Saga - 2019, Side 113

to plummet thereafter. After 1620, the killing ended completely, and all human
instigated deaths during 1620–1650 were recorded as murders. There is no evi-
dence that any legislative changes were made as a result. Up until 1600, the per-
petrators could declare that they had slain someone, pay financial amends for the
slaying and the case was closed.
Strict rules applied to slayings, declarations of slaying, the payment of finan-
cial amends and the involvement of the crown or the state in the case. The slayer
was to declare his involvement in public and pay the family of the slain person
high financial amends. He was also to travel to Norway for an audience with the
king and there receive a final ruling on his fate. If a person under the special pro-
tection of the king was slain, the slayer became a criminal, and if a person was
slain after having received holy communion, the slayer was cursed as a result of
the action itself. Thus, both the authority of the crown and of the church had
become prominent in this community as early as the fifteenth century.
The causes of these significant changes appear to be quite clear. Around 1537,
the Reformation took hold here in Iceland with the appointment of a new
seignory by the Lutheran state power. Over the next 14 years, the conflict between
the Catholic and the Lutheran churches eclipsed all else and no slayings appear
to have been conducted during that time. After 1551, the crown’s confiscation of
property owned by the Catholic church after the Reformation in 1542–1550
changed the position of Icelandic landowners with respect to the state authorities.
They now became the key employees of the state, received and operated large
farms owned by the state, i.e. former monastery property, and thereby occupied
a new position within the state as the vassals of the king. Patron-client systems
were no longer independent units in the same manner as in the 15th century, when
they were more or less independent states fighting among themselves; their lead-
ers had now become a part of a much larger patron-client system, the Danish
crown.
It is also interesting to note the difference in culture norms that appear to have
thrived here in Iceland when compared to the other Nordic countries. There are
almost no reports from Iceland of slayings among common farmers during the
period between 1540 and 1650. Such slayings were commonplace events else -
where in the Nordic countries, and special efforts were required of the crown dur-
ing the 17th century to bring such conditions under control. Slayings carried out
by the upper classes were subject to different laws than those among farmers. The
same law, however, appears to have applied to everyone in Iceland in this respect.
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