the Mild, and grandson of Gant; and from them Gotland[1] took its name. King Algaut thought his daughter would be well married if she got King Onund's son, and if he had his father's disposition; so the girl was sent to Sweden, and King Ingiald celebrated his wedding with her in due time.
Chapter XXXIX.
Of King Onund's death.
King Onund one autumn, travelling between his mansion-houses, came over a road called Himmen-heath, where there are some narrow mountain valleys, with high mountains on both sides. There was heavy rain at the time, and before there had been snow on the mountains. A landslip of clay and stones came down upon King Onund and his people, and there he met his death, and many with him.[2] So says Thiodolf; namely,—
"We all have heard how Jonkur's[3] sons.
Whom weapons could not touchy with stones
Were stoned to death—in open day,
King Onund died in the same way.
Or else perhaps the wood-grown land,
Which long had felt his conquering hand,
Uprose at length in deadly strife,
And pressed out Onund's hated life."
Chapter XL.
The burning in Upsal.
Then Ingiald, King Onund's son, came to the kingdom. The Upsal kings were the highest in Sweden among the many district-kings who had been since the time that Odin was chief. The kings who resided at Upsal had been the supreme chiefs over the whole Swedish dominions until the death of Ague, when, as
- ↑ This derivation of the name Gothland, given to the small kingdoms in Sweden called East and West Gothland, and the island of Gothland, from the name of a chief, does away with a great deal of absurd speculation that these small districts were the original seats of the mighty people called Goths who overwhelmed the Roman empire.
- ↑ It is said there is a mound, called Onund's Hog, in the barony of Siunde in Westmanland, where this accident occurred.
- ↑ Jonakur was a king in the Edda whose sons were stoned to death, because steel weapons could not wound them. The meaning is, that Onund was killed in the same way by stones—which the earth may have showered down upon him for his cutting down wood and improving land.
