arnestly charged
them that they should freely give arms, gold, and every precious thing
to feed the pyre in honour of so great a king, who had deserved so nobly
of them all. He also ordered that the ashes of his body, when it was
quite burnt, should be transferred to an urn, taken to Leire, and there,
together with the horse and armour, receive a royal funeral. By paying
these due rites of honour to his uncle's shade, he won the favour of the
Danes, and turned the hate of his enemies into goodwill. Then the Danes
besought him to appoint Hetha over the remainder of the realm; but, that
the fallen strength of the enemy might not suddenly rally, he severed
Skaane from the mass of Denmark, and put it separately under the
governorship of Ole, ordering that only Zealand and the other lands
of the realm should be subject to Hetha. Thus the changes of fortune
brought the empire of Denmark under the Swedish rule. So ended the
Bravic war.

But the Zealanders, who had had Harald for their captain, and still had
the picture of their former fortune hovering before their minds, thought
it shameful to obey the rule of a woman, and appealed to OLE not to
suffer men that had been used to serve under a famous king to be kept
under a woman's yoke. They also promised to revolt to him if he would
take up arms to remove their ignominious lot. Ole, tempted as much by
the memory of his ancestral glory as by the homage of the soldiers, was
not slow to answer their entreaties. So he summoned Hetha, and forced
her by threats rather than by arms to quit every region under her
control except Jutland; and even Jutland he made a tributary state, so
as not to allow a woman the free control of a kingdom. He also begot a
son whom he named Omund. But he was given to cruelty, and showed himself
such an unrighteous king, that all who had found it a shameful thing to
be ruled by a queen now repented of their former scorn.

Twelve generals, whether moved by the disasters of their country, or
hating Ole for some other reason, began to plot against his life. Among
these were Hlenni, Atyl, Thott, and Withne, the last of whom was a Dane
by birth, though he held a government among the Sclavs. Moreover, not
trusting in their strength and their cunning to accomplish their deed,
they bribed Starkad to join them. He was prevailed to do the deed with
the sword; he undertook the bloody work, and resolved to attack the
king while at the bath. In he went while the king