Heill Llama!

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks's for that Mike. Here is the Heþnalagh section of the West
> Gautish laws, which talks about duels in response to insults.
>
> http://hem2.passagen.se/peter9/lag/vghedn.html
>
> Givr maþr oquæþins orð manni · þu ær æi mans maki oc eig maþr i
brysti · Ek ær maþr sum þv · þeir skvlv møtaz a þriggia vægha motum
· Cumbr þan orð havr giuit oc þan cumbr eig þer orð havr lutit · þa
mvn han vara svm han heitir · ær eig eiðgangr oc eig vitnisbær
huarti firi man ælla kvnv · Cumbr oc þan orð havr lutit oc eig þan
orð havr giuit · þa opar han þry niþingx op oc markar han a iarþv ·
þa se han maþr þæss værri þet talaþi han eig halla þorþi · Nv møtaz
þeir baþir mz fullum vapnvm · Faldr þan orð havr lutit · gildr mz
haluum gialdum · Faldr þan orð havr giuit · Gløpr orða værstr ·
Tunga houuðbani · Liggi i vgildum acri ·
>
> If a man gives insulting words to a man -- you are not equal to a
man and not a man in your breast, (and the accused says) I'm (as
much) a man as you -- then they must meet at a meeting of three
ways. If the man comes who has given the words, and the man who
received them does not come, then he will be what he is called. He
is not able to give legal oaths or to act as a legal witness,
neither for a man nor a woman. If he who received the words comes,
but not the one who gave them, then he (the one who came) shall give
a nithing's shout and make a mark on the earth. Then let him (the
one who didn't come) be (so much) the worse a man who said what he
did not dare to stick to. Now if they both meet with a full set if
weapons, and the one who received the words falls, let him be paid
for with a half wergild, but if the one who uttered the words falls -
- "the crime of words (is) worst; the tongue is the death of the
head" -- let him lie in the unatoned field (i.e. let him lie with no
compensation paid to his kin).

I love the archaic wording of the West Gautish Laws. Having read a
not of old nordic law manuscripts, I find parts of this law to be
the oldest extant and purest expressions of nordic legal thought.
Readers should read, for instance, the inheritiance section of this
law (sunr es foþur arfi...etc.) for a good example of ckear, focused
legal thought with roots in oral tradition. Notice also the Hávamál
quotes above:

gløpr (es) orþa verstr
tunga (es) hofuþs bani

The latter occurs in the Codex Regius as part of a fragment of a
lost proverbs-section of Hávamál:

tveir ró eins heriar;
tunga es hofuþs bani;
es mér í heþin hvern;
handar véni

The former, along woth other such fragments, shows that eariler, and
more complete, redactions of Hávamál had other such sayings.

Regards,
Konrad

> --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, mike garcia <exavierstud@>
wrote:
> >
> > Heill llama,
> >
> > Here is a interesting article when the insults was given on how
our
> kinred
> > in the past would of handled an insult or some dispute:
> >
> > http://www.stavacademy.co.uk/mimir/holmgang.htm
> >
> > Heill ok vel,
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > --- llama_nom <600cell@> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Another article on insults:
> > >
> > > http://ragnarokr.com/Scholarship/nidsenna.html
>