complishments,
of unblemished body, presumably of royal kin (peasant-birth is
considered a bar to the kingship), usually a son or a nephew, or brother
of his foregoer (though no strict rule of succession seems to appear in
Saxo), and duly chosen and acknowledged at the proper place of election.
In Denmark this was at a stone circle, and the stability of these
stones was taken as an omen for the king's reign. There are exceptional
instances noted, as the serf-king Eormenric (cf. Guthred-Canute
of Northumberland), whose noble birth washed out this blot of his
captivity, and there is a curious tradition of a conqueror setting his
hound as king over a conquered province in mockery.

The king was of age at twelve. A king of seven years of age has twelve
Regents chosen in the Moot, in one case by lot, to bring him up and rule
for him till his majority. Regents are all appointed in Denmark, in
one case for lack of royal blood, one to Scania, one to Zealand, one to
Funen, two to Jutland. Underkings and Earls are appointed by kings, and
though the Earl's office is distinctly official, succession is sometimes
given to the sons of faithful fathers. The absence of a settled
succession law leads (as in Muslim States) to rebellions and plots.

Kings sometimes abdicated, giving up the crown perforce to a rival, or
in high age to a kinsman. In heathen times, kings, as Thiodwulf tells us
in the case of Domwald and Yngwere, were sometimes sacrificed for
better seasons (African fashion), and Wicar of Norway perishes, like
Iphigeneia, to procure fair winds. Kings having to lead in war, and
sometimes being willing to fight wagers of battle, are short-lived as a
rule, and assassination is a continual peril, whether by fire at a time
of feast, of which there are numerous examples, besides the classic one
on which Biarea-mal is founded and the not less famous one of Hamlet's
vengeance, or whether by steel, as with Hiartuar, or by trick, as in
Wicar's case above cited. The reward for slaying a king is in one case
120 gold lbs.; 19 "talents" of gold from each ringleader, 1 oz. of gold
from each commoner, in the story of Godfred, known as Ref's gild, "i.e.,
Fox tax". In the case of a great king, Frode, his death is concealed for
three years to avoid disturbance within and danger from without. Captive
kings were not as a rule well treated. A Slavonic king, Daxo, offers
Ragnar's son Whitesark his daughter and half his realm, or death, and
the capt