Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Page 158

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On legal terms in Fxreyinga saga
Um arfskipti) and implicit in § 282 (Um brceðra skipti)24.
It is an odd fact that apart from this instance in Færeyinga
saga the phase leggja (h)lut(i) á appears to occur only (and
rarely) in Norwegian writings, including these legal articles
just cited25. But we can hardly believe it had such a distinctive
rarity as this might lead us to suppose, and it is better to
attempt no assessment of the phrase’s significance, especially
against so nebulous an Icelandic background.
(10) In a quarrel arising from mannjgfnuðr Eldjárn Kamb-
hQttr hit Einarr with a stick and hurt his shoulder; Einarr
hit back with an axe, knocked him out and opened his head.
Einarr sought protection from Brestir. Hafgrímr, the chief in
Suðrey whose man Eldjárn was, summoned Einarr to Straums-
eyjar|)ing. It says (a) that Brestir hafði lýst pegar frumhlaupi
pví, er Kambhgttr hafði veitt Einari, pá er nýorðit var;
(b) that at the assembly Hafgrímr gekk at dómum to prosecute
the case, but (c) Brestir ónýtti .... málit fyrir Hafgrími ok
óhelgaði Kambhgtt at fornum landslggum, er hann barði sak-
lausan mann, and (d) he hleypði upp dóminum fyrir Haf-
grími, and subsequently (e) they sóttu Eldjárn til útlegðar ok
fullra sekða26.
(a) The term frumhlaup is apparently not known in Nor-
wegian law, which uses laup, atlaup; it is the regular term in
Icelandic27. Proclamation of an offence, lýsing, was of course
a necessary part of procedure in both Norway and Iceland28.
(b) The use of the plural in at dómum presumably reflects
the situation in Iceland where after the reforms of c. 960 four
fjórðungsdómar were set up at the Aljnngi. In Norway the
24 NgL I 43, 53, 94; cf. Den nyere Lands-Lov, V 18, VI 1, 3 (NgL II
89, 93, 94; Ólafur Halldórsson, Jónsbók (1904), 98, 120.
25 The recorded instances seem to be only NgL I 53 (= NgL II 89),
NgL II 94 (= Jónsbók 98), NgL I 41 (Gul. § 82 = Járnsíða § 101, NgL
I 290), and C. R. Unger, Thomas saga erkibyskups (1869), 268/15 (in the
Norwegian Quadrilogus translation).
26 FJ 6—7, ÓH 9—11.
27 Gg III 612.
See e. g. KL XI (1966), 24—8 (Arne Bøe, Magnús Már Lárusson).
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