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The Norse god Forseti


 

 

 



Forseti is the Aesir god of justice, mediation, and reconciliation. In the Grímnismál, a poem in the Poetic Edda, it is said that Forseti’s dwelling-place, Glitnir (Shining One), is a hall made of gold and silver, and that he settles disputes. He thus seems to be the equivalent of the “law speaker” or ceremonial head of the Thing, the Scandinavian legal assembly. It is said that he is the best of courts; all those who come before him leave reconciled. As a law speaker, he approaches grievances as a complex, multilayered problem that requires solutions based on established laws rather than vengeance or anger.

 

  In Snorri’s version of the Edda, it is said that Forseti is the son of Baldur and Nanna. He bears the axe as his symbol.

 

  There is one other mention of Forseti, and it is at the beginning of the 8th century when St. Willebrord landed on an island located between Frisia and Denmark. He is said to have named the island after the god Forseti, naming it Forsitesland. It is thought that Forseti was the main god worshipped there.

 

 

 

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