When Nidaros was reached, the eight shires of the Throndelaw were summoned to meet in a grand assembly, the Ere-thing, which met on the river sands at the mouth of the Nid. As Throndhjem was counted the most important region of the kingdom, the Ere-thing throughout the middle ages enjoyed a prominence of its own as the assembly that accepted and proclaimed the Norwegian kings. Here then, Canute was formally proclaimed the true King of Norway, and the customary homage was rendered.[337]
There was no need of going beyond Nidaros. Thor the Dog, Harek of Tjotta, and other great lords from the farther North were present at the Ere-thing and took the oaths of allegiance. Thor came in Canute's fleet; Harek joined the King at Nidaros. On these two chiefs the King depended for support in the Arctic regions. In return for their allegiance they received enlarged franchises and privileges, among other things the monopoly of the trade with the Finnish tribes.[338]
The conclusions of the Ere-thing concerned Norway alone. A little later a larger assembly was called, a joint meeting of the chiefs of Norway and of the invading army—magnates from England, Denmark, and Norway; possibly the warriors, too, had some voice in this assembly. Here then, in the far North on the sands of Nidaros, was held the first and only imperial assembly, so far as our information goes, that Canute ever summoned. It was called to discuss and decide matters of interest common to all the three realms—especially was it to hear the imperial will, the new imperial policy.
Canute was yet a young man—he had not advanced far into the thirties—but prudence, perhaps also wisdom, had developed with the years. He realised that his own person was really the only bond that held his realms together; but he also understood that direct rule was impracticable. The Norse movement was essentially a revolt from Olaf, not a popular demand for union with Denmark. Among the Danes, too, there was opposition to what smacked of alien rule, as is shown by the readiness with which the magnates had received the revolutionary plans of Earl Ulf. No doubt it was with reluctance that Canute announced a system of vassal earls and kings; however, no other solution can have seemed possible.
To his nephew Hakon he gave the vice-royalty of Norway with the earl's title and dignity. Whether the entire kingdom was to be included in Hakon's realm may be doubted; Southern Norway, the Wick, which was as yet unconquered, was an old possession of the dynasty of Gorm and may have been excepted. "Next he led his son Harthacanute to his own high-seat and gave him the kings-name with the government of the Danish realms."[339] As Harthacanute was still but a child a guardian must be found, and for this position Canute seems to have chosen Harold, the son of Thurkil the Tall,[340] his own foster-brother, if tradition can be trusted. Harold at this time was apparently in charge at Jomburg, where he had probably stood in a similar relation to Canute's older son Sweyn who was located there. It is significant that the only one who is awarded the royal title is Harthacanute, the youngest of the King's three sons; but he was also the only one who was of legitimate birth. There can be little doubt that Canute intended to make Harthacanute the heir to all his realms. Of these arrangements Thorarin Praise-tongue sings in his lay:
Then gave the wise
Wielder of Jutland
Norway to Hakon
His sister's son.
And to his own son
(I say it) the old dark
Halls of the ocean,
Hoary Denmark.[341]
Among the Norwegian chiefs who thus far had remained neutral was Einar Thongshaker, the archer of Swald. But now that the Ere-thing had acted and had renounced its allegiance to Olaf, Einar promptly appeared and took the required oaths. King Canute felt the need of binding the proud magnate closely to the new order of things, and along with gifts and increased feudal income went the flattering phrases that next to those who bore princely titles Einar should be the chiefest in the kingdom, and that he or his son Eindrid seemed, after all, most suited to bear the rule in Norway, "were it not for Earl Hakon."[342]
There remained the formality of taking hostages, sons, brothers, or near kinsmen of the chiefs, "or the men who seemed dearest to them and best fitted." The fleet then returned to the South. It was a leisurely sail, we are told, with frequent landings and conferences with the yeomanry, especially, no doubt, in the shires where no assemblies had been summoned on the northward journey. When King Olaf heard of Canute's return, he moved farther up the Oslo Firth and into one of its arms, the Drammen Firth. Here he apparently left his ships while he and his men withdrew some distance into the interior. King Canute did not pursue him. He sailed along the south shores to the Oslo Firth and up to Sarpsborg, where an assembly of the freemen accepted him as King. From Sarpsborg he returned to Denmark, where he seems to have spent the winter. Not till the following year did he care to risk a return to England; but at that time his Norse rival was treading the path of exile across the Baltic (1029).
