Lög-maðr

Meaning of Old Norse word "lög-maðr" (or lǫg-maðr)

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

Old Norse word lög-maðr can mean:lög-maðr

lög-maðr (lǫg-maðr)

m. [old Swed. lagman; the president of the supreme court formerly held in Orkney was called the lagman]:—‘law-man.’ In the ancient Scandinavian kingdoms each legal community or state (lög) had its own laws, its own parliament (lögþing), and its own ‘law-man’ (lagh-mann, lögmaðr); the lagman was the first commoner and the spokesman of the people against the king and court at public assemblies or elsewhere; he was also the guardian of the law, and the president of the legislative body and of the law courtS. As in the heathen time laws were not written, the lagman had to say what was the law of the land in any case of doubt; in the general assemblies, at least in Iceland, he had to ‘say’ the law (from memory) to the assembled people from the Law-hill (Lögbergi); hence in the Icelandic Commonwealth he was called lög-sögu-maðr (q. v.), the ‘law-speaker,’ ‘law-sayer,’ ‘speaker of the law,’ and his office lög-saga or lög-sögn = ‘law-speaking:’

lög-maðr (lǫg-maðr)

1. Sweden and Gothland in olden times were the classical lands of lagmen, for the whole kingdom was a confederation of commonwealths, each with its parliament, law-speaker, and laws, who were all of them united under one king; see the various records in the old Swedish laws, Sveriges Gamla Lagar, as edited by Schlyter, as also the classical account given of lagman Thorgny in Ó. H. ch. 60 sqq.—í hverri þessi deild landsins er sitt lögþing, ok sín lög, yfir hverjum lögum er lögmaðr, … þat skulu lög vera sem hann réð upp at kveða; en ef konungr, eða jarl, eða byskupar fara yfir land ok eigu þing við búendr, þá svarar lögmaðr af hendi búenda …; aðrir lögmenn allir skulu vera undir-menn þess lögmanns er á Tíunda-landi er, Ó. H. 65.

lög-maðr (lǫg-maðr)

2. in Norway the political institutions of the old patriarchal ages were greatly disturbed through the wars and conquest of Harald Fairhair; the ancient laws of Norway too have been preserved in a much more fragmentary state than those of Sweden; of some of the most interesting laws only the eccl. section has been preserved, often in Icelandic transcripts or abridged. The most interesting records of the lagmen are therefore not to be found in the Norse laws, but in the Sagas, e. g. the debates in the Hák. S. Gamla, ch. 71–80, 85–97 (in the Flatey book), as also in the Þinga-þáttr in FmS. vii. 123–150, and in stray passages in the Icelandic Sagas, in such phrases as lögmenn ok konungr, lögmenn ok dómendr, lenda menn ok lögmenn ok alla alþýðu, Eg. 352.

lög-maðr (lǫg-maðr)

3. in the later Middle Age in Norway, and in Icel. after 1280, the lagman was a justice, who presided in the court lögrétta, at the lögþing (II), cp. Jb. passim.

lög-maðr (lǫg-maðr)

4. in the Icelandic Commonwealth, the officer whose duties have been described above was specially called lögsögumaðr, and lögmaðr is only used = lagamaðr = a lawyer,—þat er ok, at lögsögumaðr skal svá görla þáttu alla upp segja, at engi viti einna miclogi görr, en ef honum vinsk eigi fróðleikr til þess, þá skal hann eiga stefnu við fimm lögmenn (lawyers, men skilled in law), en næstu dægr áðr, eðr fleiri, Grág. i. 2, 3; þat skal allt hafa er finnsk á skr þeirri er Hafliði lét göra … en þat eitt af annarra lögmanna fyrirsögn (of other lawyers) er eigi mæli því í gegn, 7; Njáll var lögmaðr svá mikill (so great a lawyer), at eingi fannsk hans jafningi, Nj. 30. At the union with Norway (A. D. 1272) the lögsögu-maðr of the Commonwealth was replaced by two lagmen of the Norse kind, so that in the Sagas composed after that date (e. g. the Grettla) or in Sagas preserved in later transcripts, the terms were now and then confounded, and ‘lögmaðr’ was, by way of anachronism, used of the lögsögu-maðr of the old Commonwealth, cp. Grett. 64, 115, 173, 191 new Ed., Nj. 24, 164, 237 (v. l.), Eg. 597, Ísl. (Gunnl. S.) ii. 208, 238, 256, BS. i. (Hungrv.) 62, FmS. iv. 115, 176, where the Ó. H. edition has the true reading, being made from a vellum of the Commonwealth time.

lög-maðr (lǫg-maðr)

β. two instances are recorded referring to the 10th century in Iceland, where a lögmaðr occurs as a kind of county sheriff or officer, viz. in the Háv. S. (begin.) and the Svarfdæla S. ch. 10; but both records seem to be spurious and adapted to the state of things in Norway, for neither Saga is preserved in its pure original state, but remoulded after the union; see Maurer’s Entstehung des Isl. Staates, Beiträge, 136 sqq. In Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, as the power of the king increased, so that of the old lagman sank, and at last died away. In England it is preserved in the Speaker of the House of Commons, whose very name recalls to mind the law-speaker of the old Scandinavian communitieS.

lög-maðr (lǫg-maðr)

II. a pr. name, Lög-maðr, Orkn.

lög-maðr (lǫg-maðr)

COMPDS: lögmannsdæmi, lögmannseiðr, lögmannslauss, lögmannsúrskurðr.

Orthography: The Cleasby & Vigfusson book used letter ö to represent the original Old Norse vowel ǫ. Therefore, lög-maðr may be more accurately written as lǫg-maðr.

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