by birth, who was the King's courtman and chamberlain. The King said
to him, 'Go thou and kill the Jarl.' Ivar went to the church, and in
at the choir, and thrust his sword through the Jarl, who died on the
spot. Then Ivar went to the King, with the bloody sword in his hand.

"The King said, 'Hast thou killed the Jarl?' 'I have killed him,'
said he. 'Thou hast done well,' answered the King." I

From a man who built so many churches (one on each battlefield where
he had fought, to say nothing of the others), and who had in him such
depths of real devotion and other fine cosmic quality, this does seem
rather strong! But it is characteristic, withal,--of the man, and
perhaps of the times still more.[14] In any case, it is an event worth
noting, the slain Jarl Ulf and his connections being of importance in
the history of Denmark and of England also. Ulf's wife was Astrid,
sister of Knut, and their only child was Svein, styled afterwards
"Svein Estrithson" ("Astrid-son") when he became noted in the
world,--at this time a beardless youth, who, on the back of this
tragedy, fled hastily to Sweden, where were friends of Ulf. After
some ten years' eclipse there, Knut and both his sons being now dead,
Svein reappeared in Denmark under a new and eminent figure, "Jarl of
Denmark," highest Liegeman to the then sovereign there. Broke his
oath to said sovereign, declared himself, Svein Estrithson, to be real
King of Denmark; and, after much preliminary trouble, and many
beatings and disastrous flights to and fro, became in effect such,--to
the wonder of mankind; for he had not had one victory to cheer him on,
or any good luck or merit that one sees, except that of surviving
longer than some others. Nevertheless he came to be the Restorer, so
called, of Danish independence; sole remaining representative of Knut
(or Knut's sister), of Fork-beard, Blue-tooth, and Old Gorm; and