less formidable. The undutiful Svein, Svein Forkbeard, as he was nicknamed, was as able as his father, and bent on reconquering Norway, or failing that extending his realm elsewhere. He had sailed all the seas as a viking and already had his eye on England. There were plenty of reasons then about 990 why Englishmen, had they been well informed about the outside world, should have had forebodings as to the future, and be wondering what manner of leader they had in the young Aethelred.
The first raids, sufficiently serious to test Aethelred's capacity, began in 991, when Olaf Tryggvason, a famous Norwegian exile, who had claims on the throne of Norway, burned Ipswich and defeated and slew Brihtnoth, the duke of the East Saxons, at Maldon. Instead of hastening with all speed to avenge this disaster, Aethelred could think of no better counsel than to bribe the invaders to depart by an offer of £10,000. This was done with the advice of Sigeric, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other magnates, and precedents could be found for it in Alfred's reign. None the less it was a most unwise expedient, as it gave the raiders the impression that the king was a weakling and that Englishmen were afraid of fighting. Two years later Olaf went harrying along the coasts of Northumberland and Lindsey, and in 994 was joined by Svein, who for the moment had been driven from Denmark by Eric, the King of Sweden. Their design was to pillage London. The citizens, however, put up such a stout defence that the allied princes abandoned the enterprise and betook themselves to Sussex and Hampshire. There they obtained horses and ravaged far and wide. Again Aethelred and the witan thought only of buying a respite, this time with £16,000 and an offer to supply provisions. Having accepted these terms, Olaf came to Andover on a visit to Aethelred in order to be baptised a Christian, and soon afterwards sailed away to claim the throne of Norway. Successful in this adventure, he never afterwards had leisure to trouble England. Not so King Svein. He too sailed away to deal with the Swedes, and for some years was busied in securing his power in Denmark; but he still kept England in mind, and was only biding his opportunity.
Meantime lesser men continued to make yearly attacks on the coasts of Wessex, and always with such success owing to the quarrels and incompetence of the English leaders that at last Aethelred in despair determined to take some of the vikings into his pay to keep off the remainder. The chief of these was Pallig, a high-born Danish jarl, who had married Svein's sister, Gunnhild. The immediate result, it would seem, was satisfactory, for we hear in the year 1000 of an expedition being led by Aethelred against the Norsemen of Cumberland and the Isle of Man, who had for years been a menace to Yorkshire and the land betwixt the Mersey and the Ribble. The experiment nevertheless as a very risky one, and a year later proved quite ineffective to stop a fresh force of vikings landing in Devon, which ultimately was only bought
