Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Page 157

On legal terms in Færeyinga saga
165
not underestimate our ignorance. The word could have been
used equally well by the original author as by Snorri. On the
word útlægr see p. 169 below.
Among legal terms and matter elsewhere in Fxreyinga saga
the following have a certain distinctive character19. They may
all be set down to the author’s account.
(9) After the death of their father Prándr and his elder
brother skiptu arfi með ser, ok vildi hvárrtveggi hafa heima-
bólit í Ggtu .... peir Iggðu hluti á, ok hlaut Prándr20.
The Icelandic laws do not prescribe how property should
be divided. Vilhjálmur Finsen suggests that »naar der ikke var
mindelig Overenskomst, foretoges det vistnok ved Nabobøn-
der«21, but there is no reason why a private arrangement to
draw lots should not have been made. Lot-casting was widely
used in other matters in Iceland where a priority had to be
established22, though I am not aware of any mention of it other-
wise in cases of inheritance. (In Gísla saga, ch. 10, and Eyr-
byggja saga, ch. 14, for example, we find variants of the
principle which allows one of a pair to make the division and
the other to have first choice.) In mainland Scandinavian laws,
on the other hand, lot-casting is expressly prescribed for divi-
sion of property as well as in many other cases23. In Gul. it
is, for example, explicit in §§ 87 and 123 (Um Oðals skipti,
19 The following phrases have legal connections but are not distinctive
enough to be useful. I cite them in the hope that someone else may be
able to squeeze something out of them. FJ 30/38—9, ÓH 41 lífs grið ok
lima ok landsvist (cf. FJ 40/1, ÓH 50 landsvist); FJ 39/10—20, ÓH 49—
50 manngjgld; fjgrráð; selja mansali; ógildr; Qzur skal eigi fe boeta fyrir
pann ójafnað, er hann settiz í eignir pínar ok var par drepinn; FJ 41/9—
11, ÓH 51—2 fór hann .... til Frostapings, ok pá flutti Sigmundr mál
Porkels .... at Hákon jarl gerði hann sýknan ok gæfi honum landsvist
sína at frjálsu; FJ 65/8 var. loc., ÓH 89 húsping; FJ 68/8, ÓH 94 land-
skyldir; FJ 70/14—16, ÓH 97 pingheimr; Iggtekit; weapons banned at
assembly where menn skulu Iggskil sín tala ok spekðarmál.
20 FJ 2/3—5, ÓH 4.
21 Gg III 585.
22 Gg III 624.
KL XI (1966), 13—16 (Svale Solheim, John Granlund).
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