Canute the Great, 995 (circa)-1035, and the Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age. Laurence Marcellus Larson
the ordeal in the reign of Harold's successor.
[10] Adamus, Gesta Hammenburgensis Ecclesicæ Pontificum, ii., c. 26.
[11] Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 322–324.
[12] Snorre, Saga of Hakon the Good, cc. 3, 4, 5, 10.
[13] Snorre, Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, c. 15. See also Munch, Del norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 53.
[14] Thietmar, Chronicon, ii., c. 20.
[15] Snorre, Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 24, 26–28.
[16] Danmarks Riges Historie, i., 340–341.
[17] Snorre, Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 35–52.
[18] Gesta Danorum, 327.
[19] Adamus, Gesta, ii., c. 26. Saxo, Gesta, 332.
[20] Gesta, ii., cc. 3, 26.
[21] Gesta, 325.
[22] Wimmer, De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 78 ff.
[23] The American shores were evidently too far distant for successful colonisation; but the visits to the far West clearly did not cease with the journeys of Leif and his associates. Vineland is mentioned in a runic monument from the eleventh century which records an expedition to the West that seems to have ended disastrously:
"They came out [upon the ocean] and over wide stretches [of land] and in need of dry clothes for changes and of food toward Vineland and over icy wastes in the wilderness. Evil may deprive one of good fortune so that death comes early."
This inscription, which is the earliest document that mentions the New World, was found at Hönen in South-eastern Norway. The original has been lost, but copies are extant. The translation is from Bugge's rendering into modern Norse. (Norges Historie, I., ii., 285.)
[24] Bugge, Vihingerne, i., 135 ff.
[25] "All along the Irish coast from Belfast to Dublin and Limerick there still remains an unbroken series of Norse place names, principally the names of firths, islands, reefs, and headlands, which show that at such points the fairway has been named by Northmen." Norges Historie, I., ii., 87; see also pp. 73–76. (Bugge.)
[26] Of this process and its results Normandy furnishes the best illustration. The population of Rollo's duchy soon came to be a mixture of races with French as the chief element, though in some sections, as the Cotentin and the Bessin, the inhabitants clung to their Scandinavian speech and customs for a long time. Steenstrup, Normannerne, i., 175–179.
[27] Simeon of Durham, Opera Omnia, ii., 393. The area varied at different periods; but the earlier Danelaw seems to have comprised fifteen shires. See Steenstrup, Normannerne, iv., 36–37.
[28] Steenstrup, Normannerne, iv., 40–43.
[29] Saga Book of the Viking Club, VI., i., 23 (Bugge). See also Collingwood, Scandinavian Britain, 109. The federation was later enlarged till it included Seven Boroughs. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1015.
[30] The Danish antiquarian Worsaae found more than four hundred Norse place names in Yorkshire alone. While his list cannot be regarded as final, it will probably be found to be fairly correct. The subject of English place names has not yet been fully investigated. Recent studies are those by F.M. Stenton, The Place Names of Berkshire (Reading, 1911), H.C. Wyld and T.O. Hirst, The Place Names of Lancashire (London, 1911), and F.W. Moorman, The Place Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire (Leeds, 1910).
[31] Steenstrup, Normannerne, iii., 228.
[32] Historians of the Church of York, i., 454.
[33] Historians of the Church of York, i., 455. For a fragment of a lay in praise of Ethelred see Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ii., iii.
[34] Saxo gives the period as seven years (Gesta, 337). But his account is confused and unreliable; seven must be taken as a round number. Still, the period between the renewal of the raids in England and Sweyn's accession covers nearly seven years.
[35] Historians of the Church of York, i., 455.
[36] Steenstrup, Normannerne, iii., 221.
[37] The English were led by the East Anglian ealdorman Byrhtnoth, whose valour and death are told in what is perhaps the finest poem in Old English literature. See Grein-Wülker, Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie, i., 358–373.
[38] For the treaty see Liebermann, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, i., 220–225.
[39] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 992, 993. As the betrayer, Alfric, had a part in the treaty-making of the year before, he may have looked on the new plans as dishonourable.
[40] Chronicon, i., 150–151.
[41] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 994.
[42] Taranger, Den angelsaksiske Kirkes Indflydelse paa den norske, 125.
[43] Snorre, Olaf Trygvesson's Saga, cc. 47–50.