Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Page 163
On legal terms in Færeyinga saga
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gible in the context here, but it may be thought odd that an
Icelandic writer should use it when allir (menn) would have
done as well. It seems not unlikely that he saw the pingmenn
here as a selected, representative body of men, an audience
of formal status who add to the solemnity of the occasion and
the rigour of the execution. (It is thought that the Faroese
thing was in fact an alping and not a nefndarping42.) Once
again, it seems that the foreign nature of the scene is upper-
most in the author’s mind.
(14) Skopti varð útlagi af Færeyjum43.
See the discussion under no. 10 (e) above and note 34.
(15) The boy Sigmundr says that he has learnt from Prándr
allar saksóknir at sækja ok rettarfar sitt ok annarrau.
It is the latter part of this which requires comment. In the
early law texts rettafar appears as the predominantly Icelandic
form, rettarfar as the predominantly Norwegian one45. Later
on the latter became common in Iceland also, and its appear-
ance in this text from Flateyjarbók can clearly be lent no
significance. The words retta(r)far and rettr are virtually
synonymous in the sense of »personal satisfaction by prescribed
legal payment«. Vilhjálmur Finsen equates them, for example,
and glosses the Icelandic sense thus: »(egentl. personlig Ret),
personlige Bøder, Bøder for en den Enkelte tilføiet Retskræn-
kelse .... den var i Alm. den samme for alle Samfundsklasser,
og bestod af 48 Øre eller 6 Mark«46. Flertzberg defines the
words in their Norwegian use in these words: of rettarfar:
»eg. retsforhold, nl. forsaavidt angaar nogens personlige ret,
d. e. retten til bøder for personlige fornærmelser og anden
overlast .... ofte dog ogs. om selve bøderne (= rettr)«; and
of rettr (2): »den ethvert fuldmyndigt individ i tilfælde af visse
betydeligere, personlige retskrænkelser tilkommende opreisning,
42 KL X (1965), 183 (Arne Bøe).
45 FJ 76/19, ÓH 108.
44 FJ 77/19—20, ÓH 110.
45 Cf. Maurer, Vorlesungen V 182—3.
Gg III 661—2.
48