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Medieval Scandinavian law, also called North Germanic law, [1] [2] [3] was a subset of Germanic law practiced by North Germanic peoples. It was originally memorized by lawspeakers , but after the end of the Viking Age they were committed to writing, mostly by Christian monks after the Christianization of Scandinavia .
In the laws of Magnus VI of Norway (1263–1280), they were given the right to function as judges and to preside at the lagtings (the Norwegian superior courts). Modern historians regard the lawspeakers in ancient times (especially before around 1600), of which there were 10–12 in the entire kingdom, as part of the nobility .
The word appears in Old Norse, Old English, and modern Icelandic as þing, [b] in Middle English (as in modern English), Old Saxon, Old Dutch, and Old Frisian as thing (the difference between þing and thing is purely orthographical), in German as Ding, in Dutch and Afrikaans as ding, and in modern Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Faroese, Gutnish, and Norn as ting. [1]
The term "Gray Goose Laws", used to describe the laws of the Icelandic Commonwealth by the 16th century, may refer to the following: the fact that the laws were written with a goose quill, the fact that the laws were bound in goose skin, or; because of the age of the laws—it was then believed that geese lived longer than other birds.
Under the Danelaw, between 30% and 50% of the population in the countryside had the legal status of 'sokeman', occupying an intermediate position between the free tenants and the bond tenants. [28] This tended to provide more autonomy for the peasants. A sokeman was a free man within the lord's soke, or jurisdiction. [29]
At these sessions decisions were made, laws passed and complaints adjudicated. [176] Examples include Tingwall and Law Ting Holm in Shetland, Dingwall in Easter Ross, and Tynwald on the Isle of Man. [177] [178] Women enjoyed a relatively high status during the Viking Age, possibly due to the high degree of mobility in society.
The story's two protagonists – feuding spacemen of the future who are of distant Scandinavian origin and one of whom (the villain) is historically conscious – decide to revive this Viking tradition, resorting to a deadly holmgang on a lonely asteroid instead of a sea island, in order to settle their irreconcilable differences over a tangled ...
The Older Gulating Law is the oldest record of Norwegian law and was possibly first created during the reign of Olaf the Peaceful (1066–1093). The laws were amended and expanded over time, and it is likely that some parts of it would have existed in heathen oral tradition at least as far back as the 10th century.