EN043.01 Evildoers
Ott 2025
G. Justice
Punishments for Evildoers
43.01 [043] These are punishments for the vilest malefactors:[1]
1. Anyone who, out of wrath, sets the red rooster upon the house of another is no Frya;[2] he is the product of whoredom with adulterate blood. If he is caught in the act, he must be thrown into the fire. He may flee if he can, but shall nowhere be safe from the avenging hand.
2. No true Frya shall gripe or gossip over his neighbor’s faults. If his misbehavior effects himself only and is not a threat to others, then let him be his own judge. Should he become so defective that he presents a menace, the case must be brought before the aldermen. But if anyone accuses another behind his back, instead of going to the aldermen, he is an evildoer. He must be tied to the pillory in the marketplace so that the young folk may spit on him. After this, he is to be banished — but not to the tin mines because, even there, a slanderer is to be feared.[3]
3. If there would ever be someone so evil as to betray us to the enemy, revealing paths and passages so that they can reach our places of refuge or sneak into them by night, he can only be sprung of Finda’s blood. He should be burned. The navigators should take his mother and all his relatives to a distant island [044] and there scatter his ashes, so that no poisonous herbs may sprout from them here. The maidens must curse his name in all our towns,[4] so no child is ever again called by that name and adults who already have that name may change it.
Notes
- ↑ ‘vilest malefactors’ (HORNINGA) — lit.: 'whorelings', 'bastards'; seems to denote here that these crimes prove someone is not a 'true Frya' or give cause for shunning.
- ↑ ‘the red rooster’ (THENE RÁDA HÔNE) — fire (expression).
- ↑ ‘slanderer’ (ÉRERÁWER) — lit.: ‘honor-stealer’.
- ↑ ‘curse’ (UTSPÉJA) — lit.: ‘spit out’.
Continue Reading
EN042.10 Wrathful ᐊ previous/next ᐅ EN044.07 Thieves
In other languages
Other English translations
Chapters G, H and J: Sandbach 1876