1.
Torgny the Lawspeaker
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They were the lawspeakers of Tiundaland, and all lawspeakers in the Swedish kingdom were their subordinates. The one who is the most famous is reported by the Heimskringla to have lived in the time of Olof Skötkonung and Olaf the Holy, and there is an extensive account on him in this source. This Þorgnýr is held to have historic basis, but Snorris account is doubted by modern Swedish historians, snorri relates, In Tiundaland there was a lagman who was called Thorgny, whose father was called Thorgny Thorgnyson. His forefathers had for a course of years, and during many kings times. At this time Thorgny was old, and had a court about him. He was considered one of the wisest men in Sweden, and was Earl Ragnvalds relation, the two kings were at war, and many wise men in both Sweden and Norway tried to reconcile the kings. Then Thorgny stood up, and when he arose all the bondes stood up who had before been sitting, at first there was a great din of people and weapons, but when the noise was settled into silent listening, Thorgny made his speech. The disposition of Swedish kings is different now from what it has been formerly, and, more over, he was not so proud that he would not listen to people who had anything to say to him. My father, again, was a time with King Bjorn. In Bjorns lifetime his kingdom stood in great power, and no kind of want was felt, I also remember King Eirik the Victorious, and was with him on many a war-expedition. He enlarged the Swedish dominion, and defended it manfully, and it was also easy, but the king we have now got allows no man to presume to talk with him, unless it be what he desires to hear. On this alone he applies all his power, while he allows his scat-lands in other countries to go from him through laziness and weakness. He wants to have the Norway kingdom laid under him, which no Swedish king before him ever desired, now it is our will, we bondes, that thou King Olaf make peace with the Norway king, Olaf the Thick, and marry thy daughter Ingegerd to him. Wilt thou, however, reconquer the kingdoms in the east countries which thy relations and forefathers had there, we will all for that purpose follow thee to the war. But if thou wilt not do as we desire, we will now attack thee, so our forefathers went to work when they drowned five kings in a morass at the Mula-thing, and they were filled with the same insupportable pride thou hast shown towards us. Now tell us, in all haste, what thou wilt take. Then the whole public approved, with clash of arms and shouts and these arguments convinced the king to give in and he promised to have peace with the king of Norway and to give him his daughter. However, he broke his promise
2.
Gamla Uppsala
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Gamla Uppsala is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 17,973 inhabitants in 2016, as early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political centre. Early written sources show that already during pre-history, Gamla Uppsala was well known in Northern Europe as the residence of the Swedish kings of the legendary Yngling dynasty. In fact, the oldest Scandinavian sources, such as Ynglingatal, the Westrogothic law and it was also the location of the Thing of all Swedes which was a thing held from pre-historic times to the Middle Ages, at the end of February or early March. It was held in conjunction with a fair called Disting. It was not only the Norse cultic centre, it also became Swedens archbishopric in 1164, Gamla Uppsala lies on Fyris Wolds, a cultivated plain in the valley of the River Fyris which is densely populated in its southern part, while the northern part consists of farms. Medieval Scandinavians held Gamla Uppsala as one of the oldest and most important locations in Scandinavia and this tradition was also known by the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, who, however had Odin reside in nearby Fornsigtuna, whereas the god Freyr lived in Gamla Uppsala. He was, like his father, fortunate in friends and in good seasons, frey built a great temple at Uppsala, made it his chief seat, and gave it all his taxes, his land, and goods. Then began the Upsal domains, which have remained ever since, for he paid to the gods abominable offerings, by beginning to slaughter human victims. What kind of tree it is nobody knows, there is also a spring there where the pagan are accustomed to perform sacrifices and to immerse a human being alive. As long as his body is not found, the request of the people will be fulfilled, a golden chain encircles that temple and hangs over the gables of the building. Those who approach see its gleam from afar off because the shrine, for nine days feasts and sacrifices of this kind are celebrated. Every day they sacrifice one human being in addition to other animals and this sacrifice takes place about the time of the vernal equinox. In 2000, the Swedish AsatruSociety restarted the tradition of holding blóts at Gamla Uppsala. The 16th-century Archbishop of Uppsala Johannes Magnus asserted that the city was founded by, and named for, an early Swedish king named Ubbo. However, in the absence of any corroborating evidence, Magnus accounts no longer enjoy widespread acceptance among scholars today. It is a testimony to the sanctity of the location in the mindset of followers of medieval Norse religion that Gamla Uppsala was the last stronghold of pre-Christian, Norse Germanic kingship. During the 1070s and 1080 there appears to have been a renaissance of Norse religion with the magnificent Temple at Uppsala described in a contested account through an eye-witness by Adam of Bremen
3.
Olaf II of Norway
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Olaf II Haraldsson, later known as St. Olaf, was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised in Nidaros by Bishop Grimkell and his remains were enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral, built over his burial site. He is also a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The exact position of Saint Olafs grave in Nidaros has been unknown since 1568, Saint Olaf is symbolised by the axe in Norways coat of arms, and the Olsok is still his day of celebration. Many Christian institutions with Scandinavian links and Norways Order of St. Olav, are named after him, modern historians generally agree that Olaf was inclined to violence and brutality, and they accuse earlier scholars of neglecting this side of Olafs character. Especially during the period of Romantic Nationalism, Olaf was a symbol of independence and pride. Olaf IIs Old Norse name is Ólafr Haraldsson, during his lifetime he was known as Olaf the fat or the stout or simply as Olaf the big. In Norway today, he is referred to as Olav den hellige or Heilage-Olav in honour of his sainthood. Olaf Haraldsson had the given name Óláfr in Old Norse, Olav is the modern equivalent in Norwegian, formerly often spelt Olaf. His name in Icelandic is Ólafur, in Faroese Ólavur, in Danish Oluf, Olave was the traditional spelling in England, preserved in the name of medieval churches dedicated to him. Other names, such as Oláfr hinn helgi, Olavus rex and he is sometimes referred to as Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae, a designation which goes back to the thirteenth century. The term Ola Nordmann as epithet of the archetypal Norwegian may originate in this tradition and his mother was Åsta Gudbrandsdatter, and his father was Harald Grenske, great-great-grandchild of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway. Harald Grenske died when Åsta Gudbrandsdatter was pregnant with Olaf and she later married Sigurd Syr, with whom she had other children including Harald Hardrada, who would reign as a future king of Norway. There are many texts giving information concerning Olaf Haraldsson, the oldest source that we have is the Glælognskviða or Sea-Calm Poem, composed by Þórarinn loftunga, an Icelander. It praises Olaf and mentions some of the miracles attributed to him. Olaf is also mentioned in the Norwegian synoptic histories and these include the Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum, the Historia Norwegiae and a Latin text, Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium by Theodoric the Monk. Icelanders also wrote extensively about Olaf and we also have several Icelandic sagas about him, the famous Heimskringla, written by Snorri Sturluson, largely bases its account of Olaf on the earlier Fagrskinna. We also have the important Oldest Saga of St. Olaf, finally, there are many hagiographic sources describing St. Olaf, but these focus mostly on miracles attributed to him and cannot be used to accurately recreate his life
4.
Swedish language
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Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
5.
Old Swedish
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Old Swedish developed from Old East Norse, the eastern dialect of Old Norse. The differences were minute, however, and the dialects truly began to diverge around the 12th century, becoming Old Swedish. It is not known when exactly Old Gutnish and Elfdalian began to diverge from Swedish, Early Old Swedish was markedly different from modern Swedish in that it had a more complex case structure and had not yet experienced a reduction of the gender system and thus had three genders. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases, the writing of the Westrogothic law marked the beginning of Early Old Swedish, which had developed from Old East Norse. It was the first Swedish language document written in the Latin alphabet, Old Swedish was relatively stable during this period. The phonological and grammatical systems inherited from Old Norse were relatively well preserved, most of the texts from the Early Old Swedish period were written in Latin, as it was the language of knowledge and the Church. However, Old Swedish was used as a language as well. Much of the knowledge of Old Swedish comes from these law texts, in addition to laws, some religious and poetic texts were also written in Old Swedish. The Catholic Church and its various monastic orders introduced many new Greek, Latin especially had an influence on the written language. The Middle Low German language also influenced Old Swedish due to the economic, many German speakers immigrated to Swedish cities and worked in trade and administration. Accordingly, loanwords relating to warfare, trade, crafts and bureaucracy entered the Swedish language directly from Low German, along with some grammatical suffixes and conjunctions. The prefixes be-, ge- and för- that can be found in the beginning of modern Swedish words came from the Low German be-, ge- and vor-. Some words were replaced new ones, the native word for window, vindøgha, was replaced with fönster, eldhus was replaced with kök. Some of these still exist in Modern Swedish but are often considered archaic or dialectal. Many words related to seafaring were borrowed from Dutch, the influence of Low German was so strong that the inflectional system of Old Swedish was largely broken down. The printing of the New Testament in Swedish in 1526 marked the point for modern Swedish. In this period Old Swedish had taken in an amount of new vocabulary primarily from Latin, Low German. When the country part of the Kalmar Union in 1397
6.
Danish language
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There are also minor Danish-speaking communities in Norway, Sweden, Spain, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas, around 15–20% of the population of Greenland speak Danish as their home language. Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of Old Norse, until the 16th century, Danish was a continuum of dialects spoken from Schleswig to Scania with no standard variety or spelling conventions. With the Protestant Reformation and the introduction of printing, a language was developed which was based on the educated Copenhagen dialect. It spread through use in the system and administration though German. Today, traditional Danish dialects have all but disappeared, though there are variants of the standard language. The main differences in language are between generations, with youth language being particularly innovative, Danish has a very large vowel inventory comprising 27 phonemically distinctive vowels, and its prosody is characterized by the distinctive phenomenon stød, a kind of laryngeal phonation type. The grammar is moderately inflective with strong and weak conjugations and inflections, nouns and demonstrative pronouns distinguish common and neutral gender. As in English, Danish only has remnants of a case system, particularly in the pronouns. Its syntax is V2, with the verb always occupying the second slot in the sentence. Danish is a Germanic language of the North Germanic branch, other names for this group are the Nordic or Scandinavian languages. Along with Swedish, Danish descends from the Eastern dialects of the Old Norse language, Scandinavian languages are often considered a dialect continuum, where there are no sharp dividing lines between the different vernacular languages. Like Norwegian and Swedish, Danish was significantly influenced by Low German in the Middle Ages, Danish itself can be divided into three main dialect areas, West Danish, Insular Danish, and East Danish. Danish is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish, both Swedes and Danes also understand Norwegian better than they understand each others languages. By the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language was called the Danish tongue, or Norse language. Norse was written in the alphabet, first with the elder futhark. From the 7th century the common Norse language began to undergo changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, most of the changes separating East Norse from West Norse started as innovations in Denmark, that spread through Scania into Sweden and by maritime contact to southern Norway
7.
Norwegian language
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Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as extinct languages. Faroese and Icelandic are hardly mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them, as established by law and governmental policy, the two official forms of written Norwegian are Bokmål and Nynorsk. The official Norwegian Language Council is responsible for regulating the two forms, and recommends the terms Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk in English. Two other written forms without official status also exist, one and it is regulated by the unofficial Norwegian Academy, which translates the name as Standard Norwegian. Nynorsk and Bokmål provide standards for how to write Norwegian, no standard of spoken Norwegian is officially sanctioned, and most Norwegians speak their own dialects in all circumstances. Thus, unlike in other countries, the use of any Norwegian dialect. Outside Eastern Norway, this variation is not used. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the written language of Norway. As a result, the development of modern written Norwegian has been subject to strong controversy related to nationalism, rural versus urban discourse, historically, Bokmål is a Norwegianised variety of Danish, while Nynorsk is a language form based on Norwegian dialects and puristic opposition to Danish. The unofficial form known as Riksmål is considered more conservative than Bokmål, Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. A2005 poll indicates that 86. 3% use primarily Bokmål as their written language,5. 5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7. 5% use primarily Nynorsk. Thus, 13% are frequently writing Nynorsk, though the majority speak dialects that resemble Nynorsk more closely than Bokmål. Broadly speaking, Nynorsk writing is widespread in western Norway, though not in major urban areas, examples are Setesdal, the western part of Telemark county and several municipalities in Hallingdal, Valdres, and Gudbrandsdalen. It is little used elsewhere, but 30–40 years ago, it also had strongholds in rural parts of Trøndelag. Today, not only is Nynorsk the official language of four of the 19 Norwegian counties, NRK, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, broadcasts in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages. Bokmål is used in 92% of all publications, and Nynorsk in 8%
8.
Icelandic language
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Icelandic /aɪsˈlændɪk/ is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. It is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages, historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the colonisation of the Americas. Icelandic, Faroese, Norn, and Western Norwegian formerly constituted West Nordic, Danish, Eastern Norwegian, modern Norwegian Bokmål is influenced by both groups, leading the Nordic languages to be divided into mainland Scandinavian languages and Insular Nordic. Most Western European languages have reduced levels of inflection, particularly noun declension. In contrast, Icelandic retains a four-case synthetic grammar comparable to, Icelandic is distinguished by a wide assortment of irregular declensions. Icelandic also has many instances of oblique cases without any governing word, for example, many of the various Latin ablatives have a corresponding Icelandic dative. The vast majority of Icelandic speakers—about 320, 000—live in Iceland, more than 8,000 Icelandic speakers live in Denmark, of whom approximately 3,000 are students. The language is spoken by some 5,000 people in the United States. Notably in the province of Manitoba, while 97% of the population of Iceland consider Icelandic their mother tongue, the language is in decline in some communities outside Iceland, particularly in Canada. Icelandic speakers outside Iceland represent recent emigration in almost all cases except Gimli, Manitoba, the state-funded Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies serves as a centre for preserving the medieval Icelandic manuscripts and studying the language and its literature. Since 1995, on 16 November each year, the birthday of 19th-century poet Jónas Hallgrímsson is celebrated as Icelandic Language Day, the oldest preserved texts in Icelandic were written around 1100 AD. Much of the texts are based on poetry and laws traditionally preserved orally, the most famous of the texts, which were written in Iceland from the 12th century onward, are the Icelandic Sagas. They comprise the historical works and the eddaic poems, the language of the sagas is Old Icelandic, a western dialect of Old Norse. Danish rule of Iceland from 1380 to 1918 had little effect on the evolution of Icelandic, though more archaic than the other living Germanic languages, Icelandic changed markedly in pronunciation from the 12th to the 16th century, especially in vowels. The modern Icelandic alphabet has developed from an established in the 19th century. The later Rasmus Rask standard was a re-creation of the old treatise, with changes to fit concurrent Germanic conventions. Various archaic features, as the letter ð, had not been used much in later centuries, rasks standard constituted a major change in practice. Later 20th-century changes include the use of é instead of je, apart from the addition of new vocabulary, written Icelandic has not changed substantially since the 11th century, when the first texts were written on vellum
9.
Faroese language
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It is one of five languages descended from Old West Norse spoken in the Middle Ages, the others being Norwegian, Icelandic, and the extinct Norn and Greenlandic Norse. Around 900, the language spoken in the Faroes was Old Norse, however, many of the settlers were not from Scandinavia, but descendants of Norse settlers in the Irish Sea region. In addition, women from Norse Ireland, Orkney, or Shetland often married native Scandinavian men before settling in the Faroe Islands, as a result, the Irish language has had some influence on both Faroese and Icelandic. There is some evidence of Irish language place names in the Faroes, for example. Until the 15th century Faroese had a similar to Icelandic and Norwegian. The islanders continued to use the language in ballads, folktales and this maintained a rich spoken tradition, but for 300 years the language was not used in written form. This changed when Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb and the Icelandic grammarian and politician Jón Sigurðsson published a standard for Modern Faroese in 1854. They set a standard for the orthography of the language, based on its Old Norse roots and this had the advantage of being etymologically clear, as well as keeping the kinship with the Icelandic written language. The actual pronunciation, however, often differs from the written rendering, the letter ð, for example, has no specific phoneme attached to it. Jakob Jakobsen devised a system of orthography, based on his wish for a phonetic spelling. In 1937, Faroese replaced Danish as the school language, in 1938 as the church language. However, Faroese did not become the language of media. Today Danish is considered a language, although around 5% of residents on the Faroes learn it as a first language. Old Faroese is a form of Old Norse spoken in medieval times in the Faroe Islands, the most crucial aspects of the development of Faroese are diphthongisation and palatalisation. There is not enough available to establish an accurate chronology of Faroese. Iotacism may be connected with the palatalisation of k, g and sk before Old Norse e, i, y, ø, au > /kj, ɡj, skj/ > /cç, ɟʝ, ɕcç/ > /tʃʰ, tʃ. Before the palatalisation é and ǽ merged as /ɛː/ and approximately in the same period epenthesis u is inserted into word-final /Cr/, the Great Quantity Shift operated in the 15th/16th centuries. In the case of skerping, it took place after iotacism, the shift of hv to /kw/, the deletion of /h/ in word-initial /h/–sonorant clusters, and the dissolution of þ appeared before the end of the 13th century
10.
Scandinavia
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Scandinavia /ˌskændᵻˈneɪviə/ is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark. This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries, in Nordic languages, only Denmark, Norway and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia. In English usage, Scandinavia sometimes refers to the geographical area, the name Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish, now Swedish, region Scania. Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse, Finland is mainly populated by Finns, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live in the north of Scandinavia. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages form a continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent, Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Apart from these, German, Yiddish and Romani are recognized minority languages in Scandinavia, the southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate climate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Much of the Scandinavian mountains have a tundra climate. There are many lakes and moraines, legacies of the last glacial period, Scandinavia usually refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Some sources argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland, though that broader region is known by the countries concerned as Norden. Before this time, the term Scandinavia was familiar mainly to classical scholars through Pliny the Elders writings, and was used vaguely for Scania, as a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for Pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism, the term is often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own use. More precisely, and subject to no dispute, is that Finland is included in the broader term Nordic countries, various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, Norways government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America, Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries
11.
Oral tradition
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Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication where in knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or verses. In this way, it is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system. Oral tradition is information, memories and knowledge held in common by a group of people, over many generations, in a general sense, oral tradition refers to the recall and transmission of a specific, preserved textual and cultural knowledge through vocal utterance. As an academic discipline, it both to a set of objects of study and a method by which they are studied. The study of tradition is distinct from the academic discipline of oral history. Oral tradition is distinct from the study of orality defined as thought. A folklore is a type of tradition, but knowledge other than folklore has been orally transmitted. According to John Foley, oral tradition has been an ancient human tradition found in all corners of the world, according to Goody, the Vedic texts likely involved both a written and oral tradition, calling it a parallel products of a literate society. In ancient Greece, the tradition was a dominant tradition. Homers epic poetry, states Michael Gagarin, was composed, performed and transmitted orally. This is evidenced, for example, by the multiple scriptural statements by Paul admitting previously remembered tradition which he received orally. Oral traditions face the challenge of accurate transmission and verifiability of the accurate version, Oral cultures have employed various strategies that achieve this without writing. For example, a rhythmic speech filled with mnemonic devices enhances memory. A few useful mnemonic devices include alliteration, repetition, assonance, in addition, the verse is often metrically composed with an exact number of syllables or morae - such as with Greek and Latin prosody and in Chandas found in Hindu and Buddhist texts. Such strategies help facilitate transmission of information from individual to individual without a written intermediate, rudyard Kiplings The Jungle Book provides an excellent demonstration of oral governance in the Law of the Jungle. Not only does grounding rules in oral proverbs allow for transmission and understanding. These stories, traditions, and proverbs are not static, but are often altered upon each transmission barring the overall meaning remains intact, in this way, the rules that govern the people are modified by the whole and not authored by a single entity
12.
Snorri Sturluson
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Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing and he was also the author of the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of Egils saga, as a historian and mythographer, Snorri is remarkable for proposing the hypothesis that mythological gods begin as human war leaders and kings whose funeral sites develop cults. As people call upon the war leader as they go to battle, or the dead king as they face tribal hardship. Eventually, the king or warrior is remembered only as a god and he also proposed that as tribes defeat others, they explain their victory by proposing that their own gods were in battle with the gods of the others. Snorri Sturluson was born in Hvammur into the wealthy and powerful Sturlungar family of the Icelandic Commonwealth and his parents were Sturla Þórðarson the elder of Hvammur and his second wife, Guðný Böðvarsdóttir. He had two brothers, Þórðr Sturluson and Sighvatr Sturluson, two sisters and nine half-siblings. By a quirk of circumstance Snorri was raised from the age of three by Jón Loftsson, a relative of the Norwegian royal family, in Oddi, Iceland. The resulting settlement would have beggared Páll, but Jón Loftsson intervened in the Althing to mitigate the judgment and, to compensate Sturla, offered to raise, Snorri therefore received an excellent education and made connections that he might not otherwise have made. He attended the school of Sæmundr fróði, grandfather of Jón Loftsson, at Oddi and his father died in 1183 and his mother as guardian soon wasted Snorris share of the inheritance. The two families arranged an marriage in 1199 between Snorri and Herdís, the daughter of Bersi Vermundarson. From her father, Snorri inherited an estate at Borg and a chieftainship and he soon acquired more property and chieftainships. Snorri and Herdís were together for four years at Borg and they had at least two children, Hallbera and Jón. The marriage succumbed to Snorris philandering, and in 1206, he settled in Reykholt as manager of an estate there and he made significant improvements to the estate, including a hot outdoor bath. The bath and the buildings have preserved to some extent. During the initial years at Reykholt he fathered five children by three different women, Guðrún Hreinsdóttir, Oddný, and Þuríður Hallsdóttir, Snorri quickly became known as a poet, but was also a successful lawyer. In 1215, he became lawspeaker of the Althing, the public office of the Icelandic commonwealth. In the summer of 1218, he left the position and sailed to Norway
13.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
14.
Provinces of Sweden
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The provinces of Sweden are historical, geographical and cultural regions. Sweden has 25 provinces and they have no function, but remain historical legacies. Dialects and folklore rather follows the borders than the borders of the counties. Several of them were subdivisions of Sweden until 1634, when they were replaced by the counties of Sweden, some were conquered later on from Denmark–Norway. Others, like the provinces of Finland, were lost, Lapland is the only province acquired through colonization. In some cases, the administrative counties correspond almost exactly to the provinces, as is Blekinge to Blekinge County and Gotland, which is a province, county, while not exactly corresponding with the province, Härjedalen Municipality is beside Gotland the only municipality named after a province. In other cases, they do not, which enhances the cultural importance of the provinces. Since 1884 all the provinces are also ceremonial duchies, but as such have no administrative or political functions, the provinces of Sweden are still used in colloquial speech and cultural references, and can therefore not be regarded as an archaic concept. The main exception is Lapland where the see themselves as a part of Västerbotten or Norrbotten. Two other exceptions are Stockholm and Gothenburg, where the see themselves as living in the city. English and other languages occasionally use Latin names as alternatives to the Swedish names, the name Scania for Skåne predominates in English. Some purely English exonyms, such as the Dales for Dalarna, East Gothland for Östergötland, Swedish Lapland for Lappland, swedes writing in English have long used Swedish-language name forms only. The origins of the provincial divisions lay in the petty kingdoms that became more and more subjected to the rule of the Kings of Sweden during the consolidation of Sweden. Until the country law of Magnus Ericson in 1350, each of these still had its own laws with its own assembly. The historical provinces were considered duchies, but newly conquered provinces added to the kingdom either received the status of a duchy or a county, after the separation from the Kalmar Union in 1523 the Kingdom incorporated only some of its new conquests as provinces. Other foreign territories were ruled as Swedish Dominions under the Swedish monarch, Norway, in personal union with Sweden from 1814 to 1905, never became an integral part of Sweden. The division of Västerbotten that took place with the cession of Finland caused Norrbotten to emerge as a county and it was granted a coat of arms as late as in 1995. Some scholars suggest that Sweden revived the concept in the 19th century
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Jurisdiction
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Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a legal body to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility, e. g. Michigan tax law. In federations like the U. S. areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, colloquially it is used to refer to the geographical area to which such authority applies, e. g. the court has jurisdiction over all of Colorado. The legal term refers only to the authority, not to a geographical area. International laws and treaties provide agreements which nations agree to be bound to, supranational organizations provide mechanisms whereby disputes between nations may be resolved through arbitration or mediation. When a country is recognized as de jure, it is an acknowledgment by the de jure nations that the country has sovereignty. However, it is often at the discretion of each nation whether to co-operate or participate, if a nation does agree to participate in activities of the supranational bodies and accept decisions, the nation is giving up its sovereign authority and thereby allocating power to these bodies. The fact that organizations, courts and tribunals have been created raises the difficult question of how to co-ordinate their activities with those of national courts. But, to invoke the jurisdiction in any case, all the parties have to accept the prospective judgment as binding. This reduces the risk of wasting the Courts time, each such group may form transnational institutions with declared legislative or judicial powers. For example, in Europe, the European Court of Justice has been given jurisdiction as the appellate court to the member states on issues of European law. This jurisdiction is entrenched and its authority could only be denied by a member if that member nation asserts its sovereignty. Hence, in the Netherlands, all treaties and the orders of international organizations are effective without any action being required to convert international into municipal law, in nations adopting this theory, the local courts automatically accept jurisdiction to adjudicate on lawsuits relying on international law principles. Otherwise the courts have a discretion to apply international law where it does not conflict with statute or the common law. According to the Supreme Court of the United States, the treaty power authorizes Congress to legislate under the Necessary and this concerns the relationships both between courts in different jurisdictions, and between courts within the same jurisdiction. The usual legal doctrine under which questions of jurisdiction are decided is termed forum non conveniens, to deal with the issue of forum shopping, nations are urged to adopt more positive rules on conflict of laws. In addition, the Lugano Convention binds the European Union and the European Free Trade Association, council Regulation 44/2001 now also applies as between the rest of the EU Member States and Denmark due to an agreement reached between the European Community and Denmark. In some legal areas, at least, the CACA enforcement of judgments is now more straightforward. At a national level, the rules still determine jurisdiction over persons who are not domiciled or habitually resident in the European Union or the Lugano area
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Tiundaland
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Tiundaland is a historic region, Folkland, and since 1296 part of the modern province of Uppland. It originally meant the land of the ten hundreds and referred to its duty of providing 1000 men and 40 ships for the Swedish kings leidang. During the Viking Age it probably extended from the coast of the Baltic Sea by Norrtälje to the bay today is the lake Mälaren. According to Snorri Sturluson in the Heimskringla it was the location of Uppsala and the Thing of all Swedes, all the Swedish lawspeakers were subordinate to the one of Tiundaland. The third portion of Svithjod proper is called Tiundaland, the fourth Attundaland, the fifth Sialand, Tiundaland is the best and most inhabited part of Svithjod, under which the other kingdoms stand. There Upsala is situated, the seat of the king and archbishop, each of these divisions of the country has its Lag-thing, and Its own laws in many parts. And in all matters in which the laws differ from other, Upsala-law is the directing law. Attundaland Fjärdhundraland Roslagen Stone of Mora Suiones
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Thing (assembly)
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A thing was the governing assembly of a Northern Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by lawspeakers. Its meeting-place was called a thingstead, the Anglo-Saxon folkmoot or folkmote was analogous, the forerunner to the witenagemot and a precursor of the modern Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Old Norse, Old Frisian, and Old English þing with the assembly is identical in origin to the English word thing, German Ding, Dutch ding. All of these derive from Proto-Germanic *þingą meaning appointed time. The word shift in the meaning of the thing from assembly to object is mirrored in the evolution of the Latin causa to modern French chose, Spanish/Italian/Catalan cosa. In English the term is attested from 685 to 686 CE in the meaning assembly, later it referred to a being, entity or matter. The early sense of meeting, assembly did not survive the shift to Middle English, the meaning of personal possessions, commonly in the plural, first appears in Middle English around 1300. In the pre-Christian clan-culture of Scandinavia the members of a clan were obliged to avenge injuries against their dead, a balancing structure was necessary to reduce tribal feuds and avoid social disorder. It is known from North-Germanic cultures that the institution was the thing, although similar assemblies are reported also from other Germanic peoples. The thing was the assembly of the men and women of a country. There were consequently hierarchies of things, so that the things were represented at the higher-level thing. At the thing, disputes were solved and political decisions were made, the place for the thing was often also the place for public religious rites and for commerce. The thing met at regular intervals, legislated, elected chieftains and kings, and judged according to the law, the things negotiations were presided over by the lawspeaker and the chieftain or the king. In reality the thing was dominated by the most influential members of the community, the heads of clans and wealthy families, Haugating, the Thing for Vestfold in Norway, was located in Tønsberg at Haugar. This site was one of Norways most important places for the proclamation of kings, in 1130, Harald Gille called together a meeting at the Haugating at which he was declared to be King of Norway. Sigurd Magnusson was proclaimed king in 1193 at Haugating, magnus VII was acclaimed hereditary King of Norway and Sweden at the Haugating in August 1319. Main things in Sweden were the Thing of all Swedes, the Thing of all Geats, the island of Gotland had twenty things in late medieval times, each represented at the island-thing called landsting by its elected judge. New laws were decided at the landsting, which also took other decisions regarding the island as a whole, the landstings authority was successively eroded after the island was occupied by the Teutonic Order in 1398
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Stones of Mora
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The Stones of Mora was the place where the Swedish kings were elected. The origin of the tradition is unknown, the name Stones of Mora, Mora stenar in Swedish, was originally in singular, Mora sten Stone of Mora, and referred to a king stone on which the newly elected king stood after the election. Later monuments in stone around the Stone of Mora, commemorating different elections, another name often used referring to the place where the king was elected was Mora äng, Meadow of Mora. In Lagga parish about 10 km south-east of Uppsala, but in neighbouring Knivsta Municipality, is Mora äng, the location is at equal distance from the Things of the old folklands Attundaland and Tiundaland. This was the location of Mora Thing, where the Swedish kings were elected, after his election was decided, the king was elevated on top of a flat stone and hailed by his subjects. The law of Uppland and Södermanland states, The three folklands, i. e. Tiundaland, Attundaland and Fjärdhundraland, shall first elect king. Then the election will be sanctioned by the lawspeaker of Uppland and then by all his subordinate lawspeakers in the rest of the kingdom and this process was done during the so-called Eriksgata. The Westrogothic law reminded the Geats that they had to accept this election, the location was on the border of a wetland, and according to Snorri, five kings had been drowned in this wetland, when the people had been displeased. The newly elected king also had to go around Sweden on the Eriksgata and it was thus a sort of federation where the king started with his election at Mora Thing and then travelled throughout the kingdom to have the election confirmed by the local assemblies. The Stone of Mora and many stones which flanked it with inscriptions commemorating the elections of earlier kings, were destroyed in 1515 during the civil war against the Danes. Gustav Vasa and John III are said to have tried to reconstruct the Stones of Mora without success, one of the fragments is known as the Three Crowns stone since it is the earliest known example of the use of Swedens national symbol, the Three Crowns. The fragment is what remains of the stone for the election of Albert of Mecklenburg, there is a document which tells that he was elected at the Stones of Mora in 1275. Magnus Eriksson was elected at the stones on July 8,1319, kristian I, in 1457, he was the last to be elected at the stones. The building where the fragments are contained was constructed by Carl Wijnbladh in 1770, the design was based on a sketch by a schoolchild, one of many emerging from a local contest. Stone of Scone Germanic king Lia Fáil Princes Stone
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Yeoman
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A yeoman /ˈjoʊmən/ was a member of a social class in late medieval to early modern England. A specialized meaning in naval terminology, petty officer in charge of supplies, the term is first recorded c. It may be a contraction of Old English iunge man, meaning young man, the Canons Yeomans Prologue and Tale appears in Geoffrey Chaucers Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400. During the late 14th to 18th centuries, yeomen were farmers who owned land and their wealth and the size of their landholding varied. Often it was hard to distinguish minor landed gentry from the wealthier yeomen, the Concise Oxford Dictionary states that a yeoman was a person qualified by possessing free land of 40/- annual value, and who can serve on juries and vote for a Knight of the Shire. He is sometimes described as a landowner, a farmer of the middle classes. The term had a sense as in the Yeomanry Cavalry of the late 18th century. The yeoman archer was unique to England and Wales, though Kentish Weald and Cheshire archers were noted for their skills, it appears that the bulk of the yeomanry was from the English and Welsh Marches. The original Yeomen of the Guard chartered in 1485 were most likely of Brittonic descent, including Welshmen and they were established by King Henry VII, himself a Briton who was exiled in Brittany during the Wars of the Roses. He recruited his forces mostly from Wales and the West Midlands of England on his journey to victory at Bosworth Field, Yeomen were often constables of their parish, and sometimes chief constables of the district, shire or hundred. Many yeomen held the positions of bailiffs for the High Sheriff or for the shire or hundred, other civic duties would include churchwarden, bridge warden, and other warden duties. It was also common for a yeoman to be an overseer for his parish, Yeomen, whether working for a lord, king, shire, knight, district or parish served in localised or municipal police forces raised by or led by the landed gentry. Some of these roles, in particular those of constable and bailiff were carried down through families, Yeomen often filled ranging, roaming, surveying, and policing roles. In Chaucers Friars Tale, a yeoman who is a bailiff of the forest who tricks the Summoner turns out to be the devil ready to grant wishes already made, the earlier class of franklins were similar to yeomen, wealthy peasant landowners, freeholders or village officials. They were typically village leaders, constables or mayors, Franklin militias were similar to later yeomanries. Yeomen took over roles in the 14th century as many of them became leaders, constables, sheriffs, justices of the peace, mayors. It was too much, for even ‘valets’ known as ‘yeoman archers’ were forbidden to be returned to parliament, the yeoman also comprised a military class or status. In the United States, yeomen were identified in the 18th and 19th centuries as non-slaveholding, small landowning, in Southern areas where land was poor, like East Tennessee, the landowning yeomen were typically subsistence farmers, but some managed to grow some crops for market
20.
Magnus IV of Sweden
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Magnus IV was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1364, King of Norway as Magnus VII from 1319 to 1343, and ruler of Scania from 1332 to 1360. By adversaries he has been called Magnus Smek, referring to Magnus Eriksson as Magnus II is incorrect. The Swedish Royal Court lists three Swedish kings before him of the same name, Magnus was born in Norway in April or May 1316 to Eric, Duke of Södermanland and Ingeborg, a daughter of Haakon V of Norway. Magnus was elected king of Sweden on 8 July 1319, under the regencies of his grandmother, Helwig of Holstein, and his mother, Ingeborg of Norway, the countries were ruled by Knut Jonsson and Erling Vidkunsson. Magnus was declared to have come of age at 15 in 1331 and this provoked resistance in Norway, where a statute from 1302 stipulated that a king came of age at the age of 20, and a rising by Erling Vidkunsson and other Norwegian nobles ensued. In 1333, the rebels submitted to King Magnus, in 1332 the King of Denmark, Christopher II, died as a king without a country after he and his older brother and predecessor had pawned Denmark piece by piece. King Magnus took advantage of his neighbours distress, redeeming the pawn for the eastern Danish provinces for a amount of silver. On 21 July 1336 Magnus was crowned king of both Norway and Sweden in Stockholm and this caused further resentment in Norway, where the nobles and magnates desired a separate Norwegian coronation. A second rising by members of the nobility of Norway ensued in 1338. In 1335 he married Blanche of Namur, daughter of John I, Marquis of Namur, and Marie of Artois, the wedding took place in October or early November 1335, possibly at Bohus castle. As a wedding gift Blanche received the province of Tunsberg in Norway and they had two sons, Eric and Haakon, plus at least three daughters who died in infancy and were buried at Ås Abbey. Opposition to Magnus rule in Norway led to a settlement between the king and the Norwegian nobility at Varberg on 15 August 1343, in violation of the Norwegian laws on royal inheritance, Magnus younger son Haakon would become king of Norway, with Magnus as regent during his minority. Later the same year, it was declared that Magnus older son, thus, the union between Norway and Sweden would be severed. This occurred when Haakon came of age in 1355, on 12 August 1323, Magnus concluded the first treaty between Sweden and Novgorod at Nöteborg where Lake Ladoga empties into the Neva River. The treaty delineated spheres of influence among the Finns and Karelians and was supposed to be an eternal peace, but Magnus relations with Russia were not so peaceful. In 1337, religious strife between Orthodox Karelians and the Swedes led to a Swedish attack on the town of Korela and Viborg, a Swedish commander named Sten also captured the fortress at Orekhov. In this treaty, the Swedes claimed that Sten and others acted on their own without the consent of the king, in 1335, Magnus outlawed Thralldom for thralls born by Christian parents in Västergötland and Värend, being the last parts of Sweden where slavery had remained legal. The Novgorodians retook the fortress in 1349 after a seven-month siege, while he spent much of 1351 trying to drum up support for further crusading action among the German cities in the Baltic States, he never returned to attack Novgorod
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Judicial system of Finland
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Under the Constitution of Finland, everyone is entitled to have their case heard by a court or an authority appropriately and without undue delay. This is achieved through the system of Finland. The Finnish legal system originated during the period before Swedish rule, the traditional system of tings for criminal cases and civil disputes continued after conquest and the countrys first court of appeals was established at Turku in 1634. Since then, the Code has undergone numerous changes and this division dates back to the administrative procedure of the 18th and 19th centuries. This division was formalized in 1918 when two sections of the Senate became the newly independent countrys two highest courts, the Senate Department of Justice became the Supreme Court, and part of the Senate Finance Department was the basis of the Supreme Administrative Court. The two court systems are separate, and they have no jurisdiction over one another. The establishment of the two courts was confirmed by the Constitution Act of 1919, overseeing the system of justice are the Chancellor of Justice and the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Both officials receive complaints from citizens about the conduct of civil servants, the Chancellor of Justice also supervises advocates. Both officials may call any Finnish authorities to render assistance as they deem fit. As in the other Nordic countries, there is no constitutional court, issues dealt with by a court of this kind elsewhere are handled by the Parliaments Constitutional Committee. Finnish thinking on criminal policy, as it was evolved by the 1980s, in practical terms, punishments are standardized, and they are imposed consistently for all categories of crimes, in the interest of ensuring equality in the application of the law. For this reason, the penal code restricts the discretionary power of the courts in imposing sentences, thus, the tendency has been to rely on light punishment, especially on fines, and to emphasize short sentences of a few weeks or months. The courts are expected to ensure that punishment is not extended indirectly to the offenders family. The tendency since the early 1970s has been to decriminalize a number of actions formerly indictable under the penal code, among the acts decriminalized were creating a public disturbance because of drunkenness as well as certain offenses against property, such as petty theft. Homosexual acts between consenting adults also ceased to be regarded as a criminal offense, stiff penalties for offenses against persons, threats of violence against persons, and driving under influence remained unaffected, however. Finland has been less willing than other Scandinavian countries to replace punishment with other measures, under legislation enacted in 1931, offenders dangerous to private or public safety could be confined in a separate institution for recidivists after their sentences had expired. As a result, the number of offenders held in internment of any kind fell dramatically, although indefinite detention remained legal, this provision was not enforced after the mid-1970s. Any lawyer applying for membership in the Finnish Bar Association must have completed a Master of Laws degree, entitling them to judicial office
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Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
23.
Sverre I of Norway
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Sverre Sigurdsson was the King of Norway from 1184 to 1202. He married Margareta Eriksdotter, the daughter of the Swedish king Eric IX, many consider him one of the most important rulers in Norwegian history. He assumed power as the leader of the party known as the Birkebeiner in 1177. After Magnus fell at the Battle of Fimreite in 1184, Sverre ruled as king of Norway. Differences with the Church, however, led to his excommunication in 1194, another civil war began against the church-supported Baglers, which lasted beyond Sverres death in 1202. The most important historical source on Sverre’s life is his biography, Sverris saga and this saga is likely biased, since the foreword states that part was written under Sverre’s direct sponsorship. Correspondence between the Pope and the Norwegian bishops can be used as a source when it comes to church affairs. The saga and the letters mostly agree about the hard facts, supposedly, King Sverre was short, so he usually directed his troops from horseback during battles. The contrast is great to the traditional Norse warrior ideals where the king was expected to lead his men from the front of the battle line, Sverre was a talented improviser, both in political and military life. His innovative tactics helped the Birkebeiners against more tradition-bound opponents. During battle he had his men operate in groups, while previously tactics similar to the shield wall had been preferred. This made the Birkebeiners more mobile and adaptable, according to the saga, Sverre was born in 1151 to Gunnhild and her husband Unås, a comb maker from the Faroes. When Sverre was five, the moved to the Faroes where Sverre was raised in the household of Unås brother Roe. It was here that Sverre studied for the priesthood and was ordained, the priest school of Kirkjubøur must have been of a high standard, for Sverre was later described as very well educated. The legend says that he was hidden in a cave near the village and this cave actually exists and gave the mountain Sverrihola on the south tip of Streymoy its name. Sverre, however, was not suited for a priestly life, the saga states that he had several dreams which he interpreted as a sign that he was destined for greater things. Further, in 1175, his mother revealed that Sverre was really the son of king Sigurd Munn, in the following year, Sverre travelled to Norway to seek his destiny. The tale told in Sverres saga is the official version, historians have questioned the veracity of it, especially with regard to Sverres alleged paternity
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Magnus VI of Norway
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Magnus Haakonsson was King of Norway from 1263 to 1280. One of his greatest achievements was his modernisation and nationalisation of the Norwegian law-code and he was the first Norwegian monarch known to personally have used an ordinal number, although originally counting himself as IV. He was the youngest son of King Håkon Håkonsson and his wife Margaret Skuladotter and he was born in Tunsberg and was baptised in May 1238. He spent most of his upbringing in Bergen, in 1257 his older brother Håkon died, leaving Magnus the heir-apparent to the kingdom. His father gave him the title of king the same year, the struggle to claim Ingeborgs inheritance from her murdered father later involved Norway in intermittent conflicts with Denmark for decades to come. Magnus and Ingeborg were crowned directly after their marriage, and Magnus was given Ryfylke for his personal upkeep, on 16 December 1263 King Håkon died while fighting the Scottish king over the Hebrides, and Magnus became the ruler of Norway. Magnus rule brought about a change from the aggressive foreign policy of his father. In 1269 the Treaty of Winchester cemented good relations with the English king Henry III, Magnus also seems to have had good relations with the Swedish King Valdemar Birgersson, and in the 1260s, the border with Sweden was officially defined for the first time. When Valdemar was deposed by his two brothers and fled to Norway in 1275, this stirred Magnus into gathering a leidang-fleet for the first, in internal politics, Magnus carried out a great effort to modernise the law-code, which gave him his epithet law-mender. These were adopted at the Things in the years 1274 and 1276, in 1274 he promulgated the new national law, a unified code of laws to apply for the whole country, including the Faroe Islands and Shetland. This replaced the different regional laws which had existed before and it was supplemented by a new municipal law in 1276, and a slightly modified version was also drawn up for Iceland. A unified code of laws for a country was at this time something quite new. His code introduced the concept that crime is an offense against the rather than against the individual. It increased the power of the king, making the throne the source of justice. The municipal law gave the cities increased freedom from rural control, a specific section fixed the law of succession to the throne, in accordance with the arrangements laid down by King Håkon Håkonsson in 1260. The royal succession was an important and prickly matter, the last of the wars, fought for decades over disputed successions to the throne. In 1273 Magnus gave his eldest son, five-year-old Eirik, the name of king, the Tønsberg Concord signed in 1277 between King Magnus and Jon Raude, Archbishop of Nidaros, confirmed certain privileges of the clergy, the freedom of episcopal elections and similar matters. The church preserved considerable independence in matters, but gave up its old claim that the Norwegian kingdom was a fief under the ultimate authority of the Catholic Church
25.
Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
26.
Jury
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A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty or not guilty. The old institution of grand juries still exists in places, particularly the United States. The modern criminal court jury arrangement has evolved out of the juries in England. Members were supposed to inform themselves of crimes and then of the details of the crimes and their function was therefore closer to that of a grand jury than that of a jury in a trial. The word jury derives from Anglo-Norman juré, Juries are most common in common law adversarial-system jurisdictions. In the modern system, juries act as triers of fact, a trial without a jury is known as a bench trial. The petit jury hears the evidence in a trial as presented by both the plaintiff and the defendant, after hearing the evidence and often jury instructions from the judge, the group retires for deliberation, to consider a verdict. The majority required for a verdict varies, in some cases it must be unanimous, while in other jurisdictions it may be a majority or supermajority. A jury that is unable to come to a verdict is referred to as a hung jury, the size of the jury varies, in criminal cases involving serious felonies there are usually 12 jurors. In civil cases many trials require fewer than twelve jurors, grand juries carry out this duty by examining evidence presented to them by a prosecutor and issuing indictments, or by investigating alleged crimes and issuing presentments. A grand jury is traditionally larger than and distinguishable from the jury used during a trial. It is not required that a suspect be notified of grand jury proceedings, grand juries can also be used for filing charges in the form of a sealed indictment against unaware suspects who are arrested later by a surprise police visit. In addition to their role in screening criminal prosecutions and assisting in the investigation of crimes, grand juries in California, Florida. A third kind of jury, known as a jury can be convened in some common law jurisdiction in connection with an inquest by a coroner. A coroner is an official, who is charged with determining the circumstances leading to a death in ambiguous or suspicious cases. A coroners jury is generally a body that a coroner can convene on a basis in order to increase public confidence in the coroners finding where there might otherwise be a controversy. Serving on a jury is normally compulsory for individuals who are qualified for jury service, a jury is intended to be an impartial panel capable of reaching a verdict
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Iceland
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, the island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the worlds oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, Iceland thus followed Norways integration to that Union and came under Danish rule after Swedens secession from that union in 1523. In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Icelands struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918, until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture, and was among the poorest in Europe. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity, in 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has an economy with relatively low taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. Iceland ranks high in economic, political and social stability and equality, in 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy, some bankers were jailed, and the economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nations Scandinavian heritage, most Icelanders are descendants of Germanic and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is related to Faroese
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Althing
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The Alþingi is the national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest extant parliamentary institutions in the world, the Althing was founded in 930 at Þingvellir, the assembly fields or Parliament fields, situated approximately 45 kilometres east of what later became the countrys capital, Reykjavík. This event marked the beginning of the Icelandic Commonwealth, even after Icelands union with Norway in 1262, the Althing still held its sessions at Þingvellir until 1799, when it was discontinued for 45 years. It was restored in 1844 and moved to Reykjavík, where it has resided ever since, the present parliament building, the Alþingishús, was built in 1881, of hewn Icelandic stone. The constitution of Iceland provides for six electoral constituencies with the possibility of an increase to seven, the constituency boundaries are fixed by legislation. A party must have won at least five per cent of the vote in order to be eligible for these proportionally distributed seats. Political participation in Iceland is very high, usually over 80 per cent of the electorate casts a ballot, the current president of the Althing is Unnur Brá Konráðsdóttir. The Althingi is one of the oldest extant parliamentary institutions in the world and its establishment, as an outdoor assembly or thing held on the plains of Þingvellir from about the year 930 AD, laid the foundation for an independent national existence in Iceland. To begin with, the Althing was an assembly of the Icelandic Commonwealth. Those attending the assembly dwelt in temporary camps during the session, the centre of the gathering was the Lögberg, or Law Rock, a rocky outcrop on which the Lawspeaker took his seat as the presiding official of the assembly. His responsibilities included reciting aloud the laws in effect at the time and it was his duty to proclaim the procedural law of Althing to those attending the assembly each year. Public addresses on matters of importance were delivered at the Law Rock and there the assembly was called to order, the Lögrétta, the legislative section of the assembly, was its most powerful institution. It comprised the 39 district goðar plus nine additional members and the Lawspeaker, as the legislative section of Althing, the Lögrétta took a stand on legal conflicts, adopted new laws and granted exemptions to existing laws. Althing of old also performed a function and heard legal disputes in addition to the spring assemblies held in each district. After the country had divided into four quarters around 965 AD. Another court was established early in the 11th century and it served as a supreme court of sorts, and assumed the function of hearing cases left unsettled by the other courts. It comprised 48 judges appointed by the goðar of Lögrétta, when the Icelanders submitted to the authority of the Norwegian king by the terms of the Old Covenant in 1262, the function of Althing changed. The organization of the came to an end and the rule of the country by goðar disappeared
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Icelandic Commonwealth
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With the probable exception of Papar, Iceland was an uninhabited island until around 870. The medieval Icelandic state had a unique judicial structure, the first settlers of Iceland were greatly influenced by their Norwegian roots when creating their own form of government. The most powerful and elite leaders in Iceland were the chieftains, the office of the goði was called the goðorð. The goðorð was not delimited by strict geographical boundaries, thus, a free man could choose to support any of the goðar of his district. The supporters of the goðar were called Þingmenn, in exchange for the goði protecting his interests, the Þingmaðr would provide armed support to his goði during feuds or conflicts. The Þingmenn were also required to attend regional and national assemblies, on a regional level, the goðar of the thirteen district assemblies convened meetings every spring to settle local disputes. The goðar also served as the leaders of the Alþingi, the assembly of Iceland. Today, the Alþingi is the oldest parliamentary institution in existence and it began with the regional assembly at Kjalarness established by Þorsteinn Ingólfsson, son of the first settler. The leaders of the Kjalarnessþing appointed a man named Úlfljótr to study the laws in Norway and he spent three years in Norway and returned with the foundation of Úlfljótr’s Law, which would form the basis for Icelands national assembly. Sections of his law code are preserved in the Landnámabók, the first Alþingi assembly convened around the year 930 at Þingvellir. The Alþingi served as a gathering at which people from all over the country met for two weeks every June. The Alþingi revolved around the Lögrétta, the council of the assembly. The Lögrétta comprised the 39 goðar and their advisors and they also appointed a Lawspeaker once every three years. The Lawspeaker recited and clarified laws at Lögberg, located at the center of Þingvellir, the descendants of Ingólfr Arnarson, the first settler of Iceland, held the ceremonial position of allsherjargoði and had the role of sanctifying the Alþingi each year. Iceland was divided into four administrative regions called fjörðungar, each of these was ruled by nine goðar. The Alþingi was made up of the four Quarter Courts and this judicial body of Iceland consisted of 36 judges, each appointed by one of the goðar. These courts tried individual cases and served as a judicial authority to the regional courts. The rulings of the judges had to be virtually unanimous
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Medieval Scandinavian law
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Initially they were geographically limited to minor jurisdictions, and the Bjarkey laws concerned various merchant towns, but later there were laws that applied to entire Scandinavian kingdoms. Each jurisdiction was governed by an assembly of men, called a þing. The court assembly, the thing, used the law and heard witnesses to rule whether the accused was guilty or not, there were usually two types of punishment, outlawing and fines. The most common means of justice were, however, fines and this system was extremely intricate and the fines themselves, singularly a mulct, were also varied according to the social status of the accused and/or the victim. Disputes of innocence were often solved by trial and these trials consisted of different tests for men and women. However, as long as the courts were not made aware of the crime, there was no written code of law until after the Viking Age, but the code of fines, duels, and disavowing criminals was the standard across the Scandinavian world. The best sources for information about the Viking legal system are found in Iceland, the Eyrbyggja Saga, for example, portrays accounts of the compromises made at the Althing. Mar Hallvardssons wound and the blow Steinthor gave Snorri the Priest were said to equal the deaths of the three men killed at Alfta Fjord. The killings by Styr, one on side, cancelled each other out, as did the killings of Bergthor. The killing of Freystein Bofi was set against the killing of one of Steinthors men at Alfta Fjord, Thorleif Kimbi got compensation for the leg he had lost. The killing of one of Snorris men at Alfta Fjord was matched against the unlawful assault Thorleif Kimbi had committed by starting the fight, all other injuries were evened out, all outstanding differences paid for, and so they parted on friendly terms. Everyone honoured this settlement as long as Steinthor and Snorri were both alive, in 1117, the Althing decided that all the laws should be written down and this was accomplished at Hafliði Mássons farm over that winter and published the following year. As with the other Scandinavian countries in the Medieval Age, Norway was governed by a system of þings at which the kings would convene to settle legal disputes. A jury typically consisted of members, twenty-four members, or thirty-six members according to the importance of the matter in question. One of the most common practices in Norway of determining innocence was a holmgang, the winner was considered to be in the favor of the gods and thus the innocent party. Although not as common, outlawing men was practiced as well, bjorn, son of Ketil Flat-Nose, was declared an outlaw by a thing assembled by King Harald in the very beginning of the Eyrbyggja Saga. The thing was, and still is called Gulaþing and it is a kind of social contract that classifies citizens into classes and set the amount for fines according to the crimes committed. Udal law is a remnant of the ancient Norwegian laws
