CHAPTER IV. DENMARK IN EARLY TIMES. Queen Thyra rules in Gorm's absence-Her memory much respected--She and her eldest son Harald favour the Christians-Knud her second son follows his father, King Gorm's religion-Gorm known as Worm, and why-His war with, and defeat by Henry the Fowler of Germany— Christians tolerated-How Queen Thyra built up ramparts in Gorm's absence; the way in which she told Gorm of his son Knud's deathGorm dies of grief-H's and Thyra's grave-mounds-Harald's son Svend; his bringing up under Palnatoke-The story of Palnatoke's famous archery-Harald's death-Svend's invasion of England, his death-Knud's reign; his conduct; his murder of his brother-in-law Jarl Ulf; his remorse; his blood fine-Knud's sister Estrid; her husband, Robert le Diable-Knud's death-His sons-Their reigns and early deaths-Magnus the Good of Norway becomes King of Denmark -His kindness to Svend-The death of Magnus-His generous conduct in forgiving Svend on his death-bed, and bestowing on him the kingdom of Denmark. PART I. FIRST QUEEN OF DENMARK. Queen Thyra.-It would seem that, when Gorm was absent on a sea-roving voyage, his queen, Thyra, who is spoken of in the northern sagas by the name of Danebod, or the "Danes'hope," ruled the land very wisely for him. This princess, whose name is still honoured by the Danes, is said by some writers to have been the daughter of an Anglo-Saxon prince, while others believe her father to have been a Holstein chief, and assert that her grandfather went in the year 826 with Harald Klak to the court of the German Emperor, Louis le Débonnaire, where he was baptized. Queen Thyra herself early showed favour to the Christians, and she caused some of her children to be signed with the cross. It King Gorm, on the other hand, was a fierce pagan, and on account of his cruel treatment of his Christian subjects, he gained from them the nickname of the "Church's worm," because, like a worm, he was always gnawing at its supports. is not to be supposed that Gorm cared very much about the bad names that the poor Christians might give him, but he found there was some cause for trouble when he learnt that his conduct had roused the anger of the great German Emperor, Henry I. the Fowler. At first he hoped that the affair would end in threats, but he soon learnt his mistake, for when Henry found that his messages to the Danish king were not heeded, he marched in haste to the banks of the Eyder, at the head of a large army, and there made Gorm clearly see that unless he ceased from troubling the Christians, as the emperor commanded, Slesvig and Jutland would be over-run and taken from him, and the rest of his kingdom, perhaps, also invaded by the great armies of the empire. Some writers have stated that Henry the Fowler called upon the Danish monarch to pay him tribute, in proof of his being a vassal of the German emperors, and that Gorm accepted peace on those terms. It is not certain that this really took place, but we know that the Danish king soon afterwards allowed Unni, Archbishop of Bremen, to preach the gospel in his kingdom, and to restore the churches which had been burnt or pulled down by the pagans, and sign with the cross his younger son, Harald, who like Queen Thyra had long favoured the Christians. Gorm himself never forsook the faith of his forefathers, and his eldest son Knud, called "Dan-Ast," or the "Danes'-joy," was also a pagan. This prince was like his father in many things, and while Gorm and he went forth for years together, following the life of the vikingar, Harald in his youth seldom left the northern seas, although in his later days he more than once headed large fleets in invasions of Britain and Normandy. When the king and his sons were absent, Queen Thyra did the best she could to rule the country in peace and quiet, and a hard task she must have had, because the Germans were always making inroads into Slesvig and Jutland, and turning the border-lands on the Eyder into a desert. Once when Gorm stayed away longer than usual she formed a plan for saving the unhappy people from this constant source of trouble. Having landed at Hedeby, in Slesvig, after leaving her pleasant home in Sjælland, she sent forth letters to all the provinces of Denmark, requiring them to provide able-bodied workmen to help in building a long line of ramparts on the Danish side of the German frontier. The Dannevirke.-In obedience to Queen Thyra's summons a great number of men came to the spot, and then the Queen caused a wall of defence to be built, from forty-five to seventyfive feet high, over a space of eight miles, stretching from the Selker Noer on the Slie, to Hollingsted on the Treene, and lying somewhat to the north of an old earthwork, known as Gotfred's Wall. Thyra's ramparts, of which remains can still be traced and which have formed the groundwork of all later Dannevirke or Danish outworks, took three years to finish and were very complete of their kind. They had strong watchtowers at equal distances, and only one well-protected gate, before which stretched a broad and deep ditch, which it was not easy to cross when the bridge over it had been taken away. The Danes were very grateful to Queen Thyra for her Dannevirke, and they sang her praises in their national rhymes for many ages, and told wonderful tales of her clever way of ruling the land, and keeping off foes when her husband was busy in viking far away from Denmark. In the old sagas which the Northmen carried to Iceland, much praise is given her for the artful manner in which she more than once turned away Gorm's anger from his people, and even from his own children. One of these sagas relates that her two young sons, the princes Knud and Harald, did not bear each other as much brotherly love as they ought. Gorm, who knew of this, had sworn an oath that he would put to death anyone who should attempt the life of his first-born son, or tell him that he had died. When, therefore, tidings were brought to Queen Thyra that Knud Dan-Ast had been drowned while |