Saga - 1990, Page 149

FORN HROSSREIÐALÖG OG HEIMILDIR ÞEIRRA
147
Summary
This article deals with some problems of medieval Icelandic legal history.
Secular law in Iceland was, according to Ari Þorgilsson (1068-1148), first
committed to writing in the winter of 1117-18 under the auspices of Hafliði
Másson. According to a 12th century source (Morkinskinna) the father of
Hafliði, Már Húnröðarson, was in the service of the Byzantine emperor
around the middle of the llth century. Thus it appears that cultural connec-
tions between Iceland and southern Europe were possible at that time. A
previous investigation has shown the influence of Roman law in the oldest
preserved texts of Grágás. That influence probably dates from the late 12th
century. Accordingly, the problem is to discover the early 12th century
sources of Icelandic law. The oldest manuscripts of Grágás are much youn-
ger, a couple of fragments from around 1200 and two codices (Codex Regius
and Staðarhólsbók) dating from the late 13th century.
Law concerning the riding of another man's horse is very detailed in the
texts of Grágás. The oldest texts of Nowegian law (Gulaþingslög and Frostu-
þingslög) on the same subject are obviously related to those of Grágás, but are
much shorter. Also the texts of the oldest Scanian law and its Latin para-
phrase of around 1200 by Archbishop Andrés Sónason of Lund seem to be
related to the Norwegian and Icelandic Iaws on this subject, but are also
much shorter than the texts of Grágás. This relationship of law in Scania,
Norway and Iceland is most easily explained by the fact that Norway and Ice-
Iand belonged to the archbishopric of Lund in the early 12th century.
In the medieval barbaric law codes of the Continent (Leges barbarorum)
several paragraphs are devoted to the same subject. By far the most detailed
and longest text is found in Lombard law. Therefore Lombard law seems a
priori to be the most interesting for comparison with the detailed and long
Grágástexts. In recent years Scandinavian scholars (E.Sjöholm, O.Fenger)
have pointed out the influence of Lombard and Roman laws on medieval
Scandinavian laws but the bulky texts of Grágás have hardly been conside-
red.
It is pointed out that the law concerning the riding of another man's horse
in Grágás constitutes a whole with well marked initials and independent
chapter-numbering although it is interpolated into the text of each manu-
script in a different place. That also stresses the individuality of the law and
shows that the legistic collectors regarded it as a special work.
The relationship of the different texts is examined. In the MS AM 125A 4to
the text is only preserved in excerpts from a lost medieval codex showing re-
semblance to both of the two medieval codices. A comparison between these
shows that the text of Codex Regius is at an older and shorter stage. The text
°f Staðarhólsbók is amplified with novelties (rtýmæli) and has been delibera-