In 19th-Century Iceland it happened quite often that a sheriff was called if a child’s fatherhood was questioned. In such situations, the mother swore a particular male was the father.
At such hearings those involved were not asked what their opinion was; to find out the truth was the issue. Had sexual intercourse taken place nine months prior to the birth of the child in question?
The male may swear an oath per Norwegian Law, which deals with debauchery when a man shares a bed with a woman for dishonest reasons. If he denies such actions, and the woman has no evidence against him, he can swear a solemn oath he never shared her bed. At first glance this means the woman no longer has a case, or does it?
It is important to keep in mind that the 19th-Century male in Iceland would never dare to talk lightly about swearing an oath. Sheriff Bjarni Thorarensen wrote to his brother Skúli and told the following in 1835.
An unknown woman visited carpenter Baldvin Hinriksson in Akureyri. She was only there at his house for two hours and that is why he refused to be the father of her child, wrote Bjarni. A little later Baldvin had a dream, the Devil visited him and without hesitation drove four screws in his mouth.
The following morning Baldvin was greatly disturbed and his condition worsened when someone said the dream meant he would take a false oath “so he allowed the girl to insist he was the father”. Thus, Sheriff Bjarni concluded his story about carpenter Baldvin´s misfortune.
It was anything but easy to sit in court and hear the warnings directed by the judge at a man about to take an oath.
The oath was the most sacred seal, and in it the oath-taker attested the truth. And not just before the earthly court, but also before the Lord who sees into everyone´s mind. And the punishment for taking a false oath was overwhelming: being outcast from the Christian community on Earth and God´s Heaven above.
A Perjurer has no hope, said the judge to Ingibjörg Sigurðardóttir who had visited carpenter Baldvin in Akureyri, neither on Earth nor in Heaven. “Jesus Christ´s means of grace is of no help to him, his sins will not be forgiven, and he has no hope of ever reaching Heaven, the destination of all true Christians.”
Those times called for a complete Faith and Fear of God. Every bone in the body, heart, and soul screamed at perjurers. Who would like to call upon himself the everlasting devilish pain which was described in Vídalínspostilla by Jón Þorkelsson, Iceland´s bestseller for hundred and fifty years?
With this in mind, another story is told. Sigurbjörg Kristjánsdóttir thought about the consequences when she was given the opportunity to swear oath. She had recently given birth to a child, the alleged father remained unknown. And the circumstances of conceiving were unclear. She had been at Skjaldarvík farm in Eyjafjörður late in the fall. Fisherman Árni Helgason was also there at that time and slept on the floor close to Sigurbjörg’s bed. Then one night she awoke when someone crept into her bed and had sexual intercourse with her.
“This was Árni”, maintained Sigurbjörg after she had given birth. Árni, on the other hand, insisted he had never slept with Sigurbjörg.
“And I am prepared to take an oath”, Árni told Sheriff Stefán Thorarensen.
The Sheriff asked Sigurbjörg again, who then admitted she had not seen the man. It was in the middle of the night and he never uttered a sound.
But I know it was Árni, she had insisted, which did not help her case as Árni was prepared to take an oath and deny he ever had an intercourse with her at the time the child was conceived.
Sigurbjörg was not about to give up; she now named Sheriff Jónas Jónathansson as the father.
Jónas admitted he had slept with her, but only once. And, as he suspected other men may have been involved, he asked the judge to arrange for her to take an oath confessing to sexual intercourse with more than one man at the time her child was conceived.
Sigurbjörg hesitated when this was suggested. She did not know the law and had no idea that Sheriff Eggert Briem, Stefán Thorarensen´s predecessor insisted the Norwegian Law prohibited the kind of unethical action Sheriff Jónas was using, namely to have her take an oath instead of the accused male.
In November 1858, Briem, then in office, had a similar case. The woman, Rósa Jónsdóttir at Kristnes, first named one man as the father of her child, and then, a few days later, accused another. The second man, Halldór Guðmundundsson, farmer at Þverá, flatly denied having anything to do with the child and invited Rósa to take an oath to that effect. Rósa refused “and demanded the judge list him as the father unless he took an oath”.
Halldór could not accept these terms so it was Eggert Briem´s task to decide. And he had no doubt: if a woman named a man as the father of her child but the man in question refused, it was his duty to take the oath. If he refused, her word would be considered legitimate.
Briem therefore would, in Sigurbjörg´s case, have said that if Jónas does not take the oath then the child is his. This is the law, and the oath should never be taken by the mother.
Stefán Thorarensen was of a different opinion.
The above was based on historical research by the Icelandic Historian Jón Hjaltason and his article “DNA-Próf 19. aldar”. English version by Thor group