Editing Forseti (section)

==Frisian ''Fosite''==

According to [[Alcuin]]'s Life of [[Willibrord|St. Willebrord]], the saint visited an island between Frisia and Denmark that was sacred to Fosite and was called Fositesland after the god worshipped there. There was a sacred spring from which water had to be drawn in silence, it was so holy. Willebrord defiled the spring by baptizing people in it and killing a cow there.<ref name=EllisDavidson171/> [[Altfrid]] tells the same story of [[Ludger|St. Liudger]].<ref>De Vries, p. 282.</ref> Adam of Bremen retells the story and adds that the island was ''Heiligland'', i.e., [[Heligoland]].<ref>''[[Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum]]'' Book IV (''Descriptio insularum aquilonis''), ch. 3.</ref>

There is also a late-medieval legend of the origins of written Frisian laws. Wishing to assemble written lawcodes for all his subject peoples, [[Charlemagne]] summoned twelve representatives of the Frisian people, the ''[[asega]]'s'' ('law-speakers'), and demanded they recite their people's laws. When they could not do so after several days, he let them choose between death, slavery, or being set adrift in a rudderless boat. They chose the last and prayed for help, whereupon a thirteenth man appeared, with a golden axe on his shoulder. He steered the boat to land with the axe, then threw it ashore; a spring appeared where it landed. He taught them laws and then disappeared.<ref>Ellis Davidson, pp. 171-72.</ref><ref>Thomas L. Mackey, ''Frisian'', Trends in Linguistics, The Hague: Mouton, 1981, {{ISBN|90-279-3128-3}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nHfrA_Ss7VYC&dq=twelve+Frisian+axe+law+spring&pg=PA64 pp. 63-64] calls this "the king Karl and King Redbad episode" and notes there are several versions.</ref> The stranger and the spring have traditionally been identified with Fosite and the sacred spring of Fositesland.

This hypothesis has not met with universal acceptance.<ref>Willy Krogmann, 'Die friesische Sage von der Findung des Rechts', in: ''Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte, Germanische Abteilung'' 84 (1967), pp. 72-127.</ref>