A ring weighing two ounces or more should lie on the stalli in every chief Hof, and this ring should every Goði have upon his arm at every law-Þing at which he should be at the head of affairs, having first reddened it in the blood of a neat (cow) which he had sacrificed himself there. Every man who was there to transact any business, as by law provided by the court, should first take an oath upon that ring and name for the purpose two or more witnesses and repeat the following words:
“I call to witness in evidence” he was to say, “that I take oath upon the ring, a lawful one, so help me Freyr and Njǫrðr and the Almighty Ás, to this and that I shall in this case prosecute or defend or bear witness or give award or pronounce judgment according to what I know to be most right and most true and most lawful, and that I will deal lawfully with all such matters in law as I have to deal with while I am at this Þing.”(1)
If a man swears a false oath on the ring, he pays to the king his wergeld and he redeems his hand with another wergeld; each one of his oath-helpers pays his wergeld.(2) He who does this is an oath-breaker, a váravargr, and he must atone.
- Landnamabók part 4, chapter 7
- Gutalag Title X, changed to fit the Sedian model
Excerpt from: Æfinlǫgr: The Book of Sedian Law: Puryear, Mark, Hrafnakonr, Aðakán Jamesarson: 9798307965320: Amazon.com: Books