“God’s four daughters”

The earlier provincial laws were often the result of older jurisprudence. The Laws of the Land, on the other hand, were primarily based on what can be called normative legislation and specified how things shall or should be. “Normal” behaviour was good and desirable, while the opposite was bad and impermissible. Thus, the Laws of the Land were, in a sense, the first step towards modern legislation. Many of the normative parts of the Laws of the Land are linked to Christian ethics. In the 13th century, this was the result of influences from the Dominican and Franciscan orders, the “new” monastic orders that characterized Norwegian towns. In particular, the law referred to the (almost unknown until that time) story of God’s four daughters—truth, freedom, mercy, and justice—with regard to how a judge should proceed:

“And the four sisters are Mercy and Verity, Justice and Peace. Mercy is to prevent cruelty or hatred from entering judgements. Verity is to ensure that lies will not be told. Justice is to prevent unrighteousness from skewing just judgements. Peace is to guard against a vehement judgement of condemnation being passed in anger until a just judgement is made.”
Human Inviolability section, chapter 18

This charter is dated 8 April 1453. It contains a text in Old Norse that describes how four men gathered at St. Peter's Church in Borgund on Easter Sunday and arbitrated a dispute between Sæmund Olafsson and Sigurd Torleifsson, where Sæmund spoke ill of Sigurd in his high-spirited and drunken state! These four men took the role of the judge and accepted that Sæmund swore on God's holy body that he bore no malice towards Sigurd. And then Sigurd was also satisfied. In this case, judges behaved with respect to God's four daughters!