Forseti

In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda Forseti is named the son of Baldr and Nanna and is attested as the presiding god of a hall called Glitnir, described as the seat of justice where disputants leave reconciled. Continental medieval legend and hagiography record a Frisian figure called Fosite associated with an island and a sacred spring; a late-legendary tale tells of a stranger who produced a spring, taught laws, and disappeared—later tradition often identifies that stranger with Fosite, though scholars note this identification and its interpretation are contested.

Medieval sources preserved in the provided materials give no surviving physical description of Forseti as a bodily form; the accounts emphasize his parentage, juridical function, and his hall Glitnir rather than any anthropomorphic depiction.

Primary attested function is juridical: Snorri reports Forseti's hall as 'the best of courts' and that 'all those who come before him leave reconciled,' attributing to him effective mediation and adjudication. Continental accounts associate Fosite with a sacred spring whose observance required ritual propriety (water drawn 'in silence') and with legends of a figure who taught laws to people. Scholarly commentary cautions that Forseti's juridical role rests largely on Snorri's report and on name-derivation; some etymological proposals connect the name to streams or to a Frisian cult-site, while others treat linguistic links as unresolved, so the scope of any cultic powers beyond adjudication is uncertain.