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A Lie Never Justifiable by H. Clay (Henry Clay) Trumbull
page 18 of 167 (10%)
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
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