There is a wild story of the massacre of the Danes in this church in the days of Ethelred, as recorded in Strype's _Continuation of Stow_, and in the _Jomsvikinga Saga_. As Mr. Loftie has not found space in _Saxon London_ to mention this colony of Danes and their doings, I venture to quote a passage from Mr. Lethaby's _Pre-Conquest London_, which contains some interesting allusions to these people:
"We are told that Sweyn made warfare in the land of King Ethelred, and drove him out of the land; he put _Thingumannalid_ in two places. The one in Lundunaborg (London) was ruled by Eilif Thorgilsson, who had sixty ships in the Temps (Thames); the other was north in Sleswik. The Thingamen made a law that no one should stay away a whole night. They gathered at the Bura Church every night when a large bell was rung, but without weapons. He who had command in the town (London) was Ædric Streona. Ulfkel Snilling ruled over the northern part of England (East Anglia). The power of the Thingamen was great. There was a fair there (in London) twice every twelve month, one about midsummer and the other about midwinter. The English thought it would be the easiest to slay the Thingamen while Cnut was young (he was ten winters old) and Sweyn dead. About Yule, waggons went into the town to the market, and they were all tented over by the treacherous advice of Ulfkel Snelling and Ethelred's sons. Thord, a man of the Thingumannalid, went out of the town to the house of his mistress, who asked him to stay, because the death was planned of all the Thingamen by Englishmen concealed in the waggons, when the Danes would go unarmed to the church. Thord went into the town and told it to Eilif. They heard the bell ringing, and when they came to the churchyard there was a great crowd who attacked them. Eilif escaped with three ships and went to Denmark. Some time after, Edmund was made King. After three winters, Cnut, Thorkel and Eric went with eight hundred ships to England. Thorkel had thirty ships, and slew Ulfkel Snilling, and married Ulfhild, his wife, daughter of King Ethelred. With Ulfkel was slain every man on sixty ships, and Cnut took Lundunaborg."
Matthew, of Westminster, also records this massacre of the Danes, and other authorities consider that the account in the _Saga_ is founded on fact. However that may be, the Danes undoubtedly had a colony here of their traders, merchants, and seamen, and dedicated their church to their favourite saint, St. Clement, the patron of mariners, whose constant emblem is an anchor. Nor was this the only location of the Northmen. Southwark was their fortified trading place, where they had a church dedicated to St. Olaf, the patron saint of Norway. His name remains in Tooley Street, not a very evident but certainly true derivative of St. Olaf's Street. There are three churches dedicated to St. Olave, who was none other than St. Olaf. St. Magnus, too, tells of the Northmen, who was one of their favourite saints. Going back to the church of St. Clement Danes, we notice that it was rebuilt in 1682 under the advice of Wren, the tower and steeple being added forty years later. Dr. Johnson used to attend here, and a pillar near his seat bears the inscription: