Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - II. The Danelaw - 5. Svein and Knút
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where Eadmund met them once more at Assandun,
and lost the last decisive action. The site of Assandan
is usually placed at Ashingdon, because Canewdon—
quasi Canute-don—is near it; but the names in
Domesday are Ascenduna, which does not tally with
Assandun, and Carendun. Ashdon, near Saffron
Walden, has been suggested, but the circumstances
of the battle appear to fit Sandon, near Danbury,
"the Danes’ burg," on the road between Maldon and
Chelmsford, along which Knút’s men were probably
returning from their raid into "Mercia," which may
mean Mersea in Essex.
After this great overthrow it was useless for Eadmund
Ironside to resist. Knút proposed a meeting at
"Olanege," near "Deorhyrst," on the Severn, where
the two kings "became fellows and pledge-brothers."
They agreed to divide England, Eadmund taking
Wessex and paying a Danegeld. But on November
30, 1016, he died—murdered, his partisans held, at
the instigation of Knút—and the Vikings at last ruled
the country they had sought for two centuries to
conquer.
In the "Lithsmen’s Song," made by the men of the
host, Skjöldunga saga says, though the saga of St.
Olaf attributes it to the king and saint himself, we
have a curious and valuable echo of the time. We
see how the Vikings looked upon their adventure ;
we get the touch of nature which brings the "fury of the
Northman" before us in a new light, and reveals no
hero, no demon, but just the Tommy Atkins of a
barrack-room ballad, with his two themes of song—
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