campaign against the Obotrites, a Slavonic people in modern Mecklenburg, he constructed a boundary wall for his kingdom, stretching from the Baltic to the Eider. He received tribute not only from the Obotrites but also from the Nordalbingians and Frisians. He was preparing to attack Charles the Great himself when he died suddenly by the hand of a retainer in 810. There can be little doubt that this Godefridus is to be identified with the Gotricus of Saxo Grammaticus and Guðröðr the Yngling of Scandinavian tradition. If that is so, Guðröðr-Godefridus was slain in Stifla Sound (probably on the coast of Vestfold), and was king not only of Denmark, but also of much of Southern Norway, including Vestfold, Vingulmörk, and perhaps Agðir, as well as of Vermland in Sweden.
Later events confirm the evidence for the existence of a Dano-Norwegian kingdom of this kind. In 812 a dispute as to the succession arose between Sigefridus, "nepos" to king Guðröðr, and Anulo (O.N. Óli), "nepos" to a former king Herioldus (O.N. Haraldr) or Harold (probably the famous Harold Hyldetan slain at the battle of Bravalla). Both claimants were slain in fight but the party of Anulo were victorious. Anulo's brothers, Harold and Reginfredus (O.N. Ragnfröðr), became joint kings, and soon after we hear of their going to Vestfold, "the extreme district of their realm, whose people and chiefs were refusing to be made subject to them." Fortune fluctuated between Harold and the sons of Godefridus during the next few years, but Harold secured the support of the Emperor when he accepted baptism at Mayence in 826, with his wife, son and nephew. After his baptism he returned to Denmark through Frisia, where the Emperor had granted him Riustringen as a retreat in case of necessity. An attempt to regain Denmark was frustrated, and Harold probably availed himself of his Frisian grant during the next few years. The next incident belongs to the year 836, when Horic (O.N. Hárekr), one of the sons of Godefridus, sent an embassy to Louis the Pious denying complicity in the Viking raids made on Frisia at that time, and these denials continued during the next few years. In 837 Hemmingus (O.N. Hemmingr), probably a brother of Harold, and himself a Christian, was slain while defending the island of Walcheren against pirates. These two incidents are important as they tend to shew that the Viking raids were rather individual than national enterprises and that there was an extensive peaceful settlement of Danes in Frisia. In addition to the grant of Riustringen the Emperor had assigned (826) another part of Frisia to Roric (O.N. Hrœrekr), a brother of Harold, on condition that he should ward off piratical attacks.
It was during these years that the influence of Christianity first made itself felt in Scandinavia. The earliest knowledge of Christianity probably came, as is so often the case, with the extension of trade. Danes and Swedes settled in Friesland and elsewhere for purposes of trade, and either they or their emissaries must have made the "white
