[2] The painting depicts a legend from Norse mythology in which the Swedish king Domalde is sacrificed to avert famine.

[3][4]Snorri Sturluson wrote on the subject of the sacrifice of the king: Domald took the heritage left by his father Visbur, and ruled over the land.

The anonymous writer called the temple a "summer restaurant" decorated with motives from the Biological museum in Stockholm and he considered the dresses in the painting to be as preposterous as a Swedish farm with camels walking around the dunghill.

En konung offras för folket" ("A dream vision, a king sacrificed for his people"), a text which was possibly added in the hope that it would not be considered to be an attempt at a historically faithful reconstruction.

The temple had been enlarged considerably and given a more stern shape, and the figures had been more closely assembled and they formed an unbroken relief-like row.

The majority of the board seconded the motion that Larsson was to finish Midvinterblot for the museum wall, but they added the reservation that the main scene with the sacrifice of a king should be excluded or downplayed.

The director of the museum, Looström, objected to the board's ruling, and he declared the painting illustrated a "ritual killing" and he would rather the wall remain empty.

[11] On March 1, 1914, Larsson, who was by then ostracized, wrote a letter to the minister of religious affairs and declared that he resigned from the task of illustrating the museum wall.

The king's position was more pathetically composed and expressive and it agreed more with the change of emphasis that had taken place during the evolution of the work after Larsson's decision that the sacrifice was voluntary.

[12] A new figure, a wizard, had been added to the left of the sleighs and the lion guardians at the entry of the temple, which received a noticeably Chinese character.

The colours are forceful and there are considerable amounts of gold, something that Larsson intended as a disclaimer of the common notion that pre-history was gray.

In the following year, it was shown at the art gallery Liljevalchs konsthall as its first exhibit was dedicated to Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors and Anders Zorn.

In 1942, the painting was stored at the Archive for Public Decorative Art (now renamed the Museum of Sketches) in Lund,[14] where it was prominently on show for forty years.

The board rejected the offer with the statement that the Old Norse motif was more appropriate for the Swedish History Museum, which at the time still shared the same building as Nationalmuseum.

This offer caused a controversy in which people debated if the painting belonged to Nationalmuseum or the Swedish History Museum.

In this debate where there were exaggerations in both directions, people claimed that the painting was both an unsurpassed masterpiece of Swedish art and a work of suspect morality.

The Japanese owner lent the painting to the museum, and when the 300,000 visitors of the late 20th century were able to see the work for the first time in the hall where it was intended to be, the general opinion changed.

[2] In 1997, Nationalmuseum bought the painting from the collector, ordered a frame for stretching the canvas from Per Målare, a carpenter in Gagnef, Dalarna, and installed it permanently where Carl Larsson had intended it to be.