This etext was prepared by A Elizabeth Warren MD, Sacramento, CA aewarren2@aol.com

THE WARD OF KING CANUTE A Romance of the Danish Conquest

by Ottilie A. Liljencrantz

Acknowledgment

For the facts of this romance I have made free use of the following authorities: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; The Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England; Ingulph's History of the Abbey of Croyland; William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England; The Chronicles of Florence of Worcester; Lingard's History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, and Lingard's History of England; Dean Spencer's The White Robe of Churches; Collier's Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain; Montalembert's Monks of the West; Thrupp's Anglo-Saxon Home; Hall's Queens Before the Conquest; Kemble's Saxons in England; Ridgway's Gem of Thorney Island; Brayley and Britton's History of the Ancient Palace and Late Houses of Parliament; Loftie's Westminster Abbey and Loftie's History of London; Allen's History and Antiquities of London; Lappenberg's History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings; Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons; Knight's Old England; Hume's History of England; Green's Conquest of England; Thierry's History of the Conquest of England by the Normans; Freeman's History of the Norman Conquest.

For the translations of Ha'vama'l, etc., used at the beginnings of the chapters, I am indebted to Professor Rasmus B. Anderson and Mr. Paul du Chaillu.

O. A. L.

Chicago, April 1, 1903.

Contents

Chapter

I. The Fall of the House of Frode

II. Randalin, Frode's Daughter

III. Where War-Dogs Kennel

IV. When Royal Blood is Young Blood

V. Before the King

VI. The Training of Fridtjof the Page

VII. The Game of Swords

VIII. Taken Captive

IX. The Young Lord oi Ivarsdale

X. As the Norns decree

XI. When my Lord comes Home from War

XII. The Foreign Page

XIII. When Might made Right

XIV. How the Fates cheated Randalin

XV. How Fridtjof cheated the Jotun

XVI. The Sword of Speech

XVII. The Judgment of the Iron Voice

XVIII. What the Red Cloak hid

XIX. The Gift of the Elves

XX. A Royal Reckoning

XXI. With the Jotun as Chamberlain

XXII. How the Lord of Ivarsdale paid his Debt

XXIII. A Blood-Stained Crown

XXIV. On the Road to London

XXV. The King's Wife

XXVI. In the Judgment Hall

XXVII. Pixie-Led

XXVIII. When Love meets Love

XXIX. The Ring of the Coiled Snake

XXX. When the King takes a Queen

XXXI. The Twilight of the Gods

XXXII. In Time's Morning

The Ward of King Canute

Foreword

There is an old myth of a hero who renewed his strength each time he touched the earth, and finally was overcome by being raised in the air and crushed. Whether or not the Angles risked a like fate as they raised themselves away from the primitive virtues that had been their life and strength, no one can tell; but it has been well said that when Northern blood mingled with English blood at the time of the Danish Conquest, the Anglo-Saxon race touched the earth again.

C...

Show full text: 503,128 characters