King _Aune_ or _Ane_ was the son of Jorund. He was a wise man who made great sacrifices to the gods. Being no warrior he lived quietly at home. Twice he fled from Upsala, on account of Danish invasions, remaining in West Gothland twenty-five years each time, and holding sway at Upsala for an equally long time between his periods of exile. He lived to become 110 years of age. The secret of his longevity was that he sacrificed one of his sons to Odin every tenth year, and was granted in return a decade of prolonged life. When about to sacrifice his tenth son, the people interfered, and he died from old age. The last ten years of his life he was very feeble, drinking out of a horn like an infant. He was buried in a mound at Upsala.
King _Egil_ was the son of Ane, and, like his father, no warrior. Under his reign and that of his son, king _Ottar_, Sweden suffered a good deal of trouble from Denmark. The Danish king Frode had helped Egil against the revolt of one of his subjects, and demanded from his son a scat, or tribute, in return. Ottar fell in battle against the jarls of Frode. Both he and his son _Audils_, who ruled Svithiod after him, are mentioned in Beowulf as Ôhthere and his son Eadgils of the royal Swedish line of the Scylfingas (Skilfings). This fact gives to Swedish history its first reliable date. The Danish king Hugleik, a contemporary of King Ottar, died in 515 A.D., which renders with a certainty Ottar’s reign as falling in the first part of the sixth century. Audils ruled for a long time and often went on viking expeditions to Saxonland, Denmark and Norway. In Saxonland, Audils captured the household of King Geirthiof, among whom was a remarkably beautiful girl, called Yrsa. The king married her, but she was afterward taken to Denmark by King Helge of Leire after a successful plundering expedition in Svithiod. Helge had a son by her, Rolf Krake, but Yrsa returned to her first husband, after being told by Queen Alof, the wife of Geirthiof, that Helge was her father and Alof her mother. When Rolf Krake later became king his men once helped King Audils in one of his expeditions in Norway. King Rolf’s men did not receive the compensation promised them, and Rolf came to Upsala to demand it for them. King Rolf was warned by his mother Yrsa that Audils was not well disposed, and he and his men made in haste for their ships. King Audils and his men started out in their pursuit. Then Rolf took a horn filled with gold, a recent gift of his mother, emptying its contents on the plain. Audils and his men stopped to pick up the gold, and Rolf thus made his escape. Rolf Krake is one of the most famous of Danish heroes. In the poetic language of the Old Northern literature, gold is often called “the seed of the Fyrisvols” or “Rolf Krake’s seed.” As King Audils once rode around the hall at a sacrifice his horse stumbled and fell, and the king was killed.