The old earl was silent. Then Erik, in angry tone, “If aught of harm has come to Erling, I am thy son no more.”
“The gods were angry, my son. They had to be sued for victory. They were dearly sued, but we won—we won, by the sacrifice.” The old earl’s voice was full of pleading.
“O my brother! My brother! My little lad! Thou whom I loved as my life!” Earl Erik cried in the sharp anguish of his soul, and Earl Haakon dared not answer, Erik turned fiercely to his father: “It shall be thy ruin! This victory to-day shall be thy death, for as thou didst cut off his tender life, for this shall Norraway cut thee off from thy kingdom;” and Earl Erik went sorrowing to his province in the South.
It was as Earl Erik foretold. The news of the sacrifice of Erling, his murder by his own father to propitiate the gods, spread horror over all Norway. Although the Jomsvikings were now subdued, and the country peaceful and prosperous, a cloud of distrust hovered around Earl Haakon, that broke a few years later in storm and disaster.
