Rebellion is still more harshly treated by death and forfeiture;the rebels' heels are bored and thonged under the sinew, as Hector's feet were, and they are then fastened by the thongs to wild bulls, hunted by hounds, till they are dashed to pieces (for which there are classic parallels), or their feet are fastened with thongs to horses driven apart, so that they are torn asunder.
For "parricide", i.e., killing within near degrees, the criminal is hung up, apparently by the heels, with a live wolf (he haying acted as a wolf which will slay its fellows).Cunning avoidance of the guilt by trick is shown.
For "arson" the appropriate punishment is the fire.
For "incestuous adultery" of stepson with his stepmother, hanging is awarded to the man.In the same case Swanwhite, the woman, is punished, by treading to death with horses.A woman accomplice in adultery is treated to what Homer calls a "stone coat."Incestuous adultery is a foul slur.
For "witchcraft", the horror of heathens, hanging was the penalty.
"Private revenge" sometimes deliberately inflicts a cruel death for atrocious wrong or insult, as when a king, enraged at the slaying of his son and seduction of his daughter, has the offender hanged, an instance famous in Nathan's story, so that Hagbard's hanging and hempen necklace were proverbial.
For the slayer by a cruel death of their captive father, Ragnar's sons act the blood-eagle on Ella, and salt his flesh.There is an undoubted instance of this act of vengeance (the symbolic meaning of which is not clear as yet) in the "Orkney Saga".
But the story of Daxo and of Ref's gild show that for such wrongs were-gilds were sometimes exacted, and that they were considered highly honourable to the exactor.
Among OFFENCES NOT BOOTLESS, and left to individual pursuit, are:
--
"Highway robbery".-- There are several stories of a type such as that of Ingemund and Ioknl (see "Landnamaboc") told by Saxo of highwaymen; and an incident of the kind that occurs in the Theseus story (the Bent-tree, which sprung back and slew the wretch bound to it) is given.The romantic trick of the mechanic bed, by which a steel-shod beam is let fall on the sleeping traveller, also occurs.Slain highwaymen are gibbeted as in Christian days.
"Assassination", as distinct from manslaughter in vengeance for a wrong, is not very common.A hidden mail-coat foils a treacherous javelin-cast (cf.the Story of Olaf the Stout and the Blind King, Hrorec); murderers lurk spear-armed at the threshold, sides, as in the Icelandic Sagas; a queen hides a spear-head in her gown, and murders her husband (cf.Olaf Tryggvason's Life).
Godfred was murdered by his servant (and Ynglingatal).
"Burglary".-- The crafty discovery of the robber of the treasury by Hadding is a variant of the world-old Rhampsinitos tale, but less elaborate, possibly abridged and cut down by Saxo, and reduced to a mere moral example in favour of the goldenness of silence and the danger of letting the tongue feed the gallows.
Among other disgraceful acts, that make the offender infamous, but do not necessarily involve public action: --"Manslaughter in Breach of Hospitality".-- Probably any gross breach of hospitality was disreputable and highly abhorred, but "guest-slaughter" is especially mentioned.The ethical question as to whether a man should slay his guest or forego his just vengeance was often a "probleme du jour" in the archaic times to which these traditions witness.Ingeld prefers his vengeance, but Thuriswend, in the Lay cited by Paul the Deacon, chooses to protect his guest.Heremod slew his messmates in his wrath, and went forth alone into exile.("Beowulf's Lay".)"Suicide".~- This was more honourable than what Earl Siward of Northumberland called a "cow-death." Hadding resolves to commit suicide at his friend's death.Wermund resolves to commit suicide if his son be slain (in hopelessness of being able to avenge him, cf."Njal's Saga", where the hero, a Christian, prefers to perish in his burning house than live dishonoured, "for I am an old man and little fitted to avenge my sons, but Iwill not live in shame").Persons commit suicide by slaying each other in time of famine; while in England (so Baeda tells) they "decliffed" themselves in companies, and, as in the comic little Icelandic tale Gautrec s birth, a Tarpeian death is noted as the customary method of relieving folks from the hateful starvation death.It is probable that the violent death relieved the ghost or the survivors of some inconveniences which a "straw death"would have brought about.
"Procedure by Wager of Battle".-- This archaic process pervades Saxo's whole narrative.It is the main incident of many of the sagas from which he drew.It is one of the chief characteristics of early Teutonic custom-law, and along with "Cormac's Saga", "Landnamaboc", and the Walter Saga, our author has furnished us with most of the information we have upon its principles and practice.
Steps in the process are the Challenge, the Acceptance and Settlement of Conditions, the Engagement, the Treatment of the vanquished, the Reward of the conqueror, and there are rules touching each of these, enough almost to furnish a kind of "Galway code".
A challenge could not, either to war or wager of battle, be refused with honor, though a superior was not bound to fight an inferior in rank.An ally might accept for his principal, or a father for a son, but it was not honourable for a man unless helpless to send a champion instead of himself.
Men were bound to fight one to one, and one man might decline to fight two at once.Great champions sometimes fought against odds.
The challenged man chose the place of battle, and possibly fixed the time.This was usually an island in the river.
