263 



and carried off great spoil of gold and silver and many precious arti- 

 cles,* a visitation which was ruinously repeated in 930, 935, 948, 

 and 953. In 928 they plundered Ferns, and in or about the year 

 930, according to Saxo Grammaticus, Harald and Canute, the sons 

 of Gormo, king of Denmark, entertained hopes of subjecting the whole 

 island to themselves. The native king, however, laid siege to Dublin, 

 and stationing himself in a wood close to the city, with a party 

 of skilful archers, when Canute came out with a great body of sol- 

 diers, to witness some games and sports that were held in the night, 

 he caused him to be shot through the body with a deadly arrow. -f- 

 Krantz mentions the same expedition in much the same language with 

 Saxo, J records the wounding of Canute as by the stratagem and on 

 the occasion stated by Saxo, and adds, that the Danish prince, 

 disabled as he was, gave the word to his men to scale the walls and 

 storm the city, nor was it till he saw the walls taken by his associates, 

 that he acknowledged himself mortally wounded. § 



In 937 the Danes plundered Kilcullen. In 938 happened the 

 memorable battle of Brunanburh, in Northumberland, in which the 



* " Vastavit Cluanmacnois et omnes insulag lacus, et abstulit pradam ingentem auri et ar^ 

 genti, et pretiosa plurima." — Annal. Ulton. 



f " Crebris piraticae quaestibus locupletati, summa cum fiducia spes suas ad injicien- 

 dum manus HibernisE promoverunt : cujus rex Duflina, quae provincias caput habebatur, obsessa, 

 cum paucis admodum sagittariae artis peritis conjunctim urbi nemus ingressus, Canutum 

 magna cum militum frequentia nociurnis ludorum tpectaculis interpositum, insidioso fraudis 

 circujtu vulnifica procul sagittd petivit, quae in adversum ejus corpus incidens mortificum ei 

 vulnus intorsit, &c." — Saxo Grammat. lib. 10. p. 180. 



X " Aucta fiducia cum res ad vota succederent, ausi sunt juvenes (Har-aldus et Knuto,) 

 Hibemiam bello lacessere," (Krantz had previously mentioned their forays in England.) 

 <' DufHinamque urbem regionis metropolin obsidere." — Chronicon Danioe, lib. 4. p. 146. 



§ " Praecepit muros scandere, omni conatu oppugnare mania, ***** nee ante 

 se vulneratum prodidit ad mortem, quam maenia a suis capta conspiceret." — Chronicon 

 Daniae, lib. 4. p. 146. ; • . 



