The law under which Iceland was run in 1200: the goðar and their thingmen, the local and quarter things and the Althing, the Fifth Court, the lawspeaker, outlawry, compensation and the Christian law section with the tithe. The manuscripts are later than 1200, but the core is the written law of 1117 as it stood through the 12th century, and it is the frame for every feud in Sturlunga saga.
About this source
- Title
- Grágás
- Author
- Anonymous
- Author's dates
- Icelandic lawspeakers and clerics
- Written
- law first written down in 1117 to 1118; the surviving manuscripts Konungsbók (about 1250) and Staðarhólsbók (about 1270)
- Language
- Old Norse
- Covers
- the law in force in the 12th and 13th centuries
- Kind
- Law
The Internet Archive item page does not say which volume it holds; its 1870 date matches Finsen's Danish translation volume.
Where to read it
Editions
- V. Finsen (ed.), Grágás: Islændernes Lovbog i Fristatens Tid, udgivet efter det kongelige Bibliotheks Haandskrift, 2 parts (Copenhagen 1852); Staðarhólsbók (1879); fragments (1883); the text volumes not located online (not freely online)
Translations
- V. Finsen (trans.), Grágás: Islændernes Lovbog i Fristatens Tid, Oversættelse (Copenhagen 1870), Danish
- Finsen's Danish translation transcribed at heimskringla.no
- A. Dennis, P. Foote and R. Perkins (trans.), Laws of Early Iceland: Grágás, 2 vols (Winnipeg 1980 to 2000), English; under copyright (not freely online)