THE SCENE: The following passage, which references the pre-Irish population of the emerald isle, describes how an entire ancient society was overturned by a single act of bad judgment.
THE TEXT: In that country there is also a place called Themar, which in olden times was apparently a capital or royal borough; now, however, it is deserted, for no one dares to dwell there. It was this event that caused the place to be abandoned: all the people in the land believed that the king who resided in Themar would always render just decisions and never do otherwise; never, they thought, could an unrighteous decision come from his throne. On what seems to have been the highest point of the borough, the king had a handsome and well-built castle in which was a large and beautiful hall, where he was accustomed to sit in judgment. But once it happened that certain lawsuits came before the king for decision in which his friends and acquaintances were interested on the one side, and he was anxious to support their contentions in every way. So the outcome was that the king shaped his decision more according to his own wish than to justice. But because an unrighteous judgement had come whence all people expected just decisions and because of this popular belief, the judgment seat was overturned and the hall and the castle likewise, even to their very foundations. The site, too, was overturned, so that those parts of the earth which had formerly pointed downwards were now turned upward; and all the houses and halls were turned town into the earth and thus it has been ever since. But because such a great miracle happened there, no one has since dared to inhabit the place, nor has any king ventured to set up his throne there; and yet, it is the loveliest place known in all that country.
– The King’s Mirror, King Hakon Hakonarson, 13th Century AD
