Brewer's: Promise of Odin

(The). The most binding of all promises to a Scandinavian. In making this promise the person passed his hand through a massive silver ring kept for the purpose; or through a sacrificial stone, like that called the “Circle of Stennis.”

“I will bind myself to you ... by the promise of Odin, the most sacred of our northern rites.” —SirW.Scott: The Pirate, chap. xxii.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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