that his personal salvation should overflow and become general, and begged that Denmark should be instructed in divinity by Agapete, who was then Pope of Rome.  But he was cut off before his prayers attained this wish.  His death befell before the arrival of the messengers from Rome:  and indeed his intention was better than his fortune, and he won as great a reward in heaven for his intended piety as others are vouchsafed for their achievement.

His son Gorm, who had the surname of “The Englishman,” because he was born in England, gained the sovereignty in the island on his father’s death; but his fortune, though it came soon, did not last long.  He left England for Denmark to put it in order; but a long misfortune was the fruit of this short absence.  For the English, who thought that their whole chance of freedom lay in his being away, planned an open revolt from the Danes, and in hot haste took heart to rebel.  But the greater the hatred and contempt of England, the greater the loyal attachment of Denmark to the king.  Thus while he stretched out his two hands to both provinces in his desire for sway, he gained one, but lost the lordship of the other irretrievably; for he never made any bold effort to regain it.  So hard is it to keep a hold on very large empires.

After this man his son harald came to be king of Denmark; he is half-forgotten by posterity, and lacks all record for famous deeds, because he rather preserved than extended the possessions of the realm.

After this the throne was obtained by Gorm, a man whose soul was ever hostile to religion, and who tried to efface all regard for Christ’s worshippers, as though they were the most abominable of men.  All those who shared this rule of life he harassed with divers kinds of injuries and incessantly pursued with whatever slanders he could.  Also, in order to restore the old worship to the shrines, he razed to its lowest foundations, as though it were some unholy abode of impiety, a temple which religious men had founded in a stead in Sleswik; and those whom he did not visit with tortures he punished by the demolition of the holy chapel.  Though this man was thought notable for his stature, his mind did not answer to his body; for he kept himself so well sated with power that he rejoiced more in saving than increasing his dignity, and thought it better to guard his own than to attack what belonged to others:  caring more to look to what he had than to swell his havings.

This man was counselled by the elders to celebrate the rites of marriage, and he wooed Thyra, the daughter of Ethelred, the king of the English, for his wife.  She surpassed other women in seriousness and shrewdness, and laid the condition on her suitor that she would not marry him till she had received Denmark as a dowry.  This compact was made between them, and she was betrothed to Gorm.  But on the first night that she went up on to the marriage-bed, she prayed her husband most