Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/52

 42 EAELY KINGS OF NORWAY. suppose chiefly the Christian part of them, whispered one to another, with a shudder, " That in the blackest of the thunderstorm, he had taken his youngest little boy, and made away with him ; sacrificed him to Thor or some devil, and gained his victory by art- magic, or something worse." Jarl Eric, Hakon's eldest son, without suspicion of art-magic, but already a dis- tinguished viking, became thrice distinguished by his style of sea-fighting in this battle ; and awakened great expectations in the viking public ; of him we shall hear again. The Jomsburgers, one might fancy, after this sad clap went visibly down in the world ; but the fact is not altogether so. Old King Blue-tooth was now dead, died of a wound got in battle with his ?mnatural (so called * natural') son and successor, Otto Svein of the Forked Beard, afterwards king and conqueror of England for a little while ; and seldom, perhaps never, had vikingism been in such flower as now. This man's name is Sven in Swedish, Svend in Ger- man, and means hoy or lad, — the English * swain.' It was at old * Father Blue-tooth's funeral-ale' (drunken burial-feast), that Svein, carousing with his