Merie sungen the muneches binnen Ely
Tha Cnut Ching rew there by:
Roweth, cnihtes, noer the lant,
And here we thes muneches saeng.

Cnut is said to have composed this song on hearing the music of Ely Abbey, as he was sailing by in a boat. This one verse of that song has been preserved by a monk of Ely in the Historia Eliensis (c. 1166). Reported in Chambers's Cyclopædia of English Literature, 3rd ed, vol. 1 (1876) p. 4 | Merrily sung the monks of Ely when Cnut King rowed by... Row, boatman, near the land, and hear we these monks sing. | J. R. Green, A Short History of the English People (New York: Harper & Bros, 1875) ch. 2, p. 95 | Merrily sang the monks in Ely When Canute the king was sailing by. Row, my knights, near to the land, And let us hear the brethren sing. | S. A. Dunham, Europe During the Middle Ages, vol. 4 (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, 1834) p. 21 | Merrily sang the monks in Ely When Cnut, King, rowed thereby: Row, my knights, near the land, And hear we these monkes’ song. | Richard Garnett, English Literature: An Illustrated Record, vol. 1 (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1903) p. 62