No English chronicler mentions the presence of King Olaf the Saint
in England; but the two churches dedicated to him at either end of
London Bridge, where his greatest deed was wrought, testify to the
gratitude of the London citizens towards the viking chief who
rescued their city from the Danes, and brought back the king of
their own race towards whom their loyalty was so unswerving.

The deeds of King Olaf recorded in this story of his kinsman are
therefore from the Norse "Saga of King Olaf the Holy," and the
various incidents are assigned as nearly as may be to their place
in the sequence of events given from the death of Swein to the
accession of Cnut, in the contemporary Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which
is our most reliable authority for the period.

The place where King Olaf fought his seventh battle, "Ringmereheath
in Ulfkyl's land," is doubtful. To have localized it, therefore, on
a traditional battlefield in Suffolk, where a mound and field names
point to a severe forgotten fight in the line which a southern
invader would take between Colchester and Sudbury, may be
pardonable for the purposes of Redwald's story.

With regard to other historic incidents in the tale, some are from
the Danish "Knytlinga" and "Jomsvikinga" Sagas, which alone give us
the age of Cnut on his accession to the throne, and recount the
interception of Queen Emma by Thorkel's men on her projected
flight. In the ordinary course of history the age of the wise king
is disregarded, and the doings of the three great jarls are
naturally enough credited to him, for after the first few years of
confusion have been passed over, he takes his place as the greatest