vi.

Denmark Kept My Son

Act II — What I Held Released Approx. 5:13

About this track

Winter 1036 into 1037. Cnut is dead, and the council at Oxford has left Emma at Winchester to hold Wessex for her son Harthacnut — who is king in Denmark, at war with Magnus of Norway, and does not sail. Month by month the ships do not come. Her thegns leave one at a time, nobody announces it, and the hall is just quieter. Harold Harefoot’s grip closes while she watches the water.

This is the album’s doom floor and its one crack. The arrangement deliberately refuses to build: three verses at the same weight, guitars only at the choruses, the Latin office wordless and very close throughout — a year of nothing happening, made into structure. The one escalation is the wrong ship: a sail comes up the Itchen in the rain, the whole house goes down to the water, and it is carrying Harold’s letter. She reads it standing on the mud and lets the tide come in over her shoes — the only moment on the record where she is not in control.

Anglo-Danish doom metal at 76 BPM, the slowest track on the album — low bowed cello drone, dry hammered dulcimer and bare frame drum, plucked psaltery under the verses, enormous slow detuned guitars arriving only at the choruses, and a low chest mezzo that never lifts. The chorus stamp moves from waiting is the work to waiting was the work, and it took two years of me, and the outro hands the next track its title and its number: He came with sixty-two ships. He came four years too late.

Track 06 of 11 Act II — What I Held Cadence Anglo-Danish doom metal at 76 BPM — cello drone and hammered dulcimer, guitars only at the choruses, a wordless Latin office close behind a mezzo that never lifts; the album’s slowest track

Intro

Two lines spoken, dry, over the cello drone.

I watched the water for a year,
and I got good at it.

Verse 1

Sung low, cello and dulcimer, no guitars.

No ship in March,
no ship when the ice went,
no ship when the season turned,
and no word either,

Pre-Chorus

Psaltery enters, the drone lower, still no guitar.

He is a king in another country,
and he is winning there,

Chorus 1

Enormous slow guitars. The Latin office wordless and very close.

Denmark kept my son,
Denmark fed him and kept him warm,
I held a throne for a boy,
who had a better one,
Twice a queen — and waiting is the work,

Verse 2

No guitar, no cymbals — cello and psaltery only.

They go one at a time,
a thegn, then his brother, then his men,
nobody tells me they are going,
the hall is just quieter,

Pre-Chorus 2

The drone lower still, frame drum closer, no guitar.

You can hold a room with silver,
you cannot hold a year,

Chorus 2

Guitars back, the office wordless and wider.

Denmark kept my son,
Denmark fed him and kept him warm,
I held a throne for a boy,
who did not want this one,
Twice a queen — and waiting is all the work,

Verse 3

Frame drum and her voice alone.

A sail came up the Itchen in the rain,
and the whole house went down to the water,
and it was not his,
and the man who came ashore had Harold's letter,

Guitar Solo

Sixteen bars of lead guitar over half-time drums.

Bridge

Everything out but her voice and one low drone. Half-time, the closest point.

I read it standing on the mud,
and I did not go back up to the hall,
and the tide came in over my shoes,
and I let it,

Instrumental

Cello and frame drum, building.

Final Chorus

Biggest — full band, the Latin office wordless and enormous.

Denmark kept my son,
Denmark fed him and kept him warm,
I held a throne for a boy,
who never once looked back,
Twice a queen — and waiting was the work,
and it took two years of me,

Outro

The mezzo alone, one drum, dry. Hard cut.

He came in the end.
He came with sixty-two ships.
He came four years too late.

The history

1036–1037 · Winchester and the river Itchen · holding Wessex for a son who stays in Denmark

Source: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle s.a. 1035–1037 (MSS C, E); Encomium Emmae Reginae III

Named figures

Emma of Normandy Cnut’s widow, left at Winchester with her son’s housecarls to hold Wessex for him; driven out of England in 1037
Harthacnut Her son by Cnut, king in Denmark, most likely held there by the threat from Magnus of Norway — the boy who had a better one
Harold Harefoot Cnut’s son by Ælfgifu of Northampton; regent from 1035, chosen king of all England in 1037

What this song renders

The waiting is documented. After Cnut died in November 1035, a council at Oxford left Harold Harefoot as regent and Emma at Winchester “with the housecarls of her son,” holding Wessex for Harthacnut. He did not come: Denmark was under threat from Magnus of Norway, and he most likely stayed to defend it. Harold’s men took the best of the royal treasure from her, and in 1037, in the Chronicle’s words, Harold was chosen king everywhere “and Harthacnut was forsaken because he was too long in Denmark.”

The cost fell on her. The same year she was “driven out without any mercy to face the raging winter” and crossed to Bruges, where Count Baldwin of Flanders took her in. Harthacnut came in the end — in June 1040, after Harold’s death, with sixty-two warships — four years after she had been told to hold Winchester for him.

The song’s middle is staged. The erosion of support is the Chronicle’s; the thegn, then his brother, then his men, is the song’s way of showing it. The Itchen is Winchester’s river and navigable from Southampton Water, so a sail coming up it is period-correct — but the ship carrying Harold’s letter, and the tide over her shoes, are invention.

Verdict

Emma holding Wessex for Harthacnut, his staying in Denmark, the loss of support, Harold’s accession in 1037 and her expulsion to Bruges are documented. The deserting thegns are a dramatisation of a recorded collapse; the wrong ship, Harold’s letter and the tide are the song’s staging.

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