65° - 01.09.1967, Blaðsíða 13

25% illegitimate second births over the same
period. (The comparable figures for the whole of
Iceland in 1962 were 60.9% first births, and
21.1% second births.)
The engagement-family is orientated toward
marriage, and people within this family tend to
marry between the birth of the first child and that
of the second. We mention in passing that it is
quite common for the young couple to marry at
the christening of their first child. Somehow it is
though that the marriage-baptism combination
will ensure that the child be registered as legiti-
mately born. This belief has no support in law,
but is an interesting social phenomenon in that it
provides a mechanism, however fictional, for
dealing with the only disadvantage which might
accompany the engagement-family: the appear-
ance of an illegitimate child on official records.1
From the above it has emerged that the institu-
tion of public engagement plays a basic role in
giving shape to the pattern of family organzation
in our society. At the same time it will be ap-
preciated that this institution has direct bearing
on the question of legitimacy. This being so, it
will be of some interest to inquire into the history
of this institution.
It has frequently been maintained that the high
rates of illegitimacy are a fairly recent develop-
ment in Icelandic social history and that its ex-
planation can be sought within the context of
present-day Iceland. A backward look, however,
will show us the roots of the contemporary en-
gagement-family.
Saga literature offers many examples of mar-
riage proceedings in pre-Christianized Iceland,
examples corroborated by the oldest Icelandic
code of law. According to these sources there
were three distinct stages in the marital process:
the proposal, followed by matchmaking negotia-
tions, the ceremonial betrothal, and the wedding
feast. For our purposes it is the betrothal cere-
mony stage which is most important. So legally
important was this ceremony that children born
to those betrothed, before or after betrothal, were
Ed. note: A child in Iceland does not usually receive
a legal name until baptism, until that time being regis-
tered only as a male or female child, so this belief in
baptism as a legitimatizing factor is understandable.
legitimate by law. The betrothal ceremony was
the cornerstone of the civil institution of mar-
riage.
The introduction of Christianity and its legisla-
tion by the Aiding (parliament) in the year 1000
did not seemingly affect well-established law
relating to pre-Christianized marriage procedure.
In the first ecclesiastical code of law in 1123
there was still no mention of marital affairs, a
fact which seems to indicate that even at that
time the Church did not play any decisive role in
controlling matters of this nature. But in accor-
dance with the claim of the Church for unlimited
jurisdiction over the so-called “spiritual matters”,
a new ecclesiastical code of law was drawn up
and made effective by the Aiding in the year
1275 for Skalholt diocese, but not until 1354 in
Holar diocese. This new ecclesiastical law in-
corporated all matters of importance concerning
the institution of marriage; the ceremonial be-
trothal still held its place at the center of the
constitution of legal marriage. Even within the
ecclesiastical setting no marriage was concluded
unless the betrothal formula had been cited, con-
cluding quite significantly with the following
words: “and from now on you are my legal
wife”. Children born to a legally betrothed couple
were to be considered legitimate, and this mar-
riage-creating-significance of the betrothal cere-
mony was still further underlined in the opening
words of the chapter dealing with the dissolution
of marriage, where it said that no marriage might
be dissolved once the betrothal ceremony had
been performed.
Considering the fact that here we are dealing
with an ecclesiastical code of law according to
which the institution of marriage was a strictly
spiritual concern, it is indeed quite surprising to
discover the status given to the institution of be-
trothal, for to all effects and purposes the be-
trothal ceremony presented us with a civil form
of marriage. There are clear indications, however,
that much was done in order to conceal the civil
characteristics of this ceremony, for instance, by
placing it within the closest possible context to
the ecclesiastical wedding.
The Reformation brought with it a new con-
ception of things spiritual and wordly. According
to this conception, marriage as a social institution
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