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 captive strangely desires death by fire. A captive king is exposed,
chained to wild beasts, thrown into a serpent-pit, wherein Ragnar is
given the fate of the elder Gunnar in the Eddic Lays, Atlakvida. The
king is treated with great respect by his people, he is finely clad, and
his commands are carried out, however abhorrent or absurd, as long as
they do not upset customary or statute law. The king has slaves in
his household, men and women, besides his guard of housecarles and his
bearsark champions. A king's daughter has thirty slaves with her, and
the footmaiden existed exactly as in the stories of the Wicked Waiting
Maid. He is not to be awakened in his slumbers (cf. St. Olaf's Life,
where the naming of King Magnus is the result of adherence to this
etiquette). A champion weds the king's leman.

His thanes are created by the delivery of a sword, which the king
bolds by the blade and the thane takes by the hilt. (English earls were
created by the girding with a sword. "Taking treasure, and weapons
and horses, and feasting in a hall with the king" is synonymous with
thane-hood or gesith-ship in "Beowulf's Lay"). A king's thanes must
avenge him if he falls, and owe him allegiance. (This was paid in the
old English monarchies by kneeling and laying the head down at the
lord's knee.)