1 5 2 Norway and the Norivegians 



to have established the succession upon a fixed rule of 

 primogeniture. He did not do this, and the result was 

 that the monarchy which he had founded began at his 

 death to crumble away. 



The ill effects of his policy were not seen till after 

 Harald's death, which took place about a.d. 933, when 

 the king had reached a venerable age. He was buried 

 at Hauge, in the Karmtsund, the sound between Kar- 

 mo Island and the mainland. Karmo the steamers 

 pass after leaving Stavauger for Bergen, and so sail 

 close by Harald's grave. It lay, we see, close to the 

 scene of his great triumph at Hafirsfjord. Harald had 

 many wives and concubines, and a number of children, 

 whole or half-brothers to one another. The favourite 

 of them all was Erik, son of the chief among Harald's 

 wives, the dauohter of the Swedish Kin<T. This Erik 

 got the name of Erik Blodox, i.Q. Bloody Axe, on 

 account of his fierce and war-like disposition. He was 

 a great favourite with his father, and even during his 

 father's lifetime he attained to something like kingly 

 power. During his father's lifetime, too, he compassed 

 the death of several of his brothers, and after his father's 

 death he killed, one after another, most of those who 

 remained. The mound of one of them, Bjorn, is still to 

 be seen under the name of the Seaman's Mound, at 

 Seim, near Tonsberg, on the Christiania Fjord. The 

 youngest of Harald's sons, Hakon, had, however, long 

 left the country. He had been sent into England to 

 be fostered by the King of England, Athelstan, and, 

 naturally enough, had been brought up in this country 

 as a Christian. When his father Harald died, and Erik 

 began, by fair means or foul, to make himself as much 



