Grágás

The Grágás (in German "gray goose") is an old Icelandic legal book .

It is the record of the law of the Icelandic Free State before 1263, shortly before it was annexed to Norway. In the winter of 1117/1118, on behalf of the Althing of 1117, essential parts of the text that the law speaker had presented at the Althing meeting in 1117 were written down for the first time. This generally marks the time of Icelandic literature. Since this version, the forerunner of the Grágás, was adopted by Althing 1118 without a dissenting vote, one can assume that this text can be regarded as a real law. It is called Hafliði Hafliðaskrá after the author . Between 1122 and 1133 Christian law was set in the same way .

How the name Grágás came about is unknown. The name first appears at the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century. Grágás was also called Trønder's law “ Frostathingslov ”, which Håkon the Good had enacted and Magnus the Good had written down.

Lore

In addition to small fragments, two extensive versions have survived from the 13th century: The older version of the Kgl. Library in Copenhagen (hence Codex regius or Konungsbók called) was recorded after 1250, the younger of the Arnamagnæan collection was written down in 1260–70 at the Staðarhóll farm in Saurbær at the northern end of Skarðströnd on Breiðafjörður in West Iceland and is therefore called Staðarhólsbók . Both manuscripts are now in the custody of the Icelandic manuscript institute “Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi”. There are also a number of more recent manuscripts.

The texts were given the name Grágás in the 16th century. According to Christian law of 1776, Þórður Sveinbjörnson obtained the first printed edition in Copenhagen in 1829. Hin forna lögbók Íslendinga sem nefnist GRÁGÁS. Codex juris Islandorum antiquissimus qui nominatur GRÁGÁS , who used both manuscripts for this. The Icelander Vilhjálmur Finsen published the texts separately in 1850–1852 and 1879, with further parts in 1883.

The texts are partly identical, but partly very different. In the Staðarhólsbók, for example, the constitutional sections and some old regulations on the consequences of manslaughter are missing. In addition, the arrangement of the regulations differs. Frequent repetitions of the same rule in other places are found in both manuscripts. How it comes to the correspondence down to the orthography and the differences is still unclear. One can assume, however, that there were a number of legal books at that time, as the hierarchy of legal texts described below assumes.

Grágás - a law?

The Grágás is not a code like the Hafliðaskrá . Rather, consider a semi-private, semi-authoritative recording of lectures by law speakers. The occasional “I-form” of the rendering speaks for the private (“ it says the same thing, as I mentioned earlier ”), for the authoritative claim the decoration on the best parchment with partly colored capitals at the beginning of new sections stands . The author himself was probably not a spokesman for the law, but still had legal knowledge.

The Grágás gives the right of the free state period again until the introduction of Járnsíða (1271) and Jónsbók (1281), also long obsolete such as z. B. Regulations on official acts of Armenian or Greek bishops. Essentially, it is likely to be the representation of the legislation between 1150 and 1200. But even without official legal force, it is considered to be the largest body of law up to its writing in terms of completeness, systematics and definition.

content

General

What is striking is the willingness to process that is consistently expressed in the text. The process formalities take up a lot of space everywhere and even rise above the appropriate judgment. One does not ask where someone lives, but rather “Where is he to be summoned, before which court?” Every free person has his “legal penalty”, ie what one can claim as compensation through legal action. This joy in litigation finds its equivalent in the sagas, where it is always about right-handers. However, there is one essential difference: the sagas tell of the upper class and their conflicts. The Grágás deals extensively with the poor, the ómagi , and their care. Here the church influence is noticeable.

Relationship to old Norwegian law

Compared to the old Norwegian laws ( Gulathingslov , Frostathingslov ), the Grágás lacks the ubiquity of the king found there. There are no rules on army duty, on armament of the navy, or on the graduation of landowners. In Norwegian law of this time, the jury's verdict (kviðr), which is often found in the Grágás, is missing . In 930 Icelandic law was still similar to its Norwegian model, because the Goden had sent the wise Úlfljótr to Norway to study the order of things there. Not much was left of it at the time of the Grágás.

Commitment

A completely different question is, as with many old legal collections, how far they reflect the legal reality. In criminal law in particular, the Grágás experienced some corrections from saga literature. The Sturlung saga shows that the intricacies of the legal process is an intellectual construction that in reality had no equivalent. The widespread comparative system is not considered at all in the Grágás. If all the many punishments (even for certain poems) had been implemented, the people would be impoverished or, in the case of threats of peacelessness or exile, the country would be deserted. Canon law was not observed either. The taboo regarding marriage of relatives, including godparents, could not be complied with with his ban on marriage up to relatives over the fourth generation with an estimated population of around 50,000 people for the year 900. However, shortly before the Reformation, this marriage legislation was rich in conflict, because the required dispensation was subject to a fee and represented a not insignificant source of income for the bishops. Regulations on forest bear and red deer meat also appear absurd in connection with fasting.

details

The Konungsbók does not have a continuous structure with headings (there are some headings), but a rough sequence of the content can be made out. It starts with that

Christian law with regulations on baptism, burial, church building where tithes and donations are to be paid, on the duties of the priest and bishops, against pagan customs, on Sundays and public holidays. Then comes the
Thing regulation with the court instances of the spring thinge, the quarter courts and their procedural rules as well as the next instance, the five-person court and its procedural rules as well as regulations on enforcement. This is followed by the
Consequences of manslaughter with the legal classification of various types of attack, the assessment of various injuries, the required behavior after the crime (announcement), definition of murder, the associated procedural rules, negligent homicide, insolvency (madness), killing of foreigners, of outlaws, of Unfree. There are also other regulations mixed in with it, such as the release or the purchase of an unfree person for his bed. This is followed by the regulations on the
Fines, to whom they are due and to what extent. Then come the rules about that
Law spokesman, the electoral process and his term of office. Another section is the
Legislation with the determination of the legislative body (law chamber), the hierarchy of laws and the procedure. Then that follows
Inheritance law and the regulations on the
Poor relief. It follows the right of
Engagements and marriage law. There are rules about the
Theft of use from horses, the rights of horses, the
Liability for ships and the legal relationships on ships,
the right to land including grazing rights and liability for livestock damage, beach rights and lease rights. It follows the right of
Rent, wages for livestock and legal relationships with livestock. To come after
Robbery and theft. This ends the criminal and civil law. Public law follows with the
District order, where there is talk of public welfare for the poor. After that comes
Various things where poetry is also a criminal offense. Also the find, the common land and the dog bite, damage to tame bears. In addition, rules on mutual inheritance law between Norway and Iceland have been included. There are also curiosities here: the right to castrate beggars or punish men in women's clothes or women in men's clothes. The end are the rules on that
Tithe payment.

literature

Vilhjálmur Finsen: Grágás. Islændernes Lovbog i Fristatens Tid, udg. efter the regular library Haandskrift og oversat. 2 parts. Copenhagen 1850–52. repr. Odense 1974. Parts 3-4 Graagaasen. Oversættelse. Copenhagen 1870.
Vilhjálmur Finsen: Grágás efter det Arnamagnæanske Haandskrift No. 334 fol., Staðarhólsbók. Copenhagen 1879. repr. Odense 1974.
Vilhjálmur Finsen: Grágás. Stykker, which can be found in the Arnamagnæanske Haandskrift No. 351 fol., Skálholtsbók og en Række other Haandskrifter. Copenhagen 1883. repr. Odense 1974.
Andreas Heusler (ex.): Icelandic law - The gray goose. Böhlau, Weimar 1937 ( Germanic Rights Series - Texts and Translations. Volume 9).

Andrew Dennis (ex.): The Laws of Early Iceland. Grágás, the codex regius of Grágás with material from other manuscripts. 2 vols. University of Manitoba Press. Winnipeg 1980-2000.

Páll Eggert Ólason: The Codex Regius of Grágás. Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1932 (Corpus Codicum Islandicorum Medii Ævi, III).

Ólafur Lárusson: Staðarhólsbók. The Ancient Lawbooks Grágás and Járnsíða. Ms. No. 334 fol. in the Arna Magnæan Collection in the University Library of Copenhagen. Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1936 ( Corpus Codicum Islandicorum Medii Ævi. IX).

Konrad Maurer : Graagaas. In: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts. , Volume 77, 1864, pp. 1-136 ( gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de ).

Grágás. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . 2nd edition, Volume 12, 1998, pp. 569-573.

Vilhjálmur Finsen: Om de islandske Love i Fristatstiden. In: Aarbøger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie. 1873, pp. 101-250.

J. Th. Westrin: Grågås (Isl. Grágás) . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 10 : Gossler-Harris . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1909, Sp. 454-455 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Hans Fix: Grágás. Graphematic studies on the handwriting Gks 1157 fol. Peter Lang, Frankfurt etc. 1979.

Hans Fix: Grágás Konungsbók (Gks 1157 fol.) And Finsens Edition. In: Ture Johannisson, et al. (Ed.): Arkiv för nordisk filologi (ANF) . Episode 6, volume 11 (= band 93 of the complete edition). CWK Gleerups förlag, Lund 1978, p. 82–115 (multilingual, journals.lub.lu.se [PDF]).

Heinrich Beck: Vocabulary of the old Icelandic Grágás (Konungsbók). Göttingen 1993.

Hans Henning Hoff: Hafliði Másson and the influences of Roman law in the Grágás. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2012 ( Supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Volume 78).

Individual evidence

↑ Heusler p. XII. ff.
↑ . J. Th Westrin: Gragas (isl Gragas.) . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 10 : Gossler-Harris . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1909, Sp. 455 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
↑ If the judges in the court of five (= a fifth court as a higher instance with one man from each godhood) do not agree in the judgment, it ultimately depends on which judges were formally correct in their different judgments. "But if some were right in the process of the split, the others wrong, then their verdict exists, and those wrong in the split, even if the others represent the better cause by default."
↑ The following rule is also typical for this: “If a married couple lives six half years apart without any aversion on his side, then he should invite them to their new place of residence or their valid place of residence in such a way that they or their permanent residents hear it. It is also right to invite them from the Law Rock or the Thing. He should do that every spring, otherwise he loses the right to their legal penalty (in case of killing or wounding) ”.
↑ “One should neither blame nor praise another poet. Nobody is angry about a two-line, unless there is a criticism in it. If one writes a two-line and the other adds two lines - assuming that they do it amicably - it says Waldgang (lack of peace) if it contains criticism or mockery. If one writes a two-line text on another, in which there is no mockery, there is a three-mark fine on it. If he writes more so there is the ring of life fence (banishment) on it, even if there is no mockery in it ... etc. "
↑ "But then it is murder if one removes the corpse, hides it or does not admit to it"
↑ “Here in the country, what is written in the books should be law. But if the texts differ, then you should stick to the texts that are kept by the bishops. If these texts also differ, the more detailed ones should apply to the case at hand. But if both are equally detailed, then that should apply in Skálholt. In everything one should stick to the Hafliðaskrá, unless it was changed later. From the lecture of those with legal knowledge one should only take what it does not contradict, what supplements or clarifies it "

[1] Heusler p. XII. ff.

[2] . J. Th Westrin: Gragas (isl Gragas.) . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 10 : Gossler-Harris . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1909, Sp. 455 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

[3] If the judges in the court of five (= a fifth court as a higher instance with one man from each godhood) do not agree in the judgment, it ultimately depends on which judges were formally correct in their different judgments. "But if some were right in the process of the split, the others wrong, then their verdict exists, and those wrong in the split, even if the others represent the better cause by default."

[4] The following rule is also typical for this: “If a married couple lives six half years apart without any aversion on his side, then he should invite them to their new place of residence or their valid place of residence in such a way that they or their permanent residents hear it. It is also right to invite them from the Law Rock or the Thing. He should do that every spring, otherwise he loses the right to their legal penalty (in case of killing or wounding) ”.

[5] “One should neither blame nor praise another poet. Nobody is angry about a two-line, unless there is a criticism in it. If one writes a two-line and the other adds two lines - assuming that they do it amicably - it says Waldgang (lack of peace) if it contains criticism or mockery. If one writes a two-line text on another, in which there is no mockery, there is a three-mark fine on it. If he writes more so there is the ring of life fence (banishment) on it, even if there is no mockery in it ... etc. "

[6] "But then it is murder if one removes the corpse, hides it or does not admit to it"

[7] “Here in the country, what is written in the books should be law. But if the texts differ, then you should stick to the texts that are kept by the bishops. If these texts also differ, the more detailed ones should apply to the case at hand. But if both are equally detailed, then that should apply in Skálholt. In everything one should stick to the Hafliðaskrá, unless it was changed later. From the lecture of those with legal knowledge one should only take what it does not contradict, what supplements or clarifies it "