By
Christopher A. Rogers
 “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth, so help me God.”
 Binding oaths
 Providing social stability
 Oaths bound people together to create social stability
and were kept through the fear of the gods, legal
penalties and one’s own sense of honor.
 Ordeals – a physical test where God will quickly
determine the verdict
 Compurgation – Swearing oaths with oath-helpers
who swore to a litigant’s innocence
 Guilt determined by the gods, not the people
 Eventual punishment by the gods
 Aistulf, King of the Lombards (r. 749-756), smited by
God for breaking his oath to Pippin the Short
 Sworn on sacred items
 Christians: relic, bible, cross
 Pagans: weapons, ships
 Sworn in the name of the gods
 Self-curse
 Precise wording
 Beowulf – bound himself, through oath, to defeat
Grendel and defend Hrothgar’s kingdom
 Oaths of fealty, brotherhood, friendship
 Bound people to a course of action
 Created artificial support groups
 1-fold, 3-fold, 6-fold, 12-fold
 6-fold oath = litigant + 5 oath-helpers (compurgators)
 More serious crimes needed more compurgators
 Serious crimes threatened the stability of society
 Swore not to the truth, but to the belief in innocence
 Show of support for the litigant by his support groups
 Temporal punishment needed the will of the people
 Delegated judgment to the gods
 Prevented the outbreak of blood feud
 Physical survival depended on people working
together
 Oath-breaking – breaking an oath
 Perjury – knowingly swearing a false oath
 Threatened the stability of society
 Disdained the fear of gods
 Real belief that the gods would enforce the terms of
the oath
 Fear of divine punishment
 How well they were known
 Currency of medieval life
 All strove to gain more and often dictated actions
 Perjury and oath-breaking caused great dishonor
 Fines for minor oaths broken/perjured
 Lesser/major outlawry for major oaths
broken/perjured
 Property forfeited, death could not be avenged
 No longer eligible to clear their name through oaths,
must use ordeals
 Oaths created stability
 Through bonds and creation of support groups
 Enforced through legal codes, sense of honor and fear of
the gods
 Compurgation lessened as states became centralized
 Oaths still integral to modern society

















Bayerschmidt, Carl F. and Lee M. Hollander trans. Njal’s Saga. London: Wordsworth Classics of World
Literature, 1998.
Byock, Jesse trans. The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer. Berkley: University
of California Press, 1990.
Ferrante, Joan M. trans. Guillaume d’Orange: Four Twelfth-Century Epics. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1974.
Hudson, Marc trans. Beowulf: A translation and commentary. London: Lewisburg Associated University
Press, 1990.
Ryder, Frank G. trans. The Song of the Nibelungs. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1962.
Sisson, C. H. trans. The Song of Roland. Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1983.
Terry, Patricia trans. Poems of the Elder Edda. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1990.
Ashliman, D. L. University of Pittsburgh’s Folklore and Mythology Texts.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html
Dennis, Andrew and Peter Foote and Richard Perkins trans. The Laws of Early Iceland, Grágás: The Codex
Regius of Grágás with material from other manuscripts. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1980.
Drew, Katherine Fischer trans. The Laws of the Salian Franks. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1991.
-------------. The Lombard Laws. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973.
Larsen, Laurence M. trans. The Earliest Norwegian Laws: Being the Gulathing Law and the Frostathing Law.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1935.
Cross, Samuel Hazzard and Olgerd P. Shebowitz-Wetzon trans. The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian
Text. Cambridge: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953.
Finlay, Alison trans. Fagrskinna, a Catalogue of the Kings of Norway. Northern world, v. 7. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Nelson, Janet L. trans. The Annals of St. Bertine. Vol. I of Ninth Century Histories. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1991.
Reuter, Timothy trans. The Annals of Fulda. Vol. II of Ninth Century Histories. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1992.
Scholz, Bernhard Walter trans. Carolingian Chronicles: ‘Royal Frankish Annals’ and Nithard’s ‘Histories.’ Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970.