A few months later the vice-royalty was vacant. Soon after Kalf's return to Norway, Hakon sailed to England; Canute had apparently sent for him. The sources are neither clear nor wholly agreed on this matter; but practically all place the journey in some relation to Hakon's betrothal to Gunhild, Canute's niece, the daughter of his sister Gunhild and a Slavic prince, Witigern. It was late in the year before Hakon was ready to return—sometime after Martinsmas (November 11th); says Florence of Worcester.[348] His ship never reached Norway; it went down in a tempest in the Pentland Firth, probably in January, 1030.
The English sources have it that Canute in fact exiled Hakon, though formally he sent him on a personal mission; but the chroniclers are evidently in error in this matter. When these writers speak of outlawry, they mean exile from England; and Hakon was no longer an English resident. Still, it is extremely probable that Hakon had been deprived of his ancestral dignities, that he had been transferred to a new field. Two possibilities appear to fit into the situation: the Earl may have been transferred to the north-western islands or to Jomburg. The Norwegian dependencies along the Scottish shores, the Orkneys and other possessions, passed to Canute when he assumed the Norwegian crown. The fact that Hakon's ship went under on the shores of the Orkneys may indicate that he had an errand in those waters, that Canute had created a new jurisdiction for his easy-going nephew.
Still more is to be said for the alternative possibility. Canute had clearly decided to supersede Hakon in Norway. He had already, it seems, selected his illegitimate son Sweyn for the Norse governorship. The promotion of Sweyn would create a vacancy in Jomburg; perhaps Hakon was intended as Sweyn's successor at that post. At any rate, the King was planning a marriage between the Earl and a kinswoman of his own who was of the Slavic aristocracy, a marriage that would secure for the Earl a certain support among the Wendish nobility. The prospective bride was probably in Wendland with her kinsmen at the time; at any rate she was not on the ship that went down in the Swelchie of Pentland Firth; for a few years later we find Gunhild the widow of one whose history is closely associated with Jomburg, Harold, the son of Thurkil the Tall, the Harold who in 1030 was administering Danish affairs in the name of Harthacanute. Florence tells us that in 1044, Gunhild was exiled from England with her two sons, Thurkil and Heming.[349] Two fierce brothers, it will be recalled, led the Jomvikings into England in 1009,—Thurkil and Heming. No doubt the exiled boys were Harold's sons, named in honour of their stately grandfather and his valiant brother.
Once more Norway was without a ruler. The news of Hakon's death was not long in reaching the Throndelaw, and the leaders of the various factions seem to have taken prompt measures to provide a satisfactory régime. Einar Thongshaker, mindful of Canute's earlier promises, got out his ship and repaired to England. As usual the diplomatic King was prodigal with promises and professions of friendship: Einar should have the highest place in the Norse aristocracy, a larger income, and whatever honours the King could give except the earl's authority,—that had been assigned to Sweyn, and messengers had already been dispatched to Jomburg with instructions to the young prince to assume control at Nidaros.[350]
The old warrior cannot have been pleased. It is likely that his loyalty received a violent shock. Knowing that an attempt would be made to restore Olaf to the throne, he apparently decided to assume his customary neutral attitude; at any rate, he would not fight under Kalf Arnesson's banner. So he lingered in England till the trouble was over and Sweyn was in charge of the kingdom.
Kalf did not go to England; he was busy carrying out his promises to Canute. For hardly had the merchant ships brought rumours of Earl Hakon's death, before Olaf's partisans took measures to restore their legitimate King. Some of the chiefs set out for Russia; and when midsummer came, King Olaf's banner was advancing toward the Norwegian capital. Kalf was prepared to meet him. As it was not known what route Olaf might choose to take or in what region he would set up his standard, the forces of the yeomanry were divided, the southern magnates under the leadership of the sons of Erling undertaking to meet the King if he should appear in the south-east, while the northern host under Kalf, Harek, and Thor the Dog was preparing to hold the Throndelaw.
The host that gathered to oppose the returned exile was wholly Norse: no Dane or Englishman seems to have fought for Canute at Stiklestead, The only alien who is prominently mentioned in this connection is Bishop Sigurd, a Danish ecclesiastic who had served as Hakon's court bishop and was a violent partisan of Canute. All the western coast as far as to the Arctic seems to have been represented in the army of the franklins, which is said to have numbered 14,400, four times the number that fought for the returned King.