The Influence of Viking Law on Icelandic Law & Culture

Viking honor was solidified by King Hakon the Good of Norway. Hakon was "attached to the principles of law, and desirous of peace and order." Hakon systemize Viking law.

The overriding desire in Viking fiat was to be uncaring. The bare person was the "backbone" of the Norse realm, and the class of free persons was bulky and ranged "from impoverished and humble peasants . . . to hands of wealth and authority. The common puzzle between these diverse elements of the free segment of Norse society were the legal and political justifiedlys that they all possessed. As free persons, these individuals had the right to say "aye or no on matters of public associate at the Thing" (the concept of Thing is examined at a later point in this discussion of Viking law).

Above the free persons in Viking society was the ruling caste. At several points during the Viking age, these patrician families were "partly or fully independent of other authority." In most instances, "a king to whom all the nation owed loyalty would head the hierarchy." The power of a Norse king, however, had always been modified to some extent by the structure of Viking law. In Sweden, as an illustration, the creation of "supraregional Things" acted as a major restriction on a king's authority. As Viking law was apply in Sweden, free persons had "the right to elect and likewise wipe out a king." A feeling fo

Throughout the Norse realm, the lawmen "were the most influential and powerful men in the land; they were respected and loved by the people, and commodious faith was strayd in their advice." An extensive knowledge of tradition and law was essential to gain the office of lawman, because the lawmen were expected to place subjects under discussion before a Thing in the correct legal perspective. Although a lawman was the representative of the law in Norse society, however, the position of lawman conferred neither juridical nor legislative power. Rather, the duty of the lawman was to "expound the laws to the people." It was during Hakon's reign that legislative power in Norse society was embodied in the Lawthings that were placed in the hands of "representative men.

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When the new settlers reached Iceland, thither was no need to subjugate a native community, for thither was none. Nor were the colonists in fear from any outsiders. The settlers in Iceland were "intensely egoreliant and conservative, and for awhile were content to live on their estates, appoint land, exact obedience, dispense justice, defend their own and their followers' interests in patriarchal aristocratic fashion." Within this type of society, however, feuds were common and clashes were frequent. Quite soon, it became bare to the settlers that some form of government was a necessity. The Icelanders determined that they would antecedent the laws for their new country on the Viking law of their heritage. The chieftains within the island's population entrusted to development and introduction of a legal code into Iceland to Ulfljot of Lon. Ulfljot returned to Norway, where he adapted the Gulathing law of the western part of that country "to the demand of Iceland."

The people who colonized Iceland beginning in 874 "were of no barbarous or servile race." These people were fleeing from a new doctrine of government imposed by King Harold Fairhair that "made them king's men at all times instead of his onl
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