er (A.D. 1025) came Stein, a son of the lagman Skapte, from
Iceland, in compliance with King Olaf's message; and with him Thorod,
a son of Snorre the gode, and Geller, a son of Thorkel Eyjolfson, and
Egil, a son of Hal of Sida, brother of Thorstein Hal. Gudmund Eyjolfson
had died the winter before. These Iceland men repaired to King Olaf as
soon as they had opportunity; and when they met the king they were well
received, and all were in his house. The same summer King Olaf heard
that the ship was missing which he had sent the summer before to the
Farey Islands after the scat, and nobody knew what had become of it.
The king fitted out another ship, manned it, and sent it to the Farey
Islands for the scat. They got under weigh, and proceeded to sea; but
as little was ever heard of this vessel as of the former one, and many
conjectures were made about what had become of them.

139. HERE BEGINS THE STORY OF CANUTE THE GREAT.

During this time Canute the Great, called by some Canute the Old,
was king of England and Denmark. Canute the Great was a son of
Svein Haraldson Forkedbeard, whose forefathers, for a long course
of generations, had ruled over Denmark. Harald Gormson, Canute's
grandfather, had conquered Norway after the fall of Harald Grafeld,
Gunhild's son, had taken scat from it, and had placed Earl Hakon the
Great to defend the country. The Danish King, Svein Haraldson, ruled
also over Norway, and placed his son-in-law Earl Eirik, the son of Earl
Hakon, to defend the country. The brothers Eirik and Svein, Earl Hakon's
sons, ruled the land until Earl Eirik went west to England, on the
invitation of his brother-in-law Canute the Great, when he left behind
his son Earl Hakon, sister's son of Canute the Great, to govern Norway.
But when Olaf the Thick came first to Norway, as before related, he took
prisoner Earl Hakon the son of Eirik, and deposed him from the kingdom.
Then Hakon proceeded to his mother's brother, Canute the Great, and had
been with him constantly until the time to which here in our saga we
have now come. Canute the Great had conquered England by blows and
weapons, and had a long struggle before the people of the land were
subdued. But when he had set himself perfectly firm in the government of
the country, he remembered that he also had right to a kingdom which he
had not brought under his authority; and that was Norway. He thought he
had hereditary right to all Norway; and his sister's son Hakon