Notes
1 E.P. Dennison and G.G. Simpson, �Scotland’, in D.M. Palliser (ed.) Cambridge Urban History of Britain, vol. I, Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 715–37, at pp.
722–31.2 Notable examples of multi-authored works are G.A. Blom (ed.) Urbaniseringsprosessen i Norden. Del 1. Middelaldersteder. Det XVII. nordiske historikermøte,Trondheim: Universitetsforlaget, 1977; K. Helle, �Fra opphavet til omkring 1500’, in K. Helle, F.-E. Eliassen, J.E. Myhre and O.S. Stugu (eds) Norsk byhistorie: urbanisering gjennom 1300 år, Oslo: Pax, 2006, pp. 23–142; H. Andersson, G. Hansen and I. �ye (eds) De første 200 årene – nytt blikk på 27 skandinaviske middelalderbyer, UBAS Nordisk 5, Bergen: Universitetet i Bergen, 2005; and F.-E. Eliassen and T. Gansum (eds) Den urbane underskog, Strandsteder, utvekslingssteder og småbyer i vikingtid, middelalder og tidlig nytid, Oslo: Novus Forlag, 2009.
3 For the market towns: B. Solli, �Veøyas arkeologi’, in Veøyboka, Molde: Romsdalsmuseet, 1999, pp. 8–100; S. Myrvoll, Handelstorget in Skien: A Study of Activity on an Early Medieval Site, Bergen: Riksantikvaren, Utgravningskontoret for Bergen, 1992; R. Bertelsen et al., �The Storvågan Project 1985–86’, Norwegian Archeological Review 20(1), 1987, pp. 51–5; K.E. Lind, �Arkeologisk innsikt i Vågans rolle fra høymiddelalder til seinmiddelalder’, Gunneria 64, 1991, pp. 135–45; and A.J. Larsen, �Borgund på Sunnmøre: de eldste konstruksjonene’, in Andersson, Hansen and �ye (eds) De første 200 årene, pp. 41–56. For a general discussion of urbanity and space, see A. Christophersen, �Performing towns. Steps towards an understanding of medieval urban communities as social practice’, Archaeological Dialogues 22, 2015, pp. 109–32.
4 Helle, �Fra opphavet til omkring 1500’, pp. 92–3, and J.
Hagland, �Town Law versus County Law: On the Kristindómsbálkr (Church Law) of Niðaróss Bjarkeyjarréttr and Frostuþingslög’, in S. Brink and L. Collinson (eds) New Approaches to Early Law in Scandinavia, Acta Scandinavica 3, Turnhout: Brepols, 2014, pp. 57–66.5 J. Sunde, �Champagne at the funeral – An introduction to legal culture’, in J. Sunde and K. Skodvin (eds) Rendezvous of European Legal Cultures, Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, 2010, pp. 3–17.
6 Sunde, �Champagne at the funeral’, p. 9.
7 Helle, �Fra opphavet til omkring 1500’, p. 92.
8 A contemporary use from 1294: Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck, Urkundenb I. 561–3. Definition and demarcation of takmark for Bergen: K. Helle, Kongssete og kjøpstad til 1536, Bergen bys historie, vol. I, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1982, pp. 259–73.
9 Hagland, �Town Law versus County Law’, pp. 57–66.
10 See, for instance, A. Musson, �Introduction’, in A. Musson (ed.) Boundaries of the Law: Geography, Gender and Jurisdiction in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005, pp. 1–6, and D. Heirbaut, �Rules for solving conflicts in the middle ages: Part of the solution, part of the problem’, in Musson (ed.) Boundaries of the Law, pp. 118–29.
11 The Norwegian code can be found in M. Rindal and B. Dale Spørck, Kong Magnus Håkonsson Lagabøtes landslov, Norrøn tekst med fullstendig variantsapparat, 2 vols, Oslo: Arkivverket, 2018. Also in Norges gamle Love (hereafter NgL): R. Keyser et al., Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. II, Kristiania: Gröndahl, 1848, pp. 7–178. The new Town Law is found in Ibid., pp. 187–290.
12 Diplomatarium Norvegicum, Oldbreve til Kundskab om Norges indre og ydre Forhold, Sprog, Slægter, Sæder, Lovgivning og Rettergang i Middelalderen, 23 vols, Christiania/Oslo: various publishers, 1847–2011.
13 On the development of legal culture in medieval Norway, see J.�. Sunde, �Daughters of God and counsellors of the judges of men: Changes in the legal culture of the Norwegian realm in the high middle ages’, in Brink and Collinson (eds) New Approaches to Early Law in Scandinavia, pp.
131–83.14 R. Holt, �What if the sea were different? Urbanization in medieval Norway’, Past & Present 195, Issue suppl 2, 2007, pp. 132–47.
15 H. Andersson, �Sverige. En forskningsöversikt’, in Blom (ed.) Urbaniseringsprosessen i Norden, pp. 91–146, at pp. 92–4; K. Helle, �Byen som historisk fenomen’, in Helle, Eliassen, Myhre and Stugu (eds) Norsk byhistorie, pp. 9–19, at p. 16; and T. Gansum, �Rurale strukturer, urbane funksjoner og definisjonsdiskurser’, in Brendalsmo, Eliassen and Gansum (eds) Den urbane underskog, pp. 19–40.
16 See, for instance, Larsen, �Borgund på Sunnmøre’, p. 55.
17 See, for instance, Helle, �Fra opphavet til omkring 1500’, p. 68.
18 NgL III (R. Keyser et al., NgL indtil 1387, vol. 3, Kristiania: Gröndahl, 1849), p. 222: King Olaf’s amendment on trade in northern Norway from 1384.
19 Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, nos. 56, 183, and 215.
20 Mangús lagabætir’s Town Law III.18, NgL II, p. 209. See also I.2, NgL II, p. 188 (bearens) and n. 9 (biar). DN I no. 51, p. 38, dated 1226x1254, presents �the town Stavanger itself’ (bœen sialvan Stafangr) as a gift to the church of St. Svitun. From Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, we have bæiarmenn (�townsmen’) no. 46 and bęiar (�of town’) no. 69.
21 K. Helle and A. Nedkvitne, �Norge. Sentrumsdannelser og byutvikling i norsk middelalder’, in Blom (ed.) Urbaniseringsprosessen i Norden, pp. 189–278, at p. 192.
22 DN XV no. 20, pp. 21–2.
23 Helle and Nedkvitne, �Norge’, pp. 190–2.
24 R. Bertelsen, �Vágar, en kortlevd by eller et urbant fiskevær?’, in Brendalsmo, Eliassen and Gansum (eds) Den urbane underskog, pp. 199–211.
25 Bertelsen, �Vágar, en kortlevd by’, pp. 201–9.
26 K. Helle, �Etterord: Underskogen i et samlende perspektiv’, in Brendalsmo, Eliassen and Gansum (eds) Den urbane underskog, pp. 247–59, at p. 247–8.
27 M. Tveit, In Search of Legal Transmission, Inheritance and Compensation for Homicide in Medieval Secular Law, Tromsø: University of Tromsø, 2016, pp.
49–50, 186–8 and 294–7.28 The dating of the Swedish Code of the Realm and Town Law has proven to be difficult. See Ă…. Holmbäck, â€?Innledning’, in Ă…. Holmbäck and E. WessĂ©n (eds) Magnus Erikssons Landslag i nusvensk tolkning, Stockholm: Awe/Gebers, 1962, pp. xiii–lxix, at pp. xxx–xxxi. Göran Dahlbäck has suggested that the Swedish Code of the Realm and the Town Law met the high standards of medieval European legal ideology, which demanded consistency and formality in legislation. G. Dahlbäck, â€?Svensk stadslagstiftning under medeltiden’, in A. Dybdahl and J. Sandnes (eds) Nordiske middelalderlover: tekst og kontekst: rapport fra seminar ved Senter for middelalderstudier, Trondheim: Tapir, 1997, pp. 103–15, at p. 107. Influence from the Norwegian Town Law and the Code of the Realm has also been suggested. Sofia Gustafsson has recently given a more nuanced interpretation of the Swedish Town Law, suggesting it includes legislation that is far more independent; see S. Gustafsson, â€?Sale of goods around the Baltic Sea in the middle ages’, in J. Wubs-Mrozewicz and S. Jenks (eds) The Hanse in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, The Northern World 60, Leiden: Brill, 2013, pp. 129–48.
29 Andersson, �Sverige. En forskningsöversikt’, pp. 91–146. These included Viborg in modern Russia and a number of towns in modern Finland.
30 A. Andrèn, Den urbana scenen: städer och samhälle i det medeltida Danmark, Acta archaeologica Lundensia: Series in 8o, vol. 13, Malmö: Liber Förlag, 1985.
31 B. Solli, �Kjøpstedet på Veøya i Romsdal’, in Andersson, Hansen, and �ye (eds) De første 200 årene, pp. 109–24.
32 A.J. Larsen, �Borgund på Sunnmøre’.
33 I. �ye, �Kaupangen i Sogn i komparativ belysning’, Viking 52, 1989, pp. 144–65.
34 S. Myrvoll, Handelstorget in Skien, passim.
35 Steinkjer is usually listed among towns from the central middle ages. Oddevold (Uddevalla) received town privileges from the Swedish king in 1490; see Svensk Diplomatariums hovudkartotek över medeltidsbreven (SDHK) no.
32436, (accessed 15 April 2020). Charters issued in Oddevold from the Swedish material date between 1517 and 1529: SDHK nos. 38033, 38167, 38612 and 38890. The Norwegian charters date between 1495 and 1556: DN VII no. 708, VIII no. 605, IX no. 422, X no. 747, XII no. 300 and XXII no. 117.36 Myrvoll, Handelstorget i Skien, pp. 248, 272–5.
37 Bertelsen, �Vágar, en kortlevd by’, p. 201, and Helle, �Fra opphavet til omkring 1500’, pp. 72–3.
38 The letter is preserved in the Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck, Urkundenb I. 561–3, Norvagica 022, 022a bis 022c, 07.1–3/21 – Norwegen (Norvagica), and Kontor zu Bergen, 07.1–3 Auswärtige Beziehungen (Externa).
39 NgL I (R. Keyser et al., NgL indtil 1387, vol. 1, Kristiania: Gröndahl, 1846), p. 303.
40 N. Bjørgo, â€?VĂĄgastemna i mellomalderen’ in Hamarspor–Eit festskrift til Lars Hamre 1912–1982, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1982, p. 50; J R. Hagland and J. Sandnes, Bjarkøyretten – Nidaros eldste bylov, Gjøvik: Samlaget, 1997, pp. xx–xxxxviii; and Dahlbäck, â€?Svensk stadslagstiftning under medeltiden’, pp. 109–11.
41 Found in NgL II, pp. 2–178, and A. Taranger, Magnus Lagabøters Landslov, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1979 [1915].
42 A.R. Simpson and A.L. Wilson, Scottish Legal History, vol. 1, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017, pp. 60–2.
43 NgL II, pp. 181–290.
44 H.L. MacQueen and W.J. Windram, �Laws and courts in the burghs’, in M. Lynch, M. Spearman and G. Stell (eds) The Scottish Medieval Town, Edinburgh: John Donald, 1988, pp. 208–27, and Simpson and Wilson, Scottish Legal History, p. 61.
45 G.A. Blom, �Magnus Lagabøters bylov og Trondheim, med en innledning om Bergen bylovs overføring til rikets øvrige kjøpsteder’, Trondhjemske samlinger 9(2), 1974, pp. 99–145, at p. 104–6, and Helle and Nedkvitne, �Norge’, p. 264. See the versions for unspecified towns in NgL II, p. 182–3.
46 Bærkoyar rettr no.
42, in NgL I, pp. 312–3, and Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law IX.19.3, NgL II, p. 284.47 Blom, �Magnus Lagabøters bylov og Trondheim’, p. 102.
48 For instance, the amendment �Um torg fyrir hvers mannz ðyrr’ (1299), NgL III, no. 12, p. 42.
49 F. Scheel, Lagmann og skriver. Rettsliv i Norge i det 16de og 17de århundre, Kristiania, 1923, pp. 72–3, and G. Storm, NgL indtil 1387, vol. 4, Kristiania: Gröndahl, 1885, p. 758.
50 M. Tveit, �The introduction of a law of the realm in northern Norway’, in S. Imsen (ed.) Legislation and State Formation, Norway and Its Neighbours in the Middle Ages, Trondheim:Akademika (2013), pp. 41–54.
51 J.�. Sunde (6 June 2018), �Magnus Lagabøters Landslov’, in Store Norske Leksikon, (accessed 15 April 2020).
52 For details, see K. Robberstad, Magnus Lagabøters bylov, Kristiania: Cammermeyer, 1923, pp. 2–76.
53 B.-A. Wendt, â€?Magnus Erikssons stadslag – en lagsprĂĄkets särling?’, Arkiv för nordisk filologi 111, 1996, pp. 89–111, at p. 91. Of a total of 312 paragraphs, 156 are unique.
54 Tveit, In Search of Legal Transmission, pp. 285, 294–5.
55 See, for instance, Tveit, In Search of Legal Transmission, p. 173 on óðal.
56 DN I no. 993, p. 717.
57 See, for instance, DN I no. 790, p. 574 (1444); DN II no. 691, pp. 515–6; DN XI no. 108, p. 93; DN XXI no. 581, p. 476; and DN XXI no. 617, p. 469.
58 DN I no. 993. �[…] effther Noriges lagh som gamall sedhwane haffuer warit her i landet.’
59 A. Bugge, �Tingsteder, gilder og andre gamle mittpunkter i de norske bygder?’, Norsk historisk tidskrift 25, 1920, pp. 195–252.
60 Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law, VI 1, NgL II, p. 240, and G. Storm, Sigurd Ranessøns Proces, Kristiania: Det Mallingske bogtrykkeri, 1877, p. 8 mot [sic] (l10) and p. 34 mót (l1).
61 J.A. Seip, Lagmann og lagting i senmiddelalderen og det 16de århundre, Dybwad, 1934, p. 16, and S. Imsen, Norsk bondekommunalisme. Fra Magnus Lagabøte til Kristian Kvart, vol. I, Trondheim: Tapir, 1990, p. 88.
62 DN X no. 167, p. 128–9. For an earlier example, see Helle, �Fra opphavet til omkring 1500’, p. 72.
63 Also in the versions of the legal texts, see Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law, I.1, NgL II, p. 187 and n. 14.
64 The Code of the Realm VIII.11, NgL II, p. 157, and Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law VII.17, NgL II, p. 261.
65 EA-5965 Riksarkivets diplomsamling,.
66 DN I no. 348.
67 The Code of the Realm VI.12; Disposal of property in the Town Law: Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law VI.5.
68 DN V no. 234.
69 DN I no. 248, p. 199.
70 DN I no. 393, p. 301–2. The connection between clergy and administration of justice is pointed out by Steinar Imsen: Imsen, Norsk bondekommunalisme, vol. I, pp. 50 and 70.
71 DN I no. 269 and 270, pp. 214–5.
72 DN XXI no. 219, p. 169. The surviving charter is a translation from 1680. Imsen, Norsk bondekommunalisme, vol. I, p. 50.
73 DN I no. 993. �[…]konung haffuer hwar serdeless forlent her i righet hørige och lyduge i alle mathe oc giffue oc gielde them [...] alth thet som them bøør vt at giffwe oppa wor naduge herre konungx wegne’ DN V nos. 21 and 22, pp. 21–2.
74 See DN IV no. 65, p. 68; DN V no. 42, pp. 40–1; and DN VII no. 42, p. 39 and nos. 117–8, pp. 132–3.
75 DN I no. 163, p. 142.
76 K. Helle, �Erling Vidkunnsson’, in Norsk biografisk leksikon, (accessed 15 April 2020).
77 MacQueen and Windram, �Laws and courts in the burghs’, pp. 215–21.
78 DN IV no. 217, pp. 190–1.
79 K. Robberstad et al., �Odelsrett’, in Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for Nordisk Middelalder, vol. 12, Copenhagen: Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1967, pp. 493–503.
80 R. Bertelsen, �Periferi og periferidannelse fra førhistorisk til historisk tid’, Gunneria 64, 1991, pp. 51–71, at p. 59, and Lind, �Arkeologisk innsikt i Vågans rolle’, p. 140.
81 DN I no. 248, p. 199. The farmsteads were Drifdal, Holsete and Lomheim in the rural areas north of Kaupanger.
82 O.E. Haugen, �Høgmellomalderen 1050–1350’, in H. Sandøy and A. Nesse (eds) Tidslinjer, vol. 4, Bergen: University of Bergen, 2017, p. 41.
83 J.R. Ugulen, �... alle the knaber ther inde och sædescwenne...’: ei undersøking i den sosiale samansetjinga av den jordeigande eliten på Vestlandet i mellomalderen, Bergen: University of Bergen, 2007, pp. 315–8.
84 DN I no. 250, p. 200. On the classification of estates, see A.W. Brøgger and A.S. Steinnes, Gammel mål og vekt i Norge, Oslo: Kildeforlaget, 1982, pp. 75–6.
85 Compare Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law V.1–24 to the Norwegian Code of the Realm V.1–25 and Magnus Eriksson’s Town Law to the Swedish Code of the Realm, Inheritance Section.
57 DN I no. 393, pp. 301–2.
87 The Code of the Realm VI.12; Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law VI.5.
88 M. Njåstad, �The eastern realm: The king of Norway and the border province Jemtland’, in S. Imsen (ed.) Rex Insularum: The King of Norway and His �Skattlands’ as a Political System c. 1260–1450, Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, 2014, pp. 337–8; Tveit, �The introduction of a law of the realm in northern Norway’, pp. 45–6; and R.B. Wærdahl, �Norges konges rike og hans skattland: Kongemakt og statsutvikling i den norrøne verden i middeladleren’, unpublished PhD thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2006, p. 146.
89 DN I no. 95, pp. 87–8 and N. Bjørgo, �Tore Håkonsson Biskopsson’, in Norsk biografisk leksikon, 2009, (accessed 15 April 2020).
90 The Code of the Realm VIII.10–12, NgL II, pp. 155–7.
91 DN XXI no. 219, p. 169.
92 DN II no. 156, p. 133.
93 DN I no. 269, p. 214.
94 The Norwegian Code of the Realm, IV.13, X.1.2, X.2.5. Several copies of the Code of the Realm had reinstated the old compensation system.
95 Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law, IV.18–19, NgL II, pp. 220–1; The Code of the Realm, IV.17–18, NgL II, pp. 62–3; and S. Imsen, �Den gammelnorske drapsprosessen’, Historisk Tidsskrift 88, 2009, pp. 185–229, at p. 206.
96 DN I no. 245, p. 196. Responsibilities to report a homicide in Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law, IV.2, NgL II, pp. 210–1, and IV.12 NgL II, pp. 216–7; and The Code of the Realm IV.2, NgL II, p. 49 and IV.11, NgL II, p. 56.
97 Imsen, �Den gammelnorske drapsprosessen’, p. 189.
98 DN II no. 661, p. 492.
99 Arghan from ON argr, with the meanings �female’, �cowardly’ or �the passive one in male homosexual intercourse’. For further information, see W.R. Dynes (ed.) Encyclopedia of homosexuality, vol. 2. Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2016.
100 Magnús lagabætir’s Town Law IV.23–25. NgL II, pp. 224–5. However, IV.23 only exists in one of the extant manuscripts; see Robberstad, Magnus Lagabøters bylov, p. 19.
101 Norwegian Code of the Realm IV.23–25, NgL II, pp. 68–70.
102 Tveit, In Search of Legal Transmission, pp. 284–5.
103 Mare, bitch, and �other bearing animals’, in Gulaþingslog ch. 196, NgL 1, p. 70.
104 DN II no. 662, pp. 492–3.
105 Brøgger and Steinnes, Gammel mål og vekt i Norge, p. 65. However, at this point, Joon also sued one Asbjorn Sigurdasson, who had to pay 10 cows and the partial rent of a property.
106 NgL III, p. 222: King Olaf’s amendment on trade in northern Norway from 1384.
107 Solli, �Veøyas arkeologi’, pp. 98–9, and A.T. Falkanger, Lagmann og Lagting i Hålogaland gjennom 1000 år, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 2007, p. 64.