Qui cum duodecimum aetatis annum ageret, legationum petulantia fatigatur, Saxonibus bellum aut tributum afferre iussus.
Sed rubor pugnam pensioni anteposuit, potius ad strenue moriendum quam timide vivendum impellens.
Itaque praelata pugnandi sorte, Danorum iuventus Albyam fluvium tanta navigiorum frequentia complevit, ut facilem eius transitum perinde ac continuo ponte iuncta puppium tabulata praestarent.
So he elected to fight; and the warriors of the Danes filled the Elbe with such a throng of vessels, that the decks of the ships lashed together made it quite easy to cross, as though along a continuous bridge.
Name spellings are derived from Oliver Elton's 1905 translation, The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, via Wikisource.