Norway thou shalt be for evermore.' And I knew this man for Olaf
Tryggvesson my kinsman, and I think that he means that I shall gain
all Norway for Christ's faith, and that my sons shall reign after
me in the days to come."

"It is certain that you shall win Norway," I said, "for so also ran
the words of the Senlac witch, 'For Olaf a kingdom and more than a
kingdom--a name that shall never die'."

"I think men will remember me if I beat Cnut in my own land," he
said lightly. "So I came back as far as the Seine river, and there
was Eadward Atheling trying to raise men against Cnut his
stepfather. I knew not that that peaceful youth could rage so
terribly when occasion was, It was ill to speak of Cnut to him--or
of the queen either. Now I spoke with his few thanes, and they held
that it was of no use to try to attack England. None would rise to
help him. But he begged me to go with him for the sake of old days
and common hatred of the Dane. Wherefore I thought that it was as
well for England that he learnt his foolishness, and we went
together, and were well beaten off from the first place we put
into. So he went back contented to try no more, and I put in here
on my way homeward."

Then I said:

"Do you blame me for submitting to Cnut?"

"You could do nought else," he answered. "And from all I hear he is
likely to be a good king. Mind you that vision we saw on the shore
in Normandy?"

"It has come to pass as you read it," I answered.

Then he said:

"Yet more is to come to pass of that vision. Cnut will reign and
will pass when his time comes, and with him will pass his kingdoms.
There will be none of his line who shall keep them {16}."

"After him Eadward, therefore, or Alfred, should they live," I
said, musing. For the words of dying Ethelred came back to me--his
foretelling of the strong hand followed by the wise.

"That will be seen," answered Olaf. "Now I came to know if you were
yet landless and desperate so that you would sail to Norway with
me. But now I cannot ask you that. Nevertheless I shall be more
glad to see you wedded and at rest here, for I think that you have
seen your share of war."

"And I have been unlucky therein," said I.

"Now has your luck changed," said Olaf. "And all is well."

So it came to pass that our wedding was made the happier by the
presence of Olaf the king and by the songs of Ottar the scald. And
Egil came from Colchester, and with him many of those of my men who