Chapter 73: Harthacnut Is Better Than None

Map of the North Sea and Alban Isles during the Battle of London.

*Harthacnut (Danish: Hardeknud), occasionally named as Canute III, was King of Denmark from AD 1035 to AD 1042, and King of England from AD 1040 to AD 1042. The son of King Canute the Great and Emma of Normandy, he was born, in July 1017, in England, shortly after their marriage. As part of the negotiations of surrender in the aftermath of King Canute's conquest of England, Harthacnut took precedence in inheritance over his older half-brothers from his parents' first marriages. When their father died in AD 1035, Harthacnut was left ruling Denmark, while his half-brother Svein (son of Ælfgifu of Northampton) was faced with a revolt in Norway, and Harold Harefoot (also son of Ælfgifu) took control in England.*

*[...]popularly seen as little more than a brutal tyrant without virtue or redeeming value, Harthacnut has usually been presented in a highly moralistic fashion in most popular media over the centuries. In these stories, he is used as an archetypal figure of the corrupt and brutal nobleman whose own evils bring about his downfall, an almost idealized villainous figure from whose tyranny and grotesque abuses the populace are freed from.*

*As such, in contemporary media, there is little interest in conflicting perspectives on his family background and upbringing that produced him. This is not helped by the recorded accounts of his actions, including massacres, repressive taxation, executions, feasts in the midst of bad harvests, oathbreaking, violations of hospitality, loyalty purges, and even the posthumous beheading and disposal of Harold Harefoot, his paternal half-brother, in retribution for the death of Ælfred Æþeling, Harthacnut's maternal half-brother. His death on 11 June, AD 1042 is seen as appropriately fated, but even then, he is typically overshadowed by the other events of the day...*

*—Dragons of the North: Profiles Of The Viking Lords, Waterford University Press, 1733*

## Major Events

* Stoick and Magnus lead the attack on London. Stoick duels Harthacnut in single combat until he yields, but Harthacnut tries to stab him in the back and is killed by an arrow in the eye.
* Spitelout finds Hiccup's horn for directing the dragons, and uses it to defend Berk.
* Berkian reinforcements arrive to turn the tide of the rebellion in Denmark.
* Hiccup and the others in Vedrarfjord defend the city from an attack by the Eirish kings.

## Trivia

* This chapter marks the first time the dragons are shown directly conversing among themselves.

## Characters

### Humans

* Harthacnut
* Stoick the Vast
* Astrid Hákonsdóttir clan Haddock
* Wulfhild of Norway
* Hiccup clan Haddock
* Fintan mac Ionatan
* Dogsbreath Rolfsson
* Jannick Krestensson
* Birgir, Jarl of Ribe
* Hákon Mortensson
* Donnchadh mac Brian
* Steinn Sigmundsson
* Magnus the Good
* Jonna Asgersdóttir
* Spitelout Clodgallsson
* Gobber the Belch
* Gunvor Dugaldsdóttir
* Fishlegs clan Ingerman
* Heather
* Edward Æthelredsson
* Chuffnut clan Ingerman
* Archbishop Eadsige of Canterbury
* Alfric clan Hofferson (first appearance)
* Sigurd Trondsson
* Georgios Maniakes

### Dragons

* Thornado
* Redsnout
* Several unnamed dragons of Berk
* Cloudfox
* Brand
* Kingstail
* Hookfang
* Toothless

## Analysis

### Epigraph Tie-In

* The epigraph mentions how Harthacnut is remembered after his death. The chapter shows how he died.
* The epigraph mentions that Harthacnut's death is overshadowed in history by the other events of the day. The chapter shows that those events are the attacks on Verdrarfjord and Berk.