Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Page 154

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On legal terms in Færeyinga saga
(1) The grvarping, an assembly summoned immediately
after an offence, belongs distinctly to the sphere of Norwegian
law and does not figure in Icelandic terminology before Jóns-
bók* * * * * 6. It is an authentic word in the circumstances described.
Outside legal texts the word appears very rarely: the only
instances seem to be in the story of Steinn Skaptason, also in
Óláfs saga helga, and as a variant reading elsewhere in Fær-
eyinga saga (both of course refer to Norwegian events)7. The
latter may possibly be an authentic reading. Snorri obviously
knew this feature of Norwegian legal practice, and one may
think it likely that the author of Færeyinga saga did too,
but one cannot be sure.
(2) The words svá sem Igg yður liggja til are obviously
those of someone writing from outside the Norwegian system
in which compurgation was a major means of prosecution and
defence8 9. This is an appropriate point of view for an Ice-
lander because in his country compurgation hardly existed'1,
but we cannot tell whether Snorri or the original author of
the saga was responsible for the phrase. And of course, even if
we knew that the words had stood in the saga from the be-
ginning, we still could not conclude that they reflected Faroese
as well as Icelandic reality. The allied appeal to járnburðr
can be given no special significance because ordeal was
see A. W. Brøgger, Løgtingssøga Føroya I (1937), 201—7; Jóannes Paturs-
son, Føroya søga I (1939), 98—100; on the dates of the general assembly
in later times (officially 16 June, in fact 29 July) see K. Robberstad,
Fróðskaparrit 10 (1961), 42.
0 NgL V s.v.; E. Hertzberg, Grundtrækkene i den ældste norske Proces
(1874), 197—203; Maurer, Vorlesungen V 536—7, 775—7.
7 Den store Saga, 378/6; Ólafur Halldórsson, Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar
en mesta II (1961), 48/7; cf. FJ 22/7—8 and variant readings ad loc.,
ÓH 27. — I am extremely grateful to Miss Christine Fell, University of
Leeds, who in 1968 abstracted for me the references for this word and
some others from the files of Den Arnamagnæanske Ordbog, and to Dr
Ole Widding, chief editor of the Ordbog, for this fresh instance of his
ready courtesy in making the dictionary material available to others.
8 See e. g. KL III (1958), 492—9 (Lars Hamre).
9 Gg III 599.