported them in all this.[330]
Evidence of this activity appears in a remarkable find of English coins to the number of 1500 near Eikunda-sound, not far from Soli. The treasure was brought to light in 1836; most of the coins bear the effigies of Ethelred and Canute; all are from Canute's reign or earlier.[331] The next year (1028) Canute sailed his fleet into Eikunda-sound and remained there for some time; but there seems no reason why English money should be secreted on that occasion. More probably the treasure was part of the bribe money; the fact that it was hidden would indicate that Canute's agents found the business somewhat dangerous after all.
Gold alone does not account for Saint Olaf's downfall. There were other reasons for the defection of the aristocracy, but these have been discussed in an earlier chapter: there was dissatisfaction with the new faith; there was dissatisfaction with a régime that enjoined a firm peace everywhere, that aimed at equal justice for all without respect to birth or station, and that enforced severe and unusual punishments; there was also the memory of the days of the earls, when the hand of government was light and the old ways were respected.
In 1028, Canute was ready to strike. Soon the news spread that a vast armament was approaching Norway. "With fifty ships of English thegns,"[332] the King sailed along the Low German shores to the western mouth of the Lime Firth. Among the chiefs who accompanied him from England were the two earls, Hakon and Godwin. One of Godwin's men found his death in Norway, as we learn from a runic monument raised by one Arnstein over the grave of his son Bjor, "who found his death in Godwin's host in the days when Canute sailed [back] to England."[333]
The ships that the King brought from England were doubtless large and well-manned: Canute's housecarles may have made up a considerable part of the crews. At the Lime Firth an immense Danish fleet was waiting: according to the sagas 1440 ships made up the fleet that sailed up to the Norwegian capital Nidaros. Twelve great hundreds is evidently merely a round number used to indicate unusual size; but that the armament was immense is evident from the ease with which it accomplished its work. So far as we know, the awe-stricken Norsemen made no resistance. In addition to the English and Danish ships, there were evidently not a few that were manned by the housecarles of disaffected Norwegian chiefs.
Olaf was informed of Canute's intentions and did what he could to meet the invasion. Men were dispatched to Sweden to bring home the ships that had been abandoned there nearly two years before. This was a difficult undertaking, for the Danes kept close guard over the passages leading out of the Baltic. Part of the fleet the Norsemen burned; with the rest they were able to steal through the Sound after Canute had begun his advance toward Norway. King Olaf also summoned the host, but there came
Few folk and little dragons.
What a disgrace that landsmen
Leave our lord royal
Unsupported. (For money
Men desert their duties.)
What forces the Norwegians were able to collect sailed up into Oslo Firth, where King Olaf prudently remained till Canute had again departed from the land.[334]
The northward progress of Canute's armament is told in a poem by Thorarin Praise-tongue, who had composed an earlier lay to the King's honour.[335] "The lord of the ocean" sailed from the Lime Firth with a vast fleet. Canute seems to have cut across the strait to the southwestern part of Norway, where the "war-trained men of Agdir saw in terror the advance of the hero," for Canute's dragon gleamed with steel and gold. "The swart ships glide past Lister" and soon fill Eikunda-sound. And so the journey goes on past the Hornel-mount and the promontory of Stadt, till the "sea-falcons glide into the Nid River."
At important points Canute landed and summoned the franklins to formal assemblies. The summons were generally obeyed: the franklins swore allegiance to the new King and gave the required hostages. Wherever there was occasion to do so, the King appointed new local officials from the elements whose loyalty he believed he could trust. He spent some time in Eikunda-sound where Erling Skjalgsson joined him with a large force. The old alliance was renewed and Erling received promise of all the region between the great headlands of Stadt and the Naze, with a little additional territory to the east of the latter point. This was more than the lord of Soli had ever controlled before. The terms have not been recorded, but Canute was always liberal in his promises.[336]