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incestuous, in a strict reading of the law. Early medieval European canon
law was indeed very strict about spiritual kinship and often prescribed that
married couples must separate if they are or become spiritually related.
What did Icelandic law say?
Different manuscripts of the old Christian Law give different an-
swers. Konungsbók states that “if a father himself baptizes his sick child,
he shall separate from his wife. If he does not, he becomes subject to
fjörbaugsgarðr.”31 In contrast, the other complete manuscript of Grágás,
Staðarhólsbók, prescribes that “if a father baptizes his sick child, he shall
not separate from his wife for that reason.”32 Similarly, three other medi-
eval manuscripts, as well as a later passage in Konungsbók, do not force the
parents to separate,33 while two other manuscripts contain the same for-
mulation as Konungsbók, forcing the parents to separate.34 Arnarbælisbók
originally said that the parents must separate, but then the word eigi (“not”)
was added above the line; the addition looks like it was made by the origi-
nal scribe.35
How are we to interpret this confusion? I think it is quite clear that the
older Christian Law must at first have stated that parents should separate
31 Grágás: Konungsbók, 6: “En ef faþir scirir sialfr barn sitt sivct. oc scal hann skilia séing við
konv sina. Ef hann skilr eigi séing við hana oc varðar honum fiorbavgs garþ”; cf. Laws of
Early Iceland: Grágás, the Codex Regius of Grágás, with Material from Other Manuscripts,
trans. by andrew Dennis, Peter foote, and richard Perkins, university of Manitoba
Icelandic Studies 3 and 5 (Winnipeg: university of Manitoba Press, 1980–2000), 1.25.
Sveinbjörn Rafnsson, Af fornum lögum og sögum, 39–46, also discusses the development of
Icelandic law on this point.
32 Grágás: Staðarhólsbók, 5: “Ef faðir scirir barn sit siúkt. oc scalat hann skilia sæing við kono
sina fyrir þa sök.”
33 Staðarfellsbók (aM 346 fol.), Belgsdalsbók (aM 347 fol.), and aM 50 8vo, ed. Grágás:
Skálholtsbók etc., 58, 100, and 234. further rules for emergency baptisms appear again to-
wards the end of Konungsbók, ch. 261, which states that the parents need not separate, see
Grágás: Konungsbók, 215.
34 aM 158 b 4to and aM 173 c 4to, ed. Grágás: Skálholtsbók etc., 196 and 276.
35 AM 135 4to, ed. Grágás: Skálholtsbók etc., 150. I thank Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson of
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, reykjavík, for checking this matter and
for sending me a photo of the relevant page. Skálholtsbók does not say anything about
whether a father who has administered emergency baptism to his child must separate from
the mother or not, cf. Grágás: Skálholtsbók etc., 5. the paper manuscripts, including aM 181
4to that reproduces Leirárgarðabók, state that the parents should separate in this situation,
but the modern editor has added the word “eigi,” probably because the formulation otherw-
ise resembles that in Staðarhólsbók, cf. n. 15: “tilføiet af os efter Gisning; maaskee ogsaa
har der i det ældre Haandskrift staaet skalat þann skilia,” see Grágás: Skálholtsbók etc., 297.