Then, in order to gain the credit of innocence and escape the brand of crime, he ordered a full inquiry to be made into the mischance that had cut off his brother so suddenly.

But he could not manage, by all his arts, to escape silent condemnation in the thoughts of the common people.

He afterwards asked Karl, "Who had killed Harald ?" and Karl replied that it was deceitful in him to ask a question about something which he knew quite well.

These words earned him his death; for Frode thought that he had reproached him covertly with fratricide.
After this, the lives of Harald and Halfdan, the sons of Harald by Signe the daughter of Karl, were attempted by their uncle.

But the guardians devised a cunning method of saving their wards.