Viking Age Iceland (Penguin History) by Byock Jesse L

Author:Byock, Jesse L [Byock, Jesse L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780140291155
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2001-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

Outlawry

Individuals who failed to observe the rules of feud and settlement were outlawed. The legal process of banishing people from the island served to guarantee the integrity of the great-village environment, removing those who could not or would not abide by its rules. Once outlawed, a person could be killed with impunity, that is, with no vengeance expected, but this rule was sometimes broken. Outlawry provided Icelandic society with an efficient and cost-effective means of doing away with troublemakers. Dependence on outlawry simplified the role of Icelandic corporate groups, most importantly by exempting them from the need to maintain a policing body to oversee the imposition of corporal punishment, execution or incarceration. The laws name two types of outlawry: fjörbaugsgarðr, lesser outlawry, and skóggangr, full outlawry (literally ‘forest-going’).11 Both punishments included the confiscation of property. Lesser outlawry brought a sentence of a three-year exile abroad. If a lesser outlaw, a fjörbaugsmaðr, failed to leave the country within three years, he became a full outlaw, a skógarmaðr. A full outlaw was denied all assistance in Iceland; he was not to be harboured by anyone, nor could he be helped to leave the country. In effect, this punishment was tantamount to a death sentence, for a skógarmaðr could be killed with impunity. The lögrétta, the legislative council at the Althing, could mitigate the sentence of full outlawry, allowing a skógarmaðr to leave Iceland for life. In such instances the outlaw travelled abroad without enjoying the rights of an Icelander. Removal of those rights jeopardized the safety and the status of an individual, especially of one who wanted to stay in Norway. From the early eleventh century Iceland and Norway maintained a treaty guaranteeing the rights of each other’s citizens. A third type of outlawry, not mentioned in the laws, was district outlawry. Named héraðssekt, it was a judgement limited to a local district (hérað).

Because of the seriousness of the penalty and because it often resulted from arbitrated settlement, an outlawry judgement required substantial consensus. Outlawries served as political statements, signalling that the defendant’s family and friends were either unwilling or unable to muster a defence.

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