( or ) or the Westrogothic law is the oldest

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

text written in

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

and the oldest of all

Swedish provincial laws Medieval Scandinavian law, also called North Germanic law, 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 ...

.The

Scanian law Scanian law ( da, Skånske Lov, sv, Skånelagen) is the oldest Danish provincial law and one of the first Nordic provincial laws to be written down. It was used in the geographic region of Danish Skåneland, which at the time included Scania, ...

is older, but

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

was not incorporated into Sweden until late 17th century, and it is thus counted as a Danish law. It was compiled in the early 13th century, probably at least partly at the instigation of

Eskil Magnusson Eskil Magnusson (c. 1175 – c. 1227) was a nobleman and lawspeaker (''Lagman'') of Västergötland. He is the first attested legal official in what is now Sweden about whom we have any extensive information. Biography He was a member of the Bje ...

and was the

code of law A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...

used in the provinces of

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Väs ...

and

Dalsland Dalsland () is a Swedish traditional province, or ''landskap'', situated in Götaland in southern Sweden. Lying to the west of Lake Vänern, it is bordered by Värmland to the north, Västergötland to the southeast, Bohuslän to the west, and ...

and in Mo härad during the latter half of that century. The earliest complete text is dated 1281. Small fragments of an older text have been dated 1250. This legal code exists in two versions, and (the Elder and Younger Westrogothic law, respectively). A first printing in modern times was published by and

Carl Johan Schlyter Carl Johan Schlyter (29 January 1795 – 29 December 1888) was a Swedish jurist and law publisher. He is known for publishing scholarly editions of the medieval Swedish laws in 13 volumes, a process which took over 50 years. Biography Bac ...

in 1827 (which made the text the subject of the earliest known stemma), and a new edition by in 1976. The oldest manuscript of contains other material added by a priest called Laurentius in Vedum around 1325. This material is of varying nature, including notes on the border between Sweden and Denmark and lists of bishops in Skara,

lawspeaker A lawspeaker or lawman (Swedish language, Swedish: ''lagman'', Old Swedish: ''laghmaþer'' or ''laghman'', Danish language, Danish: ''lovsigemand'', Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''lagmann'', Icelandic language, Icelandic: , Faroese language, ...

s in Västergötland and Swedish kings. The latter begins with

Olof Skötkonung Olof Skötkonung, (Old Norse: ''Óláfr skautkonungr'') sometimes stylized as ''Olaf the Swede'' (c. 980–1022), was King of Sweden, son of Eric the Victorious and, according to Icelandic sources, Sigrid the Haughty. He succeeded his father in ...

and ends with

Johan Sverkersson John I ( sv, Johan Sverkersson; c. 1201 – 10 March 1222) was the king of Sweden from 1216 until his death. Background John was the son of King Sverker II of Sweden of the House of Sverker and Queen Ingegerd of the Bjälbo dynasty. When he was o ...

. In these years,

men left to enlist in the Byzantine Varangian Guard in such numbers that declared no one could inherit while staying in "Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

—to stop the emigration,Jansson 1980:22 especially as two other European courts simultaneously also recruited Scandinavians:Pritsak 1981:386

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...

c. 980–1060 and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

1018–1066 (the Þingalið).

References

Notes

Citations

External links

The Old Västergötland Law
from the

World Digital Library The World Digital Library (WDL) is an international digital library operated by UNESCO and the United States Library of Congress. The WDL has stated that its mission is to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume ...

Äldre Västgötalagen
from the Swedish Literature Bank
Old Swedish and old Icelandic manuscripts
from the

National Library of Sweden The National Library of Sweden ( sv, Kungliga biblioteket, ''KB'', meaning "the Royal Library") is Sweden's national library. It collects and preserves all domestic printed and audio-visual materials in Swedish, as well as content with Swedish ...

* Collin, H. S. and C. J. Schlyter (eds), ''Corpus iuris Sueo-Gotorum antiqui: Samling af Sweriges gamla lagar, på Kongl. Maj:ts. nådigste befallning'', 13 vols (Stockholm: Haeggström, 1827--77), vol. 1 a

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vastgotalagen Germanic legal codes Swedish non-fiction literature Earliest known manuscripts by language 12th-century books Legal history of Sweden 13th century in law

See also

References

Notes

Citations

External links