Canute the Great, 995 (circa)-1035, and the Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age. Laurence Marcellus Larson
(Harl. MS. 603.) ANGLO-SAXON WARRIORS (From a manuscript in the British Museum, reproduced in Norges Historie, i., ii.) THE RAVEN BANNER (From the Bayeux Tapestry.) VIKING RAIDS IN ENGLAND 980–1016 THE SOUTH BALTIC COAST IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY THE VALLEBERGA STONE THE STENKYRKA STONE (Monument from the Island of Gotland showing viking ships.) AN ENGLISH BISHOP OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY (From the Bayeux Tapestry.) POPPO'S ORDEAL (Altar decoration from about 1100. Danish National Museum.) HAMMERS OF THOR (From the closing years of heathendom.) THE TJÄNGVIDE STONE (Monument from the Island of Gotland. The stone shows various mythological figures; see THE CHURCH AT URNES (NORWAY) (From about 1100.) RUNIC MONUMENT SHOWS HAMMER OF THOR THE ODDERNESS STONE ORNAMENTS (CHIEFLY BUCKLES) FROM THE VIKING AGE ORNAMENTS (CHIEFLY BUCKLES) FROM THE VIKING AGE LINES FROM THE OLDEST FRAGMENT OF SNORRE'S HISTORY (WRITTEN ABOUT 1260). THE FRAGMENT TELLS THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF HOLY RIVER AND THE MURDER OF ULF A LONGSHIP (Model of the Gokstad ship on the waves.) SCANDINAVIA AND THE CONQUEST OF NORWAY STIKLESTEAD (From a photograph.) THE HYBY STONE (Monument from the first half of the eleventh century; raised to a Christian as appears from the cross.) RUNIC MONUMENT FROM UPLAND, SWEDEN (Showing blending of Celtic and Northern art.) SCANDINAVIAN (ICELANDIC) HALL IN THE VIKING AGE THE VIK STONE (Illustrates the transition from heathendom to Christianity; shows a mixture of elements, the serpent and the cross.) THE RAMSUND ROCK (Representations of scenes from the Sigfried Saga.) PAINTED GABLE FROM URNES CHURCH (Norse-Irish ornamentation.) CARVED PILLAR FROM URNES CHURCH (Norse-Irish ornamentation.) THE HUNNESTAD STONE THE ALSTAD STONE ANGLO-SAXON TABLE SCENE (From a manuscript in the British Museum, reproduced in Norges Historie, i., ii.) MODEL OF THE GOKSTAD SHIP (Longitudinal sections.) THE LUNDAGÅRD STONE (Shows types of ornamentation in Canute's day.) THE JURBY CROSS, ISLE OF MAN THE GOSFORTH CROSS, CUMBERLAND THE PALL OF SAINT OLAF (Initial in the Flat-isle Book.)
CANUTE THE GREAT
CHAPTER I
THE HERITAGE OF CANUTE THE GREAT
Among the many gigantic though somewhat shadowy personalities of the viking age, two stand forth with undisputed pre-eminence: Rolf the founder of Normandy and Canute the Emperor of the North. Both were sea-kings; each represents the culmination and the close of a great migratory movement—Rolf of the earlier viking period, Canute of its later and more restricted phase. The early history of each is uncertain and obscure; both come suddenly forth upon the stage of action, eager and trained for conquest. Rolf is said to have been the outlawed son of a Norse earl; Canute was the younger son of a Danish king: neither had the promise of sovereignty or of landed inheritance. Still, in the end, both became rulers of important states—the pirate became a constructive statesman. The work of Rolf as founder of Normandy was perhaps the more enduring; but far more brilliant was the career of Canute.
Few great conquerors have had a less promising future. In the early years of the eleventh century, he seems to have been serving a military apprenticeship in a viking fraternity on the Pomeranian coast, preparatory, no doubt, to the profession of a sea-king, the usual career of Northern princes who were not seniors in birth. His only tangible inheritance seems to have been the prestige of royal blood which meant so much when the chief called for recruits.
But it was not the will of the Norns that Canute should live and die a common pirate, like his grand-uncle Canute, for instance, who fought and fell in Ireland[1]: his heritage was to be greater than what had fallen to any of his dynasty, more than the throne of his ancestors, which was also to be his. In a vague way he inherited the widening ambitions of the Northern peoples who were once more engaged in a fierce attack on the West. To him fell also the ancient claim of the Danish kingdom to the hegemony of the North. But more specifically Canute inherited the extensive plans, the restless dreams, the imperialistic policy, and the ancient feuds of the Knytling dynasty.[2] Canute's career is the history of Danish imperialism carried to a swift realisation. What had proved a task too great for his forbears Canute in a great measure achieved. In England and in Norway, in Sleswick and in Wendland, he carried the plans of his dynasty to a successful issue. It will, therefore, be necessary to sketch with some care the background of Canute's career and to trace to their origins the threads of policy that Canute took up and wove into the web of empire. Some of these can be followed back at least three generations to the reign of Gorm in the beginning of the tenth century.
In that century Denmark was easily the greatest power in the North. From the Scanian frontiers to the confines of modern Sleswick it extended over "belts" and islands, closing completely the entrance to the Baltic. There were Danish outposts on the Slavic shores of modern Prussia; the larger part of Norway came for some years to be a vassal state under the great earl, Hakon the Bad; the Wick, which comprised the shores of the great inlet that is now known as the Christiania Firth, was regarded as a component part of the Danish monarchy, though in fact the obedience rendered anywhere in Norway was very slight.
In the legendary age a famous dynasty known as the Shieldings appears to have ruled over Danes and Jutes. The family took its name from a mythical ancestor, King Shield, whose coming to the Daneland is told in the opening lines of the Old English epic Beowulf. The Shieldings were worthy descendants of their splendid progenitor: they possessed in full measure the royal virtues of valour, courage, and munificent hospitality. How far their exploits are to be regarded as historic is a problem that does not concern us at present; though it seems likely that the Danish foreworld is not without its historic realities.
Whether the kings of Denmark in the tenth century were of Shielding ancestry is a matter of doubt; the probabilities are that they sprang from a different stem. The century opened with Gorm the Aged, the great-grandfather of Canute, on the throne of Shield, ruling all the traditional regions of Denmark—Scania, the Isles, and Jutland—but apparently residing at Jelling near the south-east corner of the peninsula, not far from the Saxon frontier. Tradition remembers him as a tall and stately man, but a dull and indolent king, wanting in all the elements of greatness.[3] In this case, however, tradition is not to be trusted. Though we have little real knowledge of Danish history in Gorm's day, it is evident that his reign was a notable one. At the close of the ninth century, the monarchy seems to have faced dissolution; the sources tell of rebellious vassals, of a rival kingdom in South Jutland, of German interference in other parts of the Jutish peninsula.[4] Gorm's great task and achievement were to reunite the realm and to secure the old frontiers.
Though legend has not dealt kindly with the King himself, it has honoured the memory of his masterful Queen. Thyra was clearly a superior woman. Her nationality is unknown, but it seems likely that she was of Danish blood, the daughter of an earl in the Holstein country.[5] To this