I’ve spoken about the Germanic man’s honor, but then there’s also his loyalty. The purity of a man’s heart reveals itself best in his loyalty. But this loyalty is contrasted by the Germanic people’s notorious unreliability, as many foreigners including Julius Caesar were known to complain about.
When for example the Vikings accepted a treaty with Frankish king Carloman II, the Frankish people were deeply upset when, upon their king’s death in the year 884 AD, the Vikings resumed their raids into Frankish territory.
Why didn’t the Vikings respect the legal treaty anymore? From the Viking point of view, they had fulfilled their duties. They had, indeed, resisted plundering West Francia during the reign of King Carloman. But once he died, their oath was voided.
So this is how the riddle of Germanic unreliability is solved: Germanic legal loyalty is tied to living people, but not to dead treaties. When the British ultimately invented the Magna Carta and the rule of law that transcends people, mainland Germanics still believed in Herrschaft, or rather the rule of a Lord over his people.
When in the year 1066 AD the Norwegian King Harald, nicknamed the Hard One, died at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the Danish King Sveinn instantly declared that peace between Norway and Denmark was now over, since the Norwegian King had died, and, therefore, Danish loyalty to maintain peace with the Norwegians had now ended.