"I am Olaf Haraldsson, and I am here to see if he shall be King of England.

So I call on you to submit peaceably to Ethelred, leaving Cnut to take his own land if he can." "We are Cnut's men and Danes," answered Egil, "and from your speech and name it would seem that you are no Englishman.

Now if you are Olaf the Thick, own your own king Cnut, and leave this Ethelred the Unredy to his own foolishness." "I am one of those Norsemen who hold that Cnut is no king of ours, and therefore I fight him wherever I can.

But if you will own Ethelred there shall be peace from him, and you will but do what the Danes of Guthrum's host did in the old days--hold the land you have won from an English overlord." "A fine overlord, forsooth," said the Dane; "maybe one would think of it had he been a second Alfred--but Ethelred the Unredy! Not so, King Olaf.

Will you own Cnut, or must we make you ?" "It seems that we shall not agree until we have fought out this question," said Olaf, laughing a little.
The Dane laughed back.
"Aye, I suppose not.