Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Síða 161

On legal terms in Færeyinga saga
169
(i) Icelandic: a (three-mark) fine and maximum penalties
(in terms of outlawry — skóggangr — or in terms of cash?).
(ii) Norwegian: (compoundable) outlawry and maximum
cash penalties.
(iii) Icelandic-Norwegian: a (three-mark) fine and maximum
cash penalties.
(iv) Norwegian-Icelandic: (compoundable) outlawry and
maximum penalties (in terms of outlawry — skóggangr — or
in terms of cash?).
Of these (iv) would not make much sense if fullar sekðir
meant outlawry, and if it meant cash the sense would be virtu-
ally the same as (ii); (i) appears legally tautological, (iii)
verbally tautological; (ii) would make best sense, but does not
leave all problems settled.
It seems reasonable to give útlegð here its technical Nor-
wegian sense of »outlawry« because this accords with the use
of útlagi in nos. 11, 12 and 14 below and útlægr in no. 8
above. The ordinary Icelandic adjective for »outlawed« is
sekr; the minor outlaw is fjgrbaugsmaðr, the full outlaw
skógarmaðr. A punishment of outlawry in this particular case
also squares with the penalty prescribed (skóggangr) for drep
in Icelandic law35. The terms útlagi, útlagr, útlægr, »outlaw-
(ed)«, and the abstract útlegð, »outlawry«, were of course
familiar to Icelanders, but the author’s consistent use of them
suggests that he fully realised that he was dealing with non-
Icelandic situations.
It is harder to see what precise meaning should be given to
terms útlegð, útlagr, etc. are of course usual in Járnsíða and Jónsbók
and usually imply a sentence of banishment. A more general sense of
»banishment, banished« for útlegð, útlagi had also long been known (cf.
Fritzner, Ordbog, s. vv.), found not least in religious writings. They have
this sense in the eloquent speech Óláfr Tryggvason addresses to Sigmundr
Brestisson in Færeyinga saga, FJ 46/2, 21, ÓH 57—8, but this speech is
undoubtedly the composition of the early fourteenth-century compiler of
the expanded Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, see ÓH viii. This sense also
appears uppermost in no. 14 below.
35 Gg Ia § 87 (149), Gg II § 273 (301).
12 — Fróðskaparrit