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The Borgarthing Law and the Eidsivathing Law is dedicated to two closely linked medieval laws which were intended to cover adjacent legal provinces in eastern Norway, around and beyond the modern capital, Oslo. The core of this book consists of new translations of the two laws, based on the recent editions and translations into modern Norwegian by Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen and Magnus Rindal. Individual rules cover subjects such as Church rites, prohibitions, property, and payments, and shed light on medieval ideas relating to matters as diverse as disability, sexual relations, witchcraft, and forbidden foods. The volume contains a general introduction by Torgeir Landro and Bertil Nilsson, in addition to a translator’s introduction by Lisa Collinson, summarizing in English some of the information on manuscripts and relevant linguistic studies outlined by Halvorsen and Rindal. The translated texts in English are also supplemented by footnotes, supplying key readings from the original, in some cases with significant variants from relevant manuscripts. With a commentary on the individual chapters after each translation, drawing on recent scholarship on medieval law, Church history, and other relevant historical fields, this book is an ideal resource for students and scholars of medieval Norwegian legal history.

The vast majority of studies on rulership in medieval Europe focus on one kingdom; one type of rule; or one type of ruler. This volume attempts to break that mold and demonstrate the breadth of medieval Europe and the various kinds of rulership within it. How Medieval Europe was Ruled aims to demonstrate the multiplicity of types of rulers and polities that existed in medieval Europe. The contributors discuss not just kings or queens, but countesses, dukes, and town leadership. We see that rulers worked collaboratively with one another both across political boundaries and within their own borders in ways that are not evident in most current studies of kingship, inhibited by too narrow a focus. The volume also covers the breadth of medieval Europe from Scandinavia in the north to the Italian peninsula in the south, Iberia and the Anglo-Normans in the west to Rus, Byzantium and the Khazars in the east. This book is geared towards a wide audience and thus provides a broad base of understanding via a clear explanation of concepts of rule in each of the areas that is covered. The book can be utilized in the classroom, to enhance the presentation of a medieval Europe survey or to discuss rulership more specifically for a region or all of Europe. Beyond the classroom, the book is accessible to all scholars who are interested in continuing to learn and expand their horizons.

Based on legislation and legal practice from the period c. 1250-1600 the book takes issue with the most important viewpoints in earlier research by early modernists: that the Reformation represented a watershed in a development characterized by greater criminalisation of sexual acts, increase in the severity of sentences and deterioration of the position of women. According to this study, in principle all or mostly all factors were already in place in the Middle Ages. In Norwegian historiography the period investigated is characterized by paucity of sources, and the period has tended to fall between two stools, respectively the medievalist and the early modernist. The ambition of this book has been to bridge the gap.

Compilation of Early Norwegian Laws. "The oldest Norwegian laws, those of Gula and Frosta, go back to a time when the culture of the Middle Ages was still a somewhat novel experience in Northern Europe. Though the copies that have survived seem to date from the twelfth century and later, the codes must, in considerable part, have taken form in the eleventh century, or as early as the first generation of the Christian age. Heathendom had by that time been outlawed, but one seems justified in believing that the cult of strength and valor was for some time yet a force that had to be taken into account; for the principles that governed in the heathen age retained much of their ancient vigor, and the old civilization, rooted, as it was, in the soil itself, was able in large measure to maintain both life and validity." --Foreword, vii Laurence M. Larson [1868-1938] was a Professor of History at the University of Illinois. CONTENTS Introduction THE OLDER LAW OF THE GULATHING The Church Law The Merchant Law The Law of Tenancy The Inheritance Law Miscellaneous Provisions The Law of Personal Rights The Wergeld System The Law as to Theft The Redemption of Odal Land The Law of the Coast Defense A Later System of Wergeld THE OLDER LAW OF THE FROSTATHING Introduction I. The Frostathing II. The Church Law III. The Church Law-Continued IV. The Law of Personal Rights V. Miscellaneous Provisions VI. The Wergeld System VII. The Law of the Coast Defense VIII. The Inheritance Law IX. The Inheritance Law-Continued X. The Merchant Law XI. The Merchant Law-Continued XII. The Redemption of Odal Land XIII. The Law of Tenancy XIV. The Law of Tenancy-Concluded. The Law as to Theft XV. The Law as to Theft-Continued XVI. Later Enactments Glossary Bibliography Index