The king died in April with the Danes in the river.
Verse 1
Sung low, half-time, heavy and minor. Cello drone and dulcimer, no guitars.
And we buried him in Paul's before the bells were done, his son rode out to raise the shires, and left me the wall and the gate and the bread, the Dane came up the Thames with his father's ships, and the bridge was the one thing he could not pass,
Pre-Chorus
Still half-time. Psaltery enters, palm-muted guitars, drums building.
So he dug a ditch on the southern bank, and he dragged his ships around the bridge,
Chorus 1
Full time — driving tremolo guitars and double-kick, dark and cold. The Latin office sings with her in fifths.
The price of London, he sent a man to the wall to name it, silver by the cartload, and the old king's sons to the knife, Once a queen — and a widow at the gate,
Riff Break
A cello phrase, and the lead guitar echoes it back.
Verse 2
Half-time again, heavy and minor, cello and psaltery, guitars low.
They were not my sons, and every clerk knew it, my own were over the sea where no knife could reach, I sent back bread, and I sent back a number, and I did not send a name,
Pre-Chorus 2
The drone lower, drums building.
I bought the summer with a sum, and Edmund came back through the gate,
Chorus 2
Full time, heavier, the office closer.
The price of London, he sent a man to the wall to name it, silver by the cartload, and I paid him in days, Once a queen — and the gate still shut,
Solo
Call and response — a bowed cello plays a phrase, the lead guitar echoes it an octave up, and the cello answers.
Bridge
Everything drops out. Half-tempo, cello and mezzo alone, the office silent.
Within the year the old king's sons were in the ground, and the babies sent over the sea to the Swedes, and no one was left of the old house in England but a widow and the two she kept away, so when he sent for me, I named the price myself,
Final Chorus
Full time and biggest. A low war-horn enters and the Latin office rises over her.
The price of London, I stood in the nave and I named it, no son of any other woman, and he swore it on the book, Twice a queen — and I was the price, and nobody wrote down what it cost,
Outro
The mezzo alone over cello, a last guitar echo, the office gone. Dry, then a hard cut.
They say he had the widow fetched. I had the terms before the ring. My own two waited in Normandy.
The history
23 April 1016 – summer 1017 · London under siege, then Winchester · the widow of Æthelred between the Danish conquest and her second marriage
Source: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle s.a. 1016–1017; Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicon VII (written by 1018); Encomium Emmae Reginae II.16 on the marriage terms
Named figures
Emma of NormandyÆthelred’s widow. Very probably the queen Thietmar places inside besieged London, bargaining with the Danes; married to Cnut in 1017
CnutSweyn Forkbeard’s son, about twenty, who besieged London in 1016 and was king of all England within the year
Edmund IronsideÆthelred’s son by his first wife, chosen king by London. Twice relieved the city, divided the kingdom with Cnut, and died on 30 November 1016
Edward and AlfredEmma’s own sons by Æthelred, kept safe in Normandy — the two she kept away
What this song renders
The siege is documented. Æthelred died in London on 23 April 1016 and was buried in St Paul’s; the councillors in the city chose Edmund as king. The Chronicle says Cnut’s ships came to Greenwich and then to London, that the Danes dug a great ditch on the south side and dragged their ships to the west of the bridge, and then ditched the city round so no one could get in or out. Edmund came back and relieved London more than once. The city never fell; after the battle of Assandun that autumn the two kings divided England, and when Edmund died in November Cnut took it all.
Emma’s part in it rests on one witness. Thietmar of Merseburg, writing in Saxony within two years, says the widowed queen was in London, and that the Danes demanded an enormous ransom and the surrender of the princes. Most historians take his queen to be Emma, though not all. The English sources do not say where she was. That she bought the summer by stalling until Edmund returned is the song’s reading of Thietmar.
The bridge and the final chorus move to 1017. That year Cnut had Edmund’s brother Eadwig killed and sent Edmund’s infant sons to the Swedish king — they survived, in Hungary — and, in the Chronicle’s words, before the first of August ordered Æthelred’s widow to be fetched as his wife. Her own book, the Encomium, adds that she refused him until he swore no other woman’s son would rule after him. That oath is known only from the book she paid for.
Verdict
Æthelred’s death and burial, the channel dug round London Bridge, Edmund’s relief of the city, the 1017 purge and the marriage to Cnut are documented. The queen negotiating inside London comes from one contemporary foreign source and is usually, not universally, identified as Emma. The oath is her own account in the Encomium. Paying in days, and naming the price herself, are the song’s staging.