Forseti, or Fosite as he was known in Frisia, is a pre-Christian Norse god. It is said that his is the best of courts; all those who come before him leave reconciled. He thus seems to be the divine equivalent of and model for the human “lawspeaker”, the ceremonial head of the þing, the Germanic legal assembly.
In one medieval account of the origin of Frisian law, twelve lawmakers were set adrift at sea as a punishment by Charles the Great. They prayed to the Christian god for assistance, and their prayers were answered when a thirteenth man carrying a golden axe mysteriously appeared among them. He used his axe to row the ship to land, and when they reached land, he threw the axe on the ground, and a spring gushed forth from the spot where it landed. This thirteenth man taught them the laws they needed to know, then vanished.