images from the Flateyjarbók manuscript (GKS 1005), ca. 1390 AD images from the Flateyjarbók manuscript (GKS 1005), ca. 1390 AD images from the Flateyjarbók manuscript (GKS 1005), ca. 1390 AD

 

Lest the landvættir be frightened

“This was the beginning of the ancient laws, that people should not have head-ships [i.e., ships bearing carved figureheads] out at sea, but that if they do, then they should remove the head before they come within sight of land and not sail to land with gaping heads or gawking snouts, lest the landvættir [guardian spirits of the land] be frightened thereby.”

This passage in Landnámabók (in the Hauksbók recension from the late 13thC), cap. 268, is part of a description of the ancient (mythical?) Úlfljótr’s Law, allegedly in effect in early-10thC Iceland. The Icelanders, feeling the burden of lawlessness in their newly founded country, sent the wise Úlfljótr to Norway to bring back a foundation for their legal system. Early Icelandic law, based on his report, is alleged to have been modelled on the Gulaþingslög [law of the Gula assembly]. Some fragments of the early Gulaþingslög have been preserved, and where we can detect any link between their provisions and early Icelandic law, it seems that influence may in fact have gone in the other direction.

What do you make of this provision? What does it tell you about early Norse practices and beliefs, and about later views of these practices and beliefs? And how do you interpret the duality of the prohibition here: people must not have figureheads on their ships – but in case they do....

return to HIS 3200 syllabus

 


 

Oren Falk, Associate Professor

Department of History, Cornell University

of24@cornell.edu

Page last updated on: 9 February, 2011