The North Sea Empire

Intro

(Knútr! Emma!)

Sweyn took England — died before the crown dried...

(Hu-ha!) I came back — Edmund fought me — we tied —

Then Edmund died — and all of England complied —

(Knútr!) The North Sea empire — no shore was denied...

Verse 1 — Knútr

Sweyn Forkbeard's son — watched him take the island —

Forty days as king — gone — left me the highland

Of everything he'd built — the choice: silent

Retreat or finish what he started — not compliant.

Edmund Ironside — the last English fighter —

Met me at Assandun — neither one the lighter

In the end — we split the kingdom — no decider

But God and autumn — Edmund died — I'm the insider.

Baptized, crowned, legitimate — the wearing

Of an English face over Norse bone — the bearing

Of a Viking in a Saxon hall — declaring

Laws in Latin, English, Danish — all comparing

To the same intent: this island stays in my keeping.

I wrote the laws the English wanted — no reaping

Of the old raid-logic — I was done with leaping

Onto shores — I owned the shore — no sweeping.

Four kingdoms in the hand by 1028 —

England, Denmark, Norway — all deliberate —

Parts of Sweden folding — the full weight

Of the North Sea empire — Knútr — no debate.

Pre-Chorus — both

Emma: Rollo's blood through Normandy and into my position (my position)

Knútr: she'd already survived one king — the coalition

(she knew the game...)

Both: the Viking and the Norman queen — the proposition

That the north could rule the world through pure ambition. (uh!)

Chorus — both

England, Denmark, Norway — one hand's grip (one hand's grip!)

The North Sea empire launched from Sweyn's last ship (last ship!)

Emma's Encomium — her own authorship (authorship!)

Knútr ruled the world the longships built — no slip! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2 — Emma

Ælfgifu to the English — Emma to the Norman —

I answered to both names — that was the format

Of a woman who had survived the storming

Of two dynasties before the third one forming.

Æthelred's queen first — sons in Normandy hiding —

The Danes came — I read the current — deciding

Widowhood was not the end — the riding

Out of one king's death into the next — providing.

Knútr offered — I negotiated — standing:

My sons' succession first — the understanding

That Emma of Normandy was not a landing

Point for Viking ambition — I was commanding.

I wrote the Encomium Emmae Reginae —

My own hand — my own account — no finer

Record of the age exists — the minor

Detail: I shaped what history would find there.

Rollo's blood through Richard's line to Normandy —

Same Norse root as the man who stood in front of me —

Two Viking bloodlines meeting in the colony

Of an English throne — that's the full economy.

Pre-Chorus — both

Emma: Rollo's blood through Normandy and into my position (my position)

Knútr: she'd already survived one king — the coalition

(she knew the game...)

Both: the Viking and the Norman queen — the proposition

That the north could rule the world through pure ambition. (uh!)

Chorus — both

England, Denmark, Norway — one hand's grip (one hand's grip!)

The North Sea empire launched from Sweyn's last ship (last ship!)

Emma's Encomium — her own authorship (authorship!)

Knútr ruled the world the longships built — no slip! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge — trading

Knútr: I stood at the tide and told it: stop — the story

(the tide...)

Wasn't hubris — proof that kings take glory

(not God's work...)

Not from water — only God commands the hoary

Sea — I was making the point — mandatory.

Emma: I outlived Knútr — outlived his sons — the tally

(outlived them all...)

Three kings dead — I kept the final valley

(kept the ground...)

Of English politics — no final rally

Could move me from the board — I was the galley.

Both: Rollo walked to Paris — built the duchy —

Emma carried it to England — touch me

(the blood holds...)

If you think the Norse root didn't clutch the

(Skál to the empire! Skál — the north's too much — see!)

(Knútr held four kingdoms — Emma held the country!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus — both

England, Denmark, Norway — one hand's grip (one hand's grip!)

The North Sea empire launched from Sweyn's last ship (last ship!)

Emma's Encomium — her own authorship (authorship!)

Knútr ruled the world the longships built — no slip! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Knútr! Emma!)

The North Sea empire — 1028 AD...

(Hu-ha!)

Four kingdoms.

One Viking hand.

Emma wrote it down herself.

Rollo's blood

closed the loop

on an English throne.

(The longship

never left.

It became

the crown.)