I interpret OP's question as the complement of possible significance of the concept of honor found also in non-saga medieval Scandinavian source. Is it OK?
Generally speaking, however, honor/ fame and oath-taking had played a far more important role in the "public" social life in early medieval West, not only in Old Norse speaking area.
[At least some forms of] oath was also regarded as valid binding force both by non-Christian Scandinavians and by the Christians as well, so a few 9th century chroniclers sometimes mention an oath-taking as a part of the truce between the Scandinavian raiders and the Christian ruler.
To give an detailed example, a chronicler of Royal Frankish Annals (Annales regni Franrocum) relates that 16 diplomatic envoys from each side (the Franks and the Danes) met north to Elbe River to conclude a truce by confirming the peace with the oath from both sides (ARF, a. 813. Latin original text is to be found in the link).
They [Emperor Charlemagne of the Franks and King Hemming of the Danes] had in fact also negotiated the peace two years before, in spring 811 or 812 on the Eider river with 12 magnates from each side and the successive oath-taking in accordance of "their customs and practices in oath-taking", and further, name of witnesses (ARF, a. 811; Cf. Ozawa 2009: 68f.).
Taking the fact into consideration that Charlemagne had also emphasized the importance of oath-taking in his "capitulary of the missi" (789), it is reasonable to suppose that the Franks regarded the binding force of the oath among the Danes also as valid at least to some extent.
Sorry for digress. The following is a very brief presentation of possibly related texts.
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The majority of the manuscripts of Scandinavian provincial law codes date at most to the 13th century (so it is difficult to cite them in many cases as a direct evidence of Old Norse society in the Viking Age) without reservation, but they certainly often refer to various kind of slur words, as listed by /u/Platypuskeeper before in: Were there any slurs in medieval times? If so, what were they?
The following passages are excerpts of the law clauses in question:
"If a man calls another man a bitch puppy (bykkiuhvælper): 'Who is that?' he says. 'You,' the other replies. 'I announce to witnesses that you called me an opprobrious name'. That is a case of sixteen örtugar [unit of money] in each lot. He shall summon him to an assembly and at a one-day present testimony about the announcement and prove it with an oath of twelve men and beseech the gods to be merciful to him and his witnesses that 'you named me with an opprobrious name, and you are guilty to the case in which I accuse you'. This is how slanders with opprobrious and shameful words is prosecuted'....[Then, other examples of opprobrious words follow] (The Older Västergöta Law, Lawlessness Section, Chap. 5. Translation is taken from: Lindkvist trans. 2021: 48f.).
Older Gulathing Law from western Norway also state:
- "No one must insult another man, neither by word of mouth nor by carving [runic texts?] on a tree. But if he is identified and convicted of doing this, then is is liable to outlawry. He has to deny it with a six-man oath, it leads to outlawry if it fails. No one must circulate impossible tales or slander about another. That is an impossible tale if someone tells about another such things that cannot be or happen and have not been true: says that he is a woman every ninth night and has given birth to a child and if he calls him a werewolf; he who says things like this, is an outlaw, if he is proved guilty of this; he may deny it with a six-man oath, it leads to outlawry if it fails (Older Gulathing Law, Chap. 138. Translation is taken from: [Simensen trans. 2021: 135f.]).
- There are words that are called words of defamation, one (such case) is if a man says about another that he has given birth to a child. This is the second (case), if a man says it is proven that another man has been engaged in unlawful sexual intercourse........Then he should pay him full compensation for that. Then he (the person defamed) may also kill that man as an outlaw in revenge for those words which I have now enumerated, if he asked witnesses to take notice of them (Older Gulathing Law, Chap. 196. Translation is taken from: [Simensen trans. 2021: 157.])
One may argue against these citations, however, that:
Nevertheless, I hope they are at least suffice to illustrate here that these non-saga texts also share the similar ethos of individual honor as often portraited in much more well-known sagas.
References:
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