Thus SIWARD, by the sovereign vote of the whole Danish assembly, received the empire of his father.But after the defeats he had inflicted everywhere he was satisfied with the honour he received at home, and liked better to be famous with the gown than with the sword.He ceased to be a man of camps, and changed from the fiercest of despots into the most punctual guardian of peace.He found as much honour in ease and leisure as he had used to think lay in many victories.Fortune so favoured his change of pursuits, that no foe ever attacked him, nor he any foe.He died, and ERIK, who was a very young child, inherited his nature, rather than his realm or his tranquillity.For Erik, the brother of Harald, despising his exceedingly tender years, invaded the country with rebels, and seized the crown; nor was he ashamed to assail the lawful infant sovereign, and to assume an unrightful power.In thus bringing himself to despoil a feeble child of the kingdom he showed himself the more unworthy of it.Thus he stripped the other of his throne, but himself of all his virtues, and cast all manliness out of his heart, when he made war upon a cradle: for where covetousness and ambition flamed, love of kindred could find no place.But this brutality was requited by the wrath of a divine vengeance.For the war between this man and Gudorm, the son of Harald, ended suddenly with such slaughter that they were both slain, with numberless others; and the royal stock of the Danes, now worn out by the most terrible massacres, was reduced to the only son of the above Siward.
This man (Erik) won the fortune of a throne by losing his kindred; it was luckier for him to have his relations dead than alive.He forsook the example of all the rest, and hastened to tread in the steps of his grandfather; for he suddenly came out as a most zealous practitioner of roving.And would that he had not shown himself rashly to inherit the spirit of Ragnar, by his abolition of Christian worship! For he continually tortured all the most religious men, or stripped them of their property and banished them.But it were idle for me to blame the man's beginnings when I am to praise his end.For that life is more laudable of which the foul beginning is checked by a glorious close, than that which begins commendably but declines into faults and infamies.For Erik, upon the healthy admonitions of Ansgarius, laid aside the errors of his impious heart, and atoned for whatsoever he had done amiss in the insolence thereof;showing himself as strong in the observance of religion as he had been in slighting it.Thus he not only took a draught of more wholesome teaching with obedient mind, but wiped off early stains by his purity at the end.He had a son KANUTE by the daughter of Gudorm, who was also the granddaughter of Harald; and him he left to survive his death.
While this child remained in infancy a guardian was required for the pupil and for the realm.But inasmuch it seemed to most people either invidious or difficult to give the aid that this office needed, it was resolved that a man should be chosen by lot.For the wisest of the Danes, fearing much to make a choice by their own will in so lofty a matter, allowed more voice to external chance than to their own opinions, and entrusted the issue of the selection rather to luck than to sound counsel.The issue was that a certain Enni-gnup (Steep-brow), a man of the highest and most entire virtue, was forced to put his shoulder to this heavy burden; and when he entered on the administration which chalice had decreed, he oversaw, not only the early rearing of the king, but the affairs of the whole people.For which reason some who are little versed in our history give this man a central place in its annals.But when Kanute had passed through the period of boyhood, and had in time grown to be a man, he left those who had done him the service of bringing him up, and turned from an almost hopeless youth to the practice of unhoped-for virtue; being deplorable for this reason only, that he passed from life to death without the tokens of the Christian faith.
But soon the sovereignty passed to his son FRODE.This man's fortune, increased by arms and warfare, rose to such a height of prosperity that he brought back to the ancient yoke the provinces which had once revolted from the Danes, and bound them in their old obedience.He also came forward to be baptised with holy water in England, which had for some while past been versed in Christianity.But he desired that his personal salvation should overflow and become general, and begged that Denmark should be instructed in divinity by Agapete, who was then Pope of Rome.
But he was cut off before his prayers attained this wish.His death befell before the arrival of the messengers from Rome: and indeed his intention was better than his fortune, and he won as great a reward in heaven for his intended piety as others are vouchsafed for their achievement.
His son GORM, who had the surname of "The Englishman," because he was born in England, gained the sovereignty in the island on his father's death; but his fortune, though it came soon, did not last long.He left England for Denmark to put it in order; but a long misfortune was the fruit of this short absence.For the English, who thought that their whole chance of freedom lay in his being away, planned an open revolt from the Danes, and in hot haste took heart to rebel.But the greater the hatred and contempt of England, the greater the loyal attachment of Denmark to the king.Thus while he stretched out his two hands to both provinces in his desire for sway, he gained one, but lost the lordship of the other irretrievably; for he never made any bold effort to regain it.So hard is it to keep a hold on very large empires.
After this man his son HARALD came to be king of Denmark; he is half-forgotten by posterity, and lacks all record for famous deeds, because he rather preserved than extended the possessions of the realm.
