forth to the air with outspread wings.
At last the lesser of them came back without his fellow, and with wings
smeared with blood. He was amazed with this imagination, and, being in a
deep sleep, uttered a cry to betoken his astonishment, filling the whole
house with an uproarious shout. When his servants questioned him, he
related his vision; and Thyra, thinking that she would be blest with
offspring, forbore her purpose to put off her marriage, eagerly relaxing
the chastity for which she had so hotly prayed. Exchanging celibacy
for love, she granted her husband full joy of herself, requiting his
virtuous self-restraint with the fulness of permitted intercourse, and
telling him that she would not have married him at all, had she not
inferred from these images in the dream which he had related, the
certainty of her being fruitful.

By a device as cunning as it was strange, Thyra's pretended modesty
passed into an acknowledgment of her future offspring. Nor did fate
disappoint her hopes. Soon she was the fortunate mother of Kanute and
Harald. When these princes had attained man's estate, they put forth a
fleet and quelled the reckless insolence of the Sclavs. Neither did
they leave England free from an attack of the same kind. Ethelred was
delighted with their spirit, and rejoiced at the violence his nephews
offered him; accepting an abominable wrong as though it were the richest
of benefits. For he saw far more merit in their bravery than in piety.
Thus he thought it nobler to be attacked by foes than courted by
cowards, and felt that he saw in their valiant promise a sample of their
future manhood.

For he could not doubt that they would some day attack foreign realms,
since they so boldly claimed those of their mother. He so much preferred
their wrongdoing to their service, that he passed over his daughter, and
bequeathed England in his will to these two, not scrupling to set the
name of grandfather before that of father. Nor was he unwise; for he
knew that it beseemed men to enjoy the sovereignty rather than women,
and considered that he ought to separate the lot of his unwarlike
daughter from that of her valiant sons. Hence Thyra saw her sons
inheriting the goods of her father, not grudging to be disinherited
herself. For she thought that the preference above herself was
honourable to her, rather than insulting.

Kanute and Harald enriched themselves with great gains from sea-roving,
and most confidently aspired