Laga-setning

Meaning of Old Norse word "laga-setning"

As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:

laga-setning

f. legislation, Jb. (pref.), Fms. i. 33, v. 102, Orkn. 124; this word requires explanation,—in old writers it means the constitution, the fundamental laws or political constitution of a commonwealth; as Ari, the historian, says, ‘frá Íslands bygð, frá landnáms-mönnum ok lagasetning,’ of the settlement of Iceland, of her settlers and her political constitution, Íb. (pref.); where lagasetning refers to the institution of the alþing, and the other events related in Íb. ch. 2 and 3; so also, ritaði hann (viz. Ari) mest í upphafi sinnar bókar um Íslands bygð (the settlement), ok lagasetning (constitution), Hkr. (pref.), referring to the constitutional laws of Ulfljot recorded in ch. 2 of the Icelander Book; lagasetning here exactly answers to what Konrad Maurer, by a mod. term, calls ‘die entstehung des Isländisches staates.’ So also of the laws of king Hakon the Good (cp. the remarks s. v. þing), lagasetning Hákonar konungs, … hann (the king) var maðr stórvitr, ok lagði mikinn hug á lagasetning, hann ‘setti’ Gulaþings-lög …, Hkr. i. 135 (cp. Fms. i. 31): again, in Ó. H. 227 it answers to the mod. word legislation (of the laws of Sweyn, the son of Alfifa), and so Orkn. 24. It is to be borne in mind that ‘lög’ has a double sense, viz. law in a strict sense, and in a local-political sense = a ‘law-community,’ legally constituted state, nearly answering to Gr. πόλις.

Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᛚᛅᚴᛅ-ᛋᛁᛏᚾᛁᚾᚴ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements