THE SCENE: Viking kings had an enormous responsibility to ensure prosperity for their people. If their rule failed to produce good results, their people might turn to human sacrifice to appease the gods.
THE TEXT: Domaldi succeeded his father Visbur and rule over his lands. In his days there was famine and starvation in Sweden. Then the Swedes made huge sacrifices in Uppsala. The first fall they sacrificed oxen, but the season did not improve for all that. A second fall they sacrificed humans, but the season remained the same or was even worse. In the third fall the Swedes came in great numbers to Uppsala at the time for the sacrifices. Then the chieftains held a council, and they agreed that the famine probably was due to Domaldi, their king, and that they should sacrifice him for better seasons, and that they should attack and kill him and redden the alters with his blood; and so they did.
– The Saga of the Ynglings, Snorri Sturluson, 13th Century AD
