“Knut was then ten winters old. The power of the Thingamen was great. There was a fair there (London) twice in every twelvemonth, one about midsummer and the other about midwinter. The English (Enskir) thought it would be the easiest to slay the Thingamen while Knut was young and Svein dead. Each winter about Yule, waggons went into the town with goods which they were wont to bring to the market. So it was this winter, and they were all tented over; this was according to the treacherous advice and will of Ulfkel Snilling[[417]] and the sons of Æthelred. The seventh day of Yule Thord (a man of the Thingamannalid) went out of the town to the house of his mistress. She asked him to stay there that night. ‘Why dost thou ask for that which is liable to punishment?’ ‘I ask it,’ said she, ‘because I think it important.’ He answered: ‘I will stay here if thou tellest me why thou askest this.’ ‘Because I know that the death of all the Thingamen is planned.’ ‘How canst thou know it,’ he added, ‘when we do not know it?’ ‘Because men drove waggons to the town, and pretended that they contained goods; but in each waggon there were many men and no goods, and they have done the same thing north,[[418]] in Slesvik. When a third part of the night has passed bells will be rung in the town; then warriors and also the townsmen will make themselves ready about midnight. When a third of the night is left, the bell of Bura church will be rung. You will go unarmed to the church, which will then be surrounded.’
“‘It is likely,’ said Thord, ‘that thou hast many friends, and I will tell Eilif, though it will be thought a rumour. But this farm thou shalt own.’ Thord went into the town; he met his companion, Audun; they went and told it to Eilif. He bade the men be on their guard. Some believed it, others said it was only an alarm. They heard the bell-ringing as usual, and many thought the priest was ringing. Those who believed Thord went armed, and all the others unarmed. When they came into the churchyard there was a great crowd. They could not get their weapons, for they could not reach their houses. Eilif asked for their advice, but they could give none; he added, ‘It does not seem to me good advice to run into the church if it gives no shelter and we show fear. I think it will be better to jump on the shoulders of those who stand outside the churchyard wall, and thus try to escape to the ships.’ And they did so. Most of those who were slain fell at the ships. Eilif escaped with three ships, but none escaped from Slesvik, and Heming fell there. Eilif went to Denmark. Some time after this Jatmund (Edmund) was made king over England. He ruled nine months. During that time he fought five battles against Knut Sveinsson. Alrek Strjona, whom some called Eirek, a brother of Emma, who had been married to Æthelred, the king of the English, was the foster-father of Edmund. At that time Thorkel the High was the most powerful man in Denmark. They had a Thing in the spring after the slaying of the Thingamen; Eilif urged to go and take revenge, but Thorkel answered: ‘We have a young king, and it is not proper to make warfare without the king partaking in it, but after three years I think he will be valiant enough, and it will take the English by surprise.’ Eilif answered: ‘It is not sure that those will remember it for three winters, who now do not care for it at all.’ He went to Mikligard (Constantinople), and became chief of the Væringjar, and at last fell there. After three winters, Knut, Thorkel, and Eirik went with eight hundred ships to England. Thorkel had thirty ships, and slew Ulfkel Snilling, and thus avenged the death of his brother Heming, and married Ulfhild, the daughter of King Æthelred, who had been married to Ulfkel. With Ulfkel was slain every man on sixty ships, and Knut captured Lundunaborg. Thorkel went along the coast, and found Queen Emma on board a ship. He took her ashore and urged Knut to ask her in marriage; and the king married her. She gave birth to a son in the winter, who was named Harald, a natural son of Knut; Hörda-Knut was their son. The son of Knut and Alfifa was named Svein; his daughter Gunnhild was married to the Emperor (of Germany) Heinrek Konradsson; Knut went to Rome with him” (Jomsvikinga Saga, cc. 51, 52).
King Olaf Haraldsson, surnamed Digri (the Stout), known also under the name of St. Olaf, was a great warrior, and made wars in the Baltic, in Friesland, England, France, and other countries. Fifteen of these expeditions are described in his Saga.
The Northmen under Olaf came to help Æthelred against the Danes.
“King Olaf then sailed westwards to England. It was reported that Svein Tjúguskegg, Danish king at this time, was in England with the Danish host, and had stayed there awhile and ravaged the land of King Æthelred. The Danes had spread far and wide over the country, and King Æthelred had fled from the land and gone to Valland. The same autumn that Olaf came to England it happened that King Svein Haraldsson died suddenly during the night in his bed; and it was said by the English that Edmund the saint had slain him, in the same manner as the holy Mercury slew Julian the Nithing (Apostate). When Æthelred heard of this in Flæmingjaland (Flandres), he at once returned to England. When he came back, he sent word to all who wanted to get property to come and win the land; and a mass of men joined him. Then Olaf came to his assistance with a large following of Northmen. They first sailed for London (Lundúnir), and entered the Thames, while the Danes held the burg. On the other side of the river there was a large trading-town, which is called Sudvirki (Southwark); there the Danes had made great fortifications, dug large ditches, and built inside them walls of wood, stones, and turf, and there had a large force. Æthelred caused a fierce attack to be made on it; but the Danes defended it, and the king could not capture it. There were such broad bridges across the river between the city and Southwark, that waggons could pass each other (on them). On the bridges were bulwarks, which reached higher than the middle of a man, and beneath the bridges piles were driven into the bottom of the river. When the attack was made the whole host stood on the bridges, and defended them” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 11).
“Olaf was leader of the host when they went to Kantarabyrgi (= Canterbury), and they fought there until they took it, slew many, and burned the town. Then Olaf had to defend the shores of England, and coursed along them with warships, and sailed up into Nyjamoda (= Newmouth). There was a host of Thingamen. He fought a battle, and got the victory. Then he went far and wide about the country, and received taxes from the people, making warfare if they paid not. At that time he stayed there three winters” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 14).
“Olaf had large hurdles made of withies and soft wood, so cut as to make a wicker-house, and thus covered his ships, so that the hurdles reached out over their sides; he had posts put beneath them so high that it was easy to fight beneath them, and the covering was proof against stones thrown down on it. When the host was ready they rowed up the river; as they came near the bridges they were shot at, and such large stones thrown down on them that neither their helmets nor shields could withstand them; and the ships themselves were greatly damaged, and many retreated. But Olaf and the Northmen with him rowed up under the bridges, and tied ropes round the supporting posts, and rowed their ships down stream as hard as they could. The posts were dragged along the bottom until they were loosened from under the bridges. As an armed host stood thickly on the bridges, and there was a great weight of stones and weapons upon them, and the posts beneath were broken, the bridges fell with many of the men into the river; the others fled into the city, or into Southwark. After this they attacked Southwark, and captured it. When the townsmen saw that the river Temps (Thames) was taken, so that they could not hinder ships from going up into the country, they became afraid, gave up the town, and received King Æthelred.
“King Olaf stayed during the winter with King Æthelred; then they fought a great battle on Hringmara-heath in Ulfkelsland, owned by Ulfkel Snilling, and the kings gained the victory. Then a great part of the land was subdued by Æthelred, but the Danes and the Thingamenn held many towns, and a large part of the country” (St. Olaf’s Saga, cc. 12, 13).
“The third spring King Ethelred died, and his sons Edmund and Edward received the kingship. Then Olaf went southward across the sea, fought in Hringsfjord, and took and destroyed the castle at Holar, held by vikings” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 15).