Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/255

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 247 one thought of going into the service of the two kings, saga vit Sigvat speaks of these matters : — " Great Canute brings. Against the kings, His steel-clad band To fend his land : The greatest he, By land or sea. To Scania they Were driven away." Now the kings sailed eastward along the coast, and brought up in a river called Helge-aa, and remained there some time. When they heard that King Ca- nute was coming eastward with his forces against them, they held a council ; and the result was, that King Olaf with his people went up the country to the forest, and to the lake out of which the river Helge flows. There at the river-head they made a dam of timber and turf, and dammed in the lake. They also dug a deep ditch, through which they led several waters, so that the lake waxed very high. In the river-bed they laid large logs of timber. They were many days about this work, and King Olaf had the management of this piece of artifice ; but King Onund had only to command the fleet and army. When King Canute heard of the proceedings of the two kings, and of the damage they had done to his dominions, he sailed right against them to where they lay in Helge river. He had a war-force which was one half greater than that of both the kings to- gether. Sigvat speaks of these things : — " The king, who shields His Jutland fields From scaith or harm By foeman's arm, Will not allow Wild plundering now : ' The greatest he, On land or sea.' " R 4