The Day London Bridge Fell Down, by Snorro Sturluson

❰

1 2

❱

BUT King Olaf, and the Northmen’s fleet with him, rowed quite up under the bridge, laid their cables around the piles which supported it, and then rowed off with all the ships as hard as they could down the stream. The piles were thus shaken in the bottom, and were loosened under the bridge.

Now as the armed troops stood thick of men upon the bridge, and there were likewise many heaps of stones and other weapons upon it, and the piles under it being loosened and broken, the bridge gave way; and a great part of the men upon it fell into the river, and all the others fled, some into the castle, some into Southwark.* Thereafter Southwark was stormed and taken.

Now when the people in the castle saw that the river Thames was mastered, and that they could not hinder the passage of ships up into the country, they became afraid, surrendered the tower, and took Ethelred to be their king.*

by Snorro Sturluson 1179-1241

tr. Samuel Laing (abridged)

From The Heimskringla; or Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorro Sturluson (1179-1241), translated by Samuel Laing. Abridged.

Sturluson quoted a Scandinavian poet at this point, and translator Samuel Laing took a few liberties to recall a much later nursery rhyme:London Bridge is broken down,—
Gold is won, and bright renown.
Shields resounding,
War-horns sounding,
Hildur shouting in the din!
Arrows singing,
Mail-coats ringing—
Odin makes our Olaf win!‘Our Olaf’ however spent the winter of 1014-15 in Normandy with the Duke, Richard II, grandfather of William the Conqueror, and was baptised there at Rouen by the Archbishop, Richard’s brother Robert the Dane. The first Duke of Normandy and Count of Rouen had been a Viking raider named Rollo (r. 911-927).

Olaf helped Ethelred regain London, Canterbury and Lindsey, and for a time his ships patrolled England’s southern coast. But by the time Ethelred died on April 23rd, 1016, Olaf had sailed away first to Normandy and then to Norway to claim his kingdom, leaving England at the mercy of Cnut once again. Ethelred’s son Edward the Confessor eventually became King of England in 1042; Olaf’s half-brother Harald very nearly did, but was defeated by Harold II at Stamford Bridge near York in 1066.

Précis

Although Ethelred’s fleet could not pass the bridge occupied by the Danes, Olaf, who had added wooden coverings to his ships, was able to sail beneath it and dislodge the piles on which it stood. The bridge fell, taking the Danish army with it; and thanks to Olaf’s ingenuity Ethelred was able to liberate London.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Précis

Questions for Critics

Tags

Read Next