and in standing. A rumor of their secret meeting
was circulated, and Fridthjof was summoned before
the council of heroes to answer to the charge.
If ever a lie were justifiable, it would seem to be
when a pure woman’s honor was at stake, and when
a hero’s happiness and power for good pivoted
on it. Fridthjof tells to Ingeborg the story
of his sore temptation when, in the presence of the
council, Helge challenges his course.
“’Say, Fridthjof, Balder’s
peace hast thou not broken, Not seen my sister
in his house while Day Concealed himself, abashed,
before your meeting? Speak! yea or nay!’
Then echoed from the ring Of crowded warriors,
’Say but nay, say nay! Thy simple word we’ll
trust; we’ll court for thee,—Thou,
Thorstein’s son, art good as any king’s.
Say nay! say nay! and thine is Ingeborg!’ ’The
happiness,’ I answered, ’of my life
On one word hangs; but fear not therefore, Helge!
I would not lie to gain the joys of Valhal, Much
less this earth’s delights. I’ve seen
thy sister, Have spoken with her in the temple’s
night, But have not therefore broken Balder’s
peace!’ More none would hear. A murmur of
deep horror The diet traversed; they who nearest
stood Drew back, as I had with the plague been
smitten."[1]
[Footnote 1: Anderson’s Viking Tales
of the North, p. 223.]
And so, because Fridthjof would not lie, he lost his
bride and became a wanderer from his land, and Ingeborg
became the wife of another; and this record is to
this day told to the honor of Fridthjof, in accordance
with the standard of the North in the matter of truth-telling.
In ancient Persia, the same high standard prevailed.
Herodotus says of the Persians: “The most
disgraceful thing in the world, they think, is to
tell a lie; the next worse, to owe a debt; because,
among other reasons, the debtor is obliged to tell
lies."[1] “Their sons are carefully instructed,
from their fifth to their twentieth year, in three
things alone,—to ride, to draw the bow,
and to speak the truth."[2] Here the one duty in the
realm of morals is truth-telling. In the famous
inscription of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, on the
Rock of Behistun,[3] there are repeated references
to lying as the chief of sins, and to the evil time
when lying was introduced into Persia, and “the
lie grew in the provinces, in Persia as well as in
Media and in the other provinces.” Darius
claims to have had the help of “Ormuzd and the
other gods that may exist,” because he “was
not wicked, nor a liar;” and he enjoins it on
his successor to “punish severely him who is
a liar or a rebel.”
[Footnote 1: Rawlinson’s Herodotus,
Bk. I., sec. 139.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid., Bk. I., sec.
136.]
[Footnote 3: Sayce’s Introduction to
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, pp. 120-137.]
