The Swedish and the Norwegian kings ordered a large dam be made of peat and lumber on the river.

The kings Olaf and Anund Jacob, seeing they had got all the victory that fate permitted them to gain for the moment, let their ships retreat.

It has been speculated that the Swedish city Sigtuna was held by Cnut; there were coins struck there that called him king, but there is no narrative record of his occupation.

[6][7] The battle is retold in skaldic poetry and in sources such as the Danish Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus and the Icelandic Saga of Olaf the Holy by Snorri Sturluson.

Opinions are divided as to whether the location was at the Helge River of eastern Scania, Denmark or Helgeå in Uppland, Sweden.