The Lawspeaker’s office made him spokesmen for Swedes who owned their own farms—while not ‘citizens’ in our sense, they were a class of ordinary free people whose interests sometimes differed from those of their kings and lords.
One such king, for reasons of pride, tried to draw Þorgnýr’s people into an unwanted war. This resulted in an outcry, and the king held a public meeting to persuade the people to go along.
Þorgnýr spoke at this meeting, and reminded the King that seven previous kings had been drowned in a nearby well when they proved resistant to the advice of the people, and should reconsider his war.
And so he did.
As an aside, the letter þ, or thorn, is pronounced as "th" is in the word "thick."
That's what we need to do with 90% of the people in Washington.
ReplyDeleteIf presidents, dictators and kings led their men into battle, at the forefront of their army, like they did in the olden days, I'd be a lot more supportive of wars. Not so much when they just send other people's kids to kill and to die!
ReplyDeleteThe key word to all of that was "obligation".
ReplyDeletepublic hanging was a time tested solution to horse and cattle theft. also, other capitol crimes. I like the idea of public hanging for all sorts of poor behaviors and choices criminals make. pretty soon, the liberals would came along and say it was an unpleasant thing to do in front of the children. hiding the public hanging behind closed doors is quite counter productive when it comes to countering crime. especially in youths raised in a fatherless family.
ReplyDeleteI disdain "humane executions". Executions should be made as reprehensible and horrifying as possible. not just to establish in the minds of all people what the results are of criminal activity, but also the enormity of the sentence by a court of law for hanging in the minds of the public at large. horse thieves were hung because the thefts affected others in many bad ways. cattle thieves were hung because of the value of beef as food for many let alone the money involved. hanging murders is a no brainer. there were no repeat offenders.
there are those who disagree totally with capital punishment. let them put their lives and/or wealth in jeopardy to assure the behavior of a released capital criminal. I have my doubts there would be many takers. Perhaps the first few would be a good example of the results of misplaced trust.
In the current political climate, with all you see going on in DC and elsewhere, We the People may need to soon re-evaluate the state of our laws for libel and corruption by those in public office and by public figures and by the various ilk of "news media" for nefarious ends.
Lets be about it.