Sacred Laws
Sacred Laws
When someone tries to tell us that there was no concept of sacred law amongst our ancestors, I wonder just what sources they are even looking at.
Our forefathers had such a strong sense of divine law it permeates throughout their lore.
If you do not believe that there was a sacred law, why does Voluspa tells us they established their Thing before anything else? Why do we have passages like this:
- Þaðan koma meyjar margs vitandi
þrjár, ór þeim sal er und þolli stendr;
Urð hétu eina, aðra Verðandi,
skáru á skíði, Skuld ina þriðju;
þær lög lögðu, þær líf kuru
alda börnum, örlög seggja. - Thence come the maidens | mighty in wisdom,
Three from the dwelling | down 'neath the tree;
Urth is one named, | Verthandi the next,--
On the wood they scored,-- | and Skuld the third.
Laws they made there, and life allotted
To the sons of men, and set their fates.
þær lög lögðu
laws they laid.
No other way to interpret that. They established the sacred divine laws.
Throughout the sources we can discern what those laws were and establish a code that comes straight from the Gods themselves.
When you look at Sagas like Njal's Saga and see how pervasive the Thing was in their lives, the idea that they would not have a concept of religious law is pretty ridiculous.
