The
Norse laws were originally memorized by the
lawspeakers, but after the end of the
Viking Age they were committed to writing. Initially they were geographically limited to minor jurisdictions (
lögsögur), and the
Bjarkey laws concerned various merchant towns, but later there were laws that applied to entire Scandinavian kingdoms.
The court assembly, the
thing, used the law and heard witnesses to rule whether the accused was guilty or not. There were usually two types of punishment:
outlawing and
fine. In rare cases the accused could also be sentenced to death. The most common means of justice were however fines; the amount varied depending on the severity of the offense.
Iceland
In
1117 the
Althingi decided that all the laws should be written down and this was accomplished at
Hafliði Másson's farm over that winter and published the following year. The resulting codex is known as the
Gray Goose Laws (Icelandic:
Grágás) and they were a collection of laws from the
Icelandic Commonwealth period consisting of Icelandic civil laws and the laws governing the Christian church in Iceland.
Denmark
Medieval Denmark was divided into three jurisdictions each ruled by its own provincial law; the
Scanian Law used in the
Scanian lands, the
Zealandic Law used in
Zealand and
Lolland, and the
Jutlandic Law used in
Jutland (both
North and
South) and
Funen. The Scanian lands were Danish until the middle of the 17th century, and the Scanian Law predates Sweden's similar provincial...
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