f Sweden. As soon as
the country people heard that King Canute was come from the West, no one
thought of going into the service of the two kings.

Now the kings sailed eastward along the coast, and brought up in a river
called Helga, and remained there some time. When they heard that King
Canute 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 Helga
flows. There at the riverhead 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 Helga
river. He had a War-force which was one half greater than that of both
the kings together. 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.'"

160. BATTLE IN HELGA RIVER.

One day, towards evening, King Onund's spies saw King Canute coming
sailing along, and he was not far off. Then King Onund ordered the
war-horns to sound; on which his people struck their tents, put on their
weapons, rowed out of the harbour and east round the land, bound their
ships together, and prepared for battle. King Onund made his spies run
up the country to look for King Olaf, and tell him the news. Then King
Olaf broke up the dam, and let the river take its course. King Olaf
travelled down in the night to his ships. When King Canute came outside
the harbour, he saw the forces of the kings ready for battle. He thought
that it would be too late in the day to begin the fight by the time his
forces could be ready; for his fleet required a great deal of room at
sea, and there was a long distance between the foremost of his ships and
the hindmost, and between those outside and those nearest the land,
and there was but little wind. Now, as Canute saw that the Swedes and
Norwegians had quitted the harbour, he went into it with as