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64
VEILE.
Chap. V.
ania. She married Erik of the Bloody Axe, son of Harald
Haarfager, Kine of Norway, and is described as
beau-tiful, clever, but cruel and deceptive. She and her
husband became so detested that Hakon, brother of
Erik, easily deprived them of the crown.
When Erik died she sought refuge with Harald
Blue-Tooth (she was then young and beautiful), and by
his aid one of her sons regained the greater part of
Norway. Gunhild, however, became regent, and
endeavoured by all possible means to acquire the whole
kingdom. By the aid of Harald she got rid of her son,
whom she caused to be murdered in Denmark. The
Blue-Tooth then began to fear the power of Gunhild,
so he on his side murdered the young prince her
grandson. Some Sagas assert that Earl Hakon persuaded
Gunhild that her old flame Harald Blue-Tooth was
desirous to marry her, and she foolishly quitted the
Orkneys, where she had taken refuge, for Jutland. On
her arrival she was seized by order of the King, and,
after the manner of the day, drowned in a bog, which
is still called “ the bog of Gunhild.” Others declare
this story to be unworthy of credit, as Gunhild, who
must have been at least seventy years of age, could
scarcely have confided in the proposal of marriage from
the Blue-Tooth who had murdered her son. Against
that argument it may be pleaded, that murder went for
nothing in her time, and there is no fool like an old fool.
Whatever may have been her fate, it was too good for
her, so I could express no sympathy over her body.
She lies in a wooden sarcophagus, despoiled of her
garments, and black as her own heart in the days of her
power and wickedness, like a statue carved in oak fresh
from the bogs of Hibernia.
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