KNUTS POWER. I'.C, 



by all that King Knutwas the most powerful and wide-reigning 

 of kings in Northern lands " (Knytlinga Saga, c. 18). 



" Knut the Great, whom some call Knut the Old, was king 

 over England and Denmark. He was the son of Svein Tjuiru- 

 skegg, Harald's son. Their kindred had ruled Denmark I'm- a 

 long time. Harald Gormsson, the grandfather of Knut, gut 

 possession of Norway after the fall of Harald Gunnhild's sun, 

 received taxes from it, and placed Hakon jarl the great to 

 defend the land. Svein, King of the Danes, son of Harald. 

 also ruled over Norway, and put Eirik jarl Hakonsson to 

 defend it. He ruled with his brother, Svein Hakonsson, until 

 Eirik went west to England, owing to the message of Knut 

 the Great, his brother-in-law, and left Hakon, his son, to rule 

 Norway. 



" Hakon then went to his uncle, Knut, and had been 

 with him to the time when Knut had won England after 

 a long struggle, and the people of the land yielded to 

 him. When he thought he had fully established his rule 

 over the land he remembered that he owned a country which 

 was not in his possession, and that was Norway. He claimed 

 the whole of Norway as inheritance, but his nephew Hakon 

 claimed part of it, and said that he had lost it. One reason 

 why Knut and Hakon had not made good their claim upon 

 Norway was, that when King Olaf Haraldsson came the 

 people rose, and would not hear of any one else but Olaf 

 as king over the whole land ; but later, when they thought 

 they were oppressed because of his overbearing, some left 

 the country. Many chiefs or sons of powerful bu'iidr had 

 come to Knut under the pretence of various errands ; every 

 one who attached himself to him received his hands full of 

 money. There could also be seen far greater splendour than 

 in any other place, both in the mass of men who continually 

 stayed there, and in the outfitting of the rooms in which he 

 lived himself. Knut received taxes and dues from the wealthiest 

 folk-lands in the North; but as much as he surpassed other 

 kings in receiving more than they, as far did he surpass any 

 other king in giving away gifts. In all his kingdom there 

 was such peace that none dared to break it, and the people 

 lived quietly under the old laws of the land. For this 

 he got great fame through all lands. Many who came from 

 Norway complained of their loss of freedom, and told Hakon 

 iarl ; and some informed Knut himself that the men of Nor- 



" , i 1,1-1 Til... j 



king, and asked him to see it King ( 

 the kino-dom, or make some settlement with them. Many 



O 



