Editing Cnut (section)

=== Landing in Wessex ===
According to the ''[[Peterborough Chronicle]]'' manuscript, one of the major witnesses of the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', early in September 1015 "[Cnut] came into Sandwich, and straightway sailed around Kent to [[Wessex]], until he came to the mouth of the [[River Frome, Dorset|Frome]], and harried in [[Dorset]] and [[Wiltshire]] and [[Somerset]]",<ref>Garmonsway, G.N. (ed. & trans.), ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', Dent Dutton, 1972 & 1975, Peterborough (E) text, s.a. 1015, p. 146.</ref> beginning a campaign of an intensity not seen since the days of [[Alfred the Great]].{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=27}} A passage from [[Encomium Emmae Reginae|Queen Emma's ''Encomium'']] provides a picture of Cnut's fleet:
{{blockquote|text=[T]here were there so many kinds of shields, that you could have believed that troops of all nations were present. ... Gold shone on the prows, silver also flashed on the variously shaped ships. ... For who could look upon the lions of the foe, terrible with the brightness of gold, who upon the men of metal, menacing with golden face, ... who upon the bulls on the ships threatening death, their horns shining with gold, without feeling any fear for the king of such a force? Furthermore, in this great expedition, there was present no slave, no man freed from slavery, no low-born man, no man weakened by age; for all were noble, all strong with the might of mature age, all sufficiently fit for any type of fighting, all of such great fleetness, that they scorned the speed of horsemen.|sign=''Encomium Emmae Reginae''<ref>Campbell, A. (ed. & trans.), ''Encomium Emmae Reginae'', Camden 3rd Series vol. LXXII, 1949, pp. 19–21.</ref>}}

[[Wessex]], long ruled by the dynasty of Alfred and Æthelred, submitted to Cnut late in 1015, as it had to his father two years earlier.{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=27}} At this point [[Eadric Streona]], the [[Ealdorman of Mercia]], deserted Æthelred together with 40 ships and their crews and joined forces with Cnut.<ref name="G. Jones, Vikings, p. 370">G. Jones, ''Vikings'', p. 370</ref> Another defector was [[Thorkell the Tall]], a [[Jomsvikings|Jomsviking chief]] who had fought against the Viking invasion of [[Sweyn Forkbeard]], with a pledge of allegiance to the English in 1012{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=27}} – some explanation for this shift of allegiance may be found in a stanza of the ''[[Jómsvíkinga saga]]'' that mentions two attacks against Jomsborg's mercenaries while they were in England, with a man known as Henninge, a brother of Thorkell, among their casualties.<ref name="Trow, Cnut, p. 57">Trow, ''Cnut'', p. 57.</ref> If the ''[[Flateyjarbók]]'' is correct that this man was Cnut's childhood mentor, it explains his acceptance of his allegiance – with [[Jomvikings]] ultimately in the service of [[Jomsborg]]. The 40 ships Eadric came with, often thought to be of the [[Danelaw]],<ref name="Trow, Cnut, p. 57"/> were probably Thorkell's.{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=161}}