And when Eadmund should die, Wessex would take Cnut for king at Eadmund's word, as it were, by reason of the treaty made and oaths given and received.

Not for nothing do men call the King Cnut the Wise, for it is certain that he had Eadmund in his power, and forbore to use his advantage to the full.
So the long struggle ended, and at last there was rest to the land.
But I, who had hoped for victory, felt as though life had little pleasure left when first this news came to me.

But in a few days came one of Godwine's men bearing messages to me from him, and also from Eadmund my king.
The first were most kindly, speaking of hope of seeing me ere long, and the like; but it seemed that the young earl had promised Eadmund to send me the letter which the messenger brought, and that that was the most important business.

I took the letter ashore and went to Ashingdon hill and sat there among the graves of the slain and read it, while the summer sun and wind and sky were over me, while the land and sea seemed at rest, and all was in a great peace after the strife that I had seen in that place.
To my Thane, greeting .-- What has befallen us, and how we have divided the kingdom with our brother Cnut in the old way of the days of Alfred the greatest of our line, you will have heard.

We have fought, and all men say that we have fought well; but this is how things have been ordered by the Lord of Hosts.