Frostathing law (Frostating's law, Frostating Law, Frostathinglaw, Frostaþing law) (''Frostatingsloven'') is one of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

's oldest

laws Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...

. It concerned the

Frostating The Frostating was an early Norwegian court. It was one of the four major Things in medieval Norway. The Frostating had its seat at Tinghaugen in what is now the municipality of Frosta in Trøndelag county, Norway. The name lives on in the pr ...

, which covered large parts of Norway, and derives its name from the ancient court at Frostating. The most famous quote from this law is "''at lögum skal land várt byggja en eigi at ulögum øyða''" (with law shall our land be built, and not desolated by lawlessness) which also appears in a number of Norse laws, and is inscribed on the illustrated memorial.

History

It was not the oldest law, which are the ''Heidsævisthinglaw'' (or '' Eidsivathinglaw'') and the ''

Gulating Gulating ( non, Gulaþing) was one of the first Norwegian legislative assemblies, or '' things,'' and also the name of a present-day law court of western Norway. The practice of periodic regional assemblies predates recorded history, and was fi ...

'' law. Later came the ''Borgathinglaw'' of Olaf II (1015–1028) but the Frostathing law has been much better preserved, the earlier laws only preserving that which pertained to

church law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...

.Laurence Marcellus Larson (trans.) The Earliest Norwegian Laws: Being the Gulathing Law and the Frostathing Law. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2011
Together with the

Bjarkøy Bjarkøy is a former municipality in Troms county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until it was merged with Harstad Municipality on 1 January 2013. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Nergården on the i ...

law, these are collectively referred to as the provincial laws.Hans Jacob Orning. Unpredictability and Presence: Norwegian Kingship in the High Middle Ages. BRILL, 2008.
The version that has come down to us dates from around 1260 in the time of

Håkon Håkonsson Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; Old Norse: ''Hákon Hákonarson'' ; Norwegian: ''Håkon Håkonsson''), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 y ...

(1217–1263), who inscribed the first chapter with introductory amendments, although portions of the law are likely to be several hundred years older than that. Originally they existed only in oral form at meetings of the

Thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

. It is first mentioned in the collection of old

Norse Saga is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, from the Super NES to the Play ...

s by

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...

known as the

Heimskringla ''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derived ...

, specifically the Saga of Håkon Håkonsson. Snorri also refers to the later role of Olaf II. In 1280 the Thing more formally adopted the law and

Magnus the Good Magnus Olafsson (Old Norse: ''Magnús Óláfsson''; Norwegian and Danish: ''Magnus Olavsson''; – 25 October 1047), better known as Magnus the Good (Old Norse: ''Magnús góði'', Norwegian and Danish: ''Magnus den gode''), was King of Norway ...

(1035–1047) asked that it be written down. It became known as "Grágás" (Gray Goose), but was quite distinct from the Icelandic Gray Goose Laws (''Grágás''). This law was progressively modified over time, one of the more important developments in the evolution of Norwegian law being the work of

Magnus VI Magnus Haakonsson ( non, Magnús Hákonarson, no, Magnus Håkonsson, label=Modern Norwegian; 1 (or 3) May 1238 – 9 May 1280) was King of Norway (as Magnus VI) from 1263 to 1280 (junior king from 1257). One of his greatest achievements was the m ...

(1263–1280), for which he was nicknamed 'lawmender'. The Håkon Håkonsson version is also known as the ''Codex Resenianus'', after the historian

Peder Hansen Resen Peder Hansen Resen (17 June 1625 – 1 June 1688) was the Danish historian, legal scholar and the president's residence in the city. He was the son of Bishop Hans Hansen Resen. Youth and education After private tuition, he was in 1641 placed ...

who gave the only surviving version to the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

(unfortunately later destroyed in the 1728 fire at the Copenhagen Library). In Norwegian it is found in the Norges gamle Love (I, 121–258) as ''Den ældre Frostathings-Lov''. A modern

Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

edition was published in 1994.

Church law

The sections dealing with Church law appear to be derived from an older compilation known as the ''Gullfjǫðr'' (Goldfeather) by Archbishop Eystein, who sought to bring Norwegian church law in line with the canon law of

Gratian Gratian (; la, Gratianus; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and wa ...

References

Bibliography

* ''Frostatingslova''. Translated by

Jan Ragnar Hagland Jan Ragnar Hagland (born 3 March 1943 in Haugesund) is a Norwegian philologist; a professor of Old Norse at NTNU. He has worked at NTNU since 1972, and became professor in 1986. Hagland has translated several sagas of Icelanders to Nynorsk (inclu ...

and

Jørn Sandnes Jørn Sandnes (3 May 1926 – 12 April 2007) was a Norwegian historian. He was born in Snåsa in Nord-Trøndelag. He was appointed Professor in Trondheim from 1975 to 1992, From 1984 he served as the first rector at the University of Trondheim ...

. Samlaget, 1994. ( Norrøne bokverk). * Jørn Sandnes. "Slaget på Stiklestad i lys av Frostatingslovens motstandsbestemmelser" (

The Battle of Stiklestad The Battle of Stiklestad ( no, Slaget på Stiklestad, non, Stiklarstaðir) in 1030 is one of the most famous battles in the history of Norway. In this battle, King Olaf II of Norway () was killed. During the pontificate of Pope Alexander III, ...

), in ''Årbok for Nord-Trøndelag historielag'' 1992 *

Sverre Bagge Sverre Håkon Bagge (born 7 August 1942 in Bergen) is a Norwegian historian. He took his doctorate with the thesis ''Den politiske ideologi i Kongespeilet'', published in 1979. From 1974 to 1991 he worked as an associate professor (''førsteamanue ...

. "Kirken, bøndene og motstandsretten i Norge i middelalderen". (The Church, the farmers and opposition rights in Norway in the Middle Ages) '' Historisk tidsskrift'' No 3, 2005 * Jørn Sandnes. «Engi maðr skal atfor at oðrum gera, noen merknader til motstandsbestemmelsene i Frostatingsloven». I '' Historisk tidsskrift'' No 2, 2006 *

Adam von Bremen Adam of Bremen ( la, Adamus Bremensis; german: Adam von Bremen) (before 1050 – 12 October 1081/1085) was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. Adam is most famous for his chronicle ''Gesta ...

: ''Bischofsgeschichte der Hamburger Kirche'' (History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen). In: ''Quellen des 9. und 11. Jahrhunderts zur Geschichte der Hamburger Kirche und des Reichs.'' pp. 138–495. Freiherr vom Stein -Gedächtnisausgabe XI.

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

1978. English translation by F.J. Tschan,

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...

, 2002, . * Jón F. Hjálmarsson: ''Die Geschichte Islands''. Reykjavík 1994. *

Rudolf Keyser Rudolf Keyser (1 January 1803 – 9 October 1864) was a Norwegian historian, archaeologist and educator. Biography Jakob Rudolf Keyser was born in Christiania, now Oslo, Norway. He was the son of Bishop Johan Michael Keyser ( 1749–1810) an ...

, P.A. Munch (Hrg.): ''Norges gamle love indtil 1387.'' Förste Bind. Christiania 1846. * Rudolf Meißner (Übs.): ''Norwegisches Recht. Das Rechtsbuch des Frostothings.'' In: Germanenrechte Bd. 4. Weimar 1939.
Sini Kangas, Mia Korpiola, Tuija Ainonen (eds.) Authorities in the Middle Ages: Influence, Legitimacy, and Power in Medieval Society. Walter de Gruyter, 2013
{{ISBN, 9783110294569

External links

Wikisource: Norges gamle Love/Den ældre Frostathings-Lov

Frostathing Law in Norges Gamele Love 1: 119-300

in the

National Archives of Norway The National Archives of Norway (''Riksarkivet'') is the institution responsible for preserving archive material from Norwegian state institutions, as well as contributing to the preservation of private archives. It does this work in cooperation wi ...

Frostatingslova
by

Idar Lind Idar Lind (born 23 September 1954) is a Norwegian novelist, crime fiction writer, songwriter and playwright. Biography Lind was born on the island of Otterøya (now part of Namsos) in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. He made his literary debut ...

Regesta Novegica
Law of Norway Legal history of Norway Thing (assembly)

History

Church law

See also

References

Bibliography

External links