this sleeping on her part, and watching on theirs, continued, until nature was exhausted. Gunhilda saw her time; she invited both to lie beside her; they joyfully obeyed her, and she put one arm around the neck of each. The effect—that of magic (for she had been trained in a good school), was instantaneous; both fell into a deep sleep, from which it was impossible to awake them. There she fettered them, and called on Eric and his companions to despatch them. The deed was easily perpetrated, and the corpses were cast outside of the hut: but it was followed by incessant thunder, which, during a whole night, prevented them from leaving the place. When serenity was restored, all left, Gunhilda with the rest; and before the day closed, the magic beauty became the bride of Eric.[182] [Sidenote: 930 to 934.] Fate had not yet done its worst on the offspring of the Norwegian monarch. His son Gudred perished at sea. And when he resigned his imperial dignity in favour of his beloved Eric, other tragedies might have been foreseen—if not in his lifetime, immediately after his death. The elevation of Eric was opposed, among others, by Halfdan the Black, who, also, assumed the title of monarch. Olaf, brother of the murdered Biorn, who had succeeded that prince in the government of Westfold, did the same. In two years Halfdan was removed by poison,—the deed, as was commonly reported, of Gunhilda. Harald was little moved by these atrocities. So long as his favourite son enjoyed life and empire, he cared little for the rest. But his own days were hastening to an end. When he resigned his sceptre to his son Eric, he was eighty years of age. In two or three years after that event,—in the year 934, or, according to others, 936—he paid the debt of nature. The place of his interment was one of his manors in Drontheim. Near the spot, a magnificent heathen temple was erected, which was standing in the days of Snorro.[183]