King Canute Sails to Funen
XXIV
The History of King Sweyn Estridsson and His Sons and of the Martyrdom of King Canute the Holy
Puppibus ergo non segniter instructis et necessariis aduectis magnificus princeps, Iucium furorem simul et ipsam Iuciam penitus relicturus, fluctiuagos sinus cum domesticis satellitibus et nouo iam certamine tyronibus experiendis ingrediens Pheonie partibus aduehitur; ubi, dum presentis securitatem quietis requirens non inuenit, sempiternę felicitatis palma et perpetua gloriosi triumphi memoria insigniri promeruit.
Tu etenim, antiquissime seductor, hęc omnia deo sinente et ad pociora disponente malicię tuę artibus et instigatione perficiens, qui quondam decorus et magnificus ob immensi tumoris contumaciam de summis celorum eiectus et post modicus in serpente uisus proauos nostros deitatis promissu seduxeras, haud mirum, si iam per unius regni spacia in hominem dei insidiarum machinas distendas, cum cotidie per uniuersum orbem fidelium iter impediens ad dampnationis tuę cumulum multiplicitatem complicium sempiterno tecum igne exurendorum coaceruas.
Aggredere ergo impietatis tuę ministros et in dei seruum exacue: uiros instrue, animos incita, lacertos adarma, insidias prepara, complices sceleris accumula, ut, quanto crudelior extiterit insidiantium seuicia, eo gloriosior efficiatur gloriosi principis uictorię memoria.
Once the ships were swiftly prepared and supplied with what was necessary, the magnificent prince — leaving behind both the rage of the Jutlanders and Jutland itself — set out with his household companions and young retainers, now to be tested in a new trial, and crossed the restless waters to the shores of Fyn. There, though he sought the security of present peace and did not find it, he instead won the crown of eternal happiness and the lasting memory of a glorious victory.
For you, ancient deceiver, accomplished all this through your malice and instigation, with God permitting it and ordering all things toward a higher purpose. You who were once radiant and splendid, but were cast down from the heights of heaven because of the arrogance of your immeasurable pride, and who later appeared in the serpent to deceive our first ancestors with promises of divinity — it is no wonder if now, within the bounds of a single kingdom, you stretch out the engines of treachery against a man of God. For daily, throughout the whole world, you hinder the path of the faithful and heap up companions for your own damnation, to be burned with you in eternal fire.
Proceed, then, in your wickedness, so that the greater the cruelty of those who lie in wait, the more glorious the memory of the victorious triumph of this illustrious prince may become.