Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/392

 380 CHRONICLE OF THE N^TE s. rpj^ig s^yend was a son of the Earl Ulf, who, after the battle of Helo*e-a, was assassinated in the church of Saint Lucius in Koskilde, in the winter of 1027, by order of Canute the Great ; and to whom Canute's sister Astrid, a daughter of King Swein the first Danish conqueror of England, was married. On the death of Canute the Great in 1035, his son Hardacanute succeeded to the Danish, and his son Harald to the English crown. In 1040 Hardacanute, by the death of his brother Harald, succeeded to England also ; and on his own death in 1042 King Magnus the Good of Norway claimed the kingdom of Denmark, in virtue of an agreement made in 1036 between liim and Hardacanute, and ratified by the chief people of each country, that the survivor of the tAvo kings should succeed to the kingdom of the other in default of heirs male. Earl Swend, however, the son of Earl Ulf, nephew of Canute the Great, and next heir of that line, wrested the kingdom from the Norwegian king, and died in 1075, or 40 years after Canute the Great, and was succeeded by his son Harald Hein, and on his death in 1080 by his next son Saint Canute. During the forty-five years between Canute the Great and Saint Canute, the kingdom was in too distracted a state, from the wars relative to the succession, for any such general or- ganization of its military force into districts, and fixed quota of vessels to be furnished by each in a levy. We must go back for the origin and establishment of this regular organization to the pagan times preceding King Canute and his father Swein, or Swend Forked-beard, the conqueror of England, who was born a pagan ; and it enables us to account for their military power. The Godards and Thingsteds at which the people within each circle or godard assembled, were evidently the bishoprics, parishes, and churches of the Christian organiz- ation of the country, with the numbers of ships e ch terri- torial division had to furnish to a levy, remaining as in the pagan times, and described as belonging to each church-circle or godard. This chapter tells us that the most southerly bishopric of Denmark was Heidaby, viz. Sleswick, the old town of Heidaby having been on the bank of the Slie, opposite to the present town of Sleswick ; and that it had 350 churches, that is, Thingsteds, or head places of assembling the commu- nity of the godards, and furnished 130 ships to the king on a levy. Riben, a bishopric in Jutland next to it, had 324