the
castle of London. Earl Eirik had a battle also to the westward of
the castle of London, and killed Ulfkel Snilling. So says Thord
Kolbeinson:--

"West of London town we passed,
And our ocean-steeds made fast,
And a bloody fight begin,
England's lands to lose or win.
Blue sword and shining spear
Laid Ulfkel's dead corpse there,
Our Thingmen hear the war-shower sounding
Our grey arrows from their shields rebounding."

Earl Eirik was a winter in England, and had many battles there. The
following autumn he intended to make a pilgrimage to Rome, but he died
in England of a bloody flux.

24. THE MURDER OF EDMUND.

King Canute came to England the summer that King Ethelred died, and had
many battles with Ethelred's sons, in which the victory was sometimes
on one side, sometimes on the other. Then King Canute took Queen Emma in
marriage; and their children were Harald, Hardacanute, and Gunhild. King
Canute then made an agreement with King Edmund, that each of them should
have a half of England. In the same month Henry Strion murdered King
Edmund. King Canute then drove all Ethelred's sons out of England. So
says Sigvat:--

"Now all the sons of Ethelred
Were either fallen, or had fled:
Some slain by Canute,--some they say,
To save their lives had run away."

25. OLAF AND ETHELRED'S SONS.

King Ethelred's sons came to Rouen in Valland from England, to their
mother's brother, the same summer that King Olaf Haraldson came from
the west from his viking cruise, and they were all during the winter in
Normandy together. They made an agreement with each other that King Olaf
should have Northumberland, if they could succeed in taking England from
the Danes. Therefore about harvest, Olaf sent his foster-father Hrane to
England to collect men-at-arms; and Ethelred's sons sent tokens to their
friends and relations with him. King Olaf, besides, gave him much money
with him to attract people to them. Hrane was all winter in England, and
got promises from many powerful men of fidelity, as the people of the
country would rather have native kings over them; but the Danish power
had become so great in England, that all the people were brought under
their dominion.

26. BATTLE OF KING OLAF.

In spring (A.D. 1014) King Olaf and King Ethelred's sons set out
together to the west, and came to a place in England called Jungufurda,
where they landed with th