Chronology
A.D.
787 First appearance of the Norse in Northumbria
795 First plunderings of the Norse in Ireland
795 Irish monks in Iceland
822 Halfdan the Black, King of Norway (d. 860)
832 The Norse appear in Kent
847 First coming of the Danes to Ireland
853 Olaf the White, King of the Norse in Dublin
867 Ælla King of Northumbria
871 Alfred the Great, King of England (d. 901)
872 Harald Fairhair, King of Norway (d. 933)
875 The Danes are subdued by Alfred, and Guthrum is baptized
878 Harald Fairhair raids in the Orkneys and makes Ragnvald earl. During Harald’s reign Iceland is peopled from Norway
890 Rolf Ganger, son of Ragnvald, Earl of More and Orkney, plunders in Normandy
900 Torf-Einar in Orkney. Harald Fairhair’s second expedition to the West
901 Edward the Elder, King of England (d. 925)
902 The foreigners are expelled from Dublin
917 Niall Glundubh (Black knee), King of Ireland, slain at battle of Kilmashog
924 Edward the Elder is chosen as “Father and Lord” by the Scots, Northumbria, and Strathclyde
925 Athelstan succeeds (d. 940)
933 Eric Bloodaxe, King of Norway
934 Hakon the Good returns to Norway and is crowned king
935 Eric Bloodaxe leaves Norway and gets a kingdom in England
937 Battle of Brunanburh
939 Murtough of the Leather Cloaks makes a warlike circuit in Ireland
941 Olaf Cuaran (of the Sandal) chosen King of Northumbria
942 The Danes desert Dublin and flee across sea
944 Olaf Cuaran expelled from Northumbria
949 Olaf Cuaran returns; expelled a second time in 952
960 Battle of Stord, and death of King Hakon the Good
963 Olaf Trygveson born in exile. Norway ruled by the sons of Eric Bloodaxe
979 Ethelred the Unready, King of England
985 Olaf Trygveson raids in the West and England. Sweyn Fork-beard becomes King of Denmark.
988 He marries Gyda, a sister of Olaf Cuaran. He is baptised in the Scilly Isles
993 Bambrough stormed
994 Olaf Trygveson and Sweyn Fork-beard are driven back from London. Olaf promises never again to fight with England
995 Earl Hakon slain; Olaf Trygveson becomes king of Norway
1000 He dies at battle of Svold
1002 Massacre of the Danes on St Brice’s Day
1004 Sweyn Fork-beard burns Norwich
1009–10 England ravaged by the Danes
1010 Siege of London and battle of Hringmara Heath
1013 Sweyn Fork-beard, King of England (d. 1014)
1014 Battle of Clontarf in Dublin. Ethelred II. goes to Normandy
1015 Reign of St Olaf in Norway (d. 1030)
1016 Death of Ethelred II. Reign of Edmund Ironside. Battle of Assandun and division of England between Edmund and Canute.
1017 Canute sole King of England
1028 Canute subjugates Norway
1030 Battle of Stiklestad and death of St Olaf
1030 Sweyn, Canute’s son, King of Norway (d. 1035)
1035 Magnus the Good, King of Norway (d. 1047)
1037 Harald, Canute’s son, King of England
1040 Hardacanute, King of England (d. 1042)
1043 Edward the Confessor, King of England
1065 Harold, Godwin’s son, consecrated king
1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge
1066 Battle of Hastings
Footnotes
1 Ethelwerd’s Chronicle, A.D. 786 (recté 787).
2 Saxo’s Danish annals speak of Hame, the father of Ælla, as King of Northumbria (see p. 18), but he is unknown to the English Chronicles.
3 This is the account of Saxo; the Norse accounts differ from him as to the district over which Ragnar ruled.
4 The Northern chronicles here throw much light on the internal affairs of Northumbria, which are only briefly dealt with in the English chronicles. But the general outline of events fits well into the English account.
5 i.e. the horns from which the ale was quaffed, made from the branching or curved antlers of reindeer or ox.
6 i.e. “the Wanderer,” another name for Woden.
7 i.e. his sons, the children of Aslaug, his second wife.
8 i.e. the sword of Woden. The prophecy was shortly afterwards fulfilled, for Lodbrog’s sons returned to Northumbria, dethroned Ælla, and put him to a cruel death.
9 i.e. the High Gods, who dwelt in Valhalla, or the home of the immortals.
10 The great province of Northumbria extended from the Humber to the Firth of Forth.
11 The English Chronicle, dating his rule in Normandy from this, his first expedition thither, gives him a reign of fifty years; he actually reigned from 911–927 A.D. (see p. 110).
12 In hot weather a tent was erected over the boat.
13 Scat was a land-tax paid to the king in money, malt, meal, or flesh-meat, and was adjudged to each king on his succession by the “Thing,” or assembly of lawgivers.
14 The bishop of the islands is still styled Bishop of Sodor (i.e. the Sudreys) and Man. Up to the fifteenth century these bishops had to go to Trondhjem in Norway for consecration.
15 See chap. xv., “Wild Tales from the Orkneys,” p. 108.
16 Probably Olaf, son of Godfrey, King of Dublin.
17 i.e. Olaf Cuaran.
18 A sort of fury of war which attacked the Northmen when engaged in battle, and made them half-mad with ferocity.
19 i.e. the dead bodies of the warriors whom his arm had slain fed the falcons, or carrion-birds.
20 Unnecessary doubt has been thrown upon this practice of pagan baptism, but the instances are too numerous to be set aside. Baptism is a widespread custom among different races. In pagan Ireland also there are instances recorded of a sort of child-naming, combined with christening, by pouring water over the child. Baptism was not invented by Christianity; it was adopted from the Jewish faith into the new religion.
21 The “Thing” was a convention or parliament of the people assembled to make laws or come to decisions on important matters. There were both local and general “Things.” The place where the “Thing” was held was called the “Thing-mote.”
22 The hammer of Thor was somewhat like a Greek cross.
23 Chap. vi., page 48.
24 Twenty benches probably meant forty rowers, besides other fighting men. Two rowers at least would sit to each bench.
25 This cruel method of putting a foe to death was also practised on Ælla of Northumbria; it was probably, as here, a sacrifice to Odin.
26 There are still a few udal, or allodial properties, in Orkney.
27 See pp. 152–3.
28 Chap. vi. p. 47.
29 The name Gilli is evidently either Scotch or Irish, which explains the fact that he had an Irish girl among his slaves. He either was an inhabitant of these countries pretending to be a Russian merchant, or he was a Russian who had lived in Scotland.
30 Sitric Silken-beard was son of Olaf Cuaran, or Olaf o’ the Sandal, and his wife Gormliath, or Kormlod.
31 For the story of the burning of Nial, see chap. xx. pp. 157–175.
32 The same description is given of the banner of the sons of Lodbrog, taken by Alfred the Great.
33 Freeman (“Norman Conquest,” Vol. I., p. 342), considers that Thorkill acted throughout independently of Sweyn, and aimed at setting up a princedom of his own. He explains in this way Thorkill’s sudden alliance with Ethelred against Sweyn in 1013. Thorkill remained faithful to the English king until his flight, and later gave his adherence to Canute, who first enriched and afterwards banished him (see pp. 193–4).
34 See note at end of this chapter.
35 Freeman will not accept any part of this story of Olaf’s intervention in English affairs, because it is not found in any of the English Chronicles. It, however, reads like the record of an actual attack upon the Danish forces in London, although the time and circumstances may have become confused in the mind of the Northern Chronicler. Sigvat’s poem tends to confirm its general accuracy.
36 pp. 102–107.
37 pp. 95–99.
38 The Norwegian chronicles say that Eirik died in England.
39 This is the Norse account. The English Chronicle, which is likely to be correct in this matter, says that Canute was reconciled to Earl Thorkill in 1023, and that he committed Denmark and his son Hardacanute to his keeping, he himself taking Thorkill’s son back with him to England.
40 Emma’s two sons by Ethelred were Alfred (see pp. 211–212) and Edward the Confessor; she also had a daughter. Ethelred had several sons by a former wife, of whom Edmund Ironside is the most famous.
41 The same story is told of the landing of William the Conqueror at Pevensey; it is probably repeated from this incident in the life of Olaf.
42 Magna Charta was then taken south by the barons to meet the King at Staines; it was signed by King John on an island in the Thames called Runnymede, on the 15th of June 1215.
43 Baldwin, Earl of Flanders in the ninth century, had married a daughter of Alfred the Great, hence the connexion with England. The same earl was, by another wife, the ancestor of Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror.
44 The English chronicles say of Thorkill the Tall.
45 p. 201–3.
46 See the whole of Edward’s speech in Snorre, “Saga of Magnus the Good,” Laing’s translation, 1889, vol. iii. p. 344–5.
47 Westminster Abbey was consecrated on the 28th of December 1065.
48 Nidaros, the old capital of Norway, was afterwards Throndhjem, or Drontheim.
49 Freeman considers that some of the details of the battle of Stamford Bridge, as given in the Norse story, belong rightly to the battle of Hastings.