Took the words right out of my mouth, compadre. It boggles my mind sometimes how the Norman Conquest is so often treated as "just another war", when it was a brutal and genocidal conflict that spanned decades (arguably longer if you include later rebellions by non-Normans).
As for Varangians, not too sure how successful that would be. I mean, those who came would be skilled warriors who are committed to Norman overthrow, but how willing would they really be to fight for Canute? Seems to me that he'd come off as another foreign invader, but I may be wrong.