CHAPTEK XXXIX. 



THE LAWS OF THE EARLIEE ENGLISH TRIBES. 



Comprehensiveness of the codes of the Northmen The earlier laws The 

 Icelandic laws The Gragas law-book Judgment rings Power of the 

 lawmen Their office hereditary in early times Their office elective in 

 Iceland Manner of election Duty of the lawman Ceremony at the 

 close of his term of office Length of the term uf office Norway divided 

 into four law-districts Law originally vested in the people Members of 

 the law-court Mode of their election Judicial decisions. 



FOR clearness of language, comprehensiveness, and minute- 

 ness of detail, we find nothing in Europe during the first ten 

 centuries of the Christian era that can compare with the 

 earlier laws of the Norsemen ; we must go back to Rome to 

 find such comprehensive and exhaustive codes. They give us 

 a very clear insight into the life and civilisation of the North, 

 which from these records seem to have been far above those 

 of neighbouring countries at that period. Some of the laws 

 given in the course of this work demonstrate the mode of life 

 of the time. We can see from these that, above all, the Norse- 

 men abhorred perjury, murder, seduction, adultery, and the 

 violation of the sanctity of blood-relationship. 



The earlier laws, as all laws in every country, were but a 

 codification of the customs of the people, handed down in 

 many cases from very ancient times. 



The Icelandic laws were based upon those of the mother- 

 country, just as those of the English colonies are to-day 

 based on the old English laws, and those of other colonies on 

 those of the countries that founded them. 



" When Iceland was widely settled, an eastern (Norwegian) 

 man called Ulfljot was the first who brought Lws there ; this 

 Teit told us; they were called Ulfl jot's laws; Ulfljot was the 

 father of Gunnar, from whom the Djupdselir in Eyjafjord are 

 descended. The laws were mostly taken from the Gulathing- 

 laws as they were then, or made according to the advice of 



