534 THE LAWS OF THE EARLIER ENGLISH TRIBES. 



swvi's law (Eidsivia law) had been enacted by Halfdan the 

 Black (father of Harald Fairhair) " (Fornmanna Sogur, i., 

 p. 31). 



" At this feast were Gunnar and many others of the best 

 men. After the feast Njal asked if he might take home 

 Thorkall, Asgrim's son, for fostering, and he was with Njal 

 long after. He loved Njal more than his father. Njal taught 

 him the laws, so that he became the greatest lawman in Ice- 

 land " (Njala, 27). 



The lawman was the representative of law, though he had 

 neither judicial nor legislative power; he was selected by the 

 law-court, or Logretta, on the first Friday of the Althing, 

 before the cases which were to be tried at the Thing were 

 made public on the law-hill. Then if the election was not 

 unanimous, it was decided by throwing of lots which quarter 

 should elect him ; the law-court men of the quarter could elect 

 him from their own quarter or from another, but the majority 

 decided the question. The lawman, followed by the members 

 of the law-court, walked up to the law-hill and took the seat 

 intended for him. An election was good for three years, and 

 the same man could be elected again ; but he could forfeit 

 his office through injustice or carelessness. 



His duty was to expound the laws to the people, and 

 therefore it was necessary for him to know them well ; before 

 the law was written he was looked upon as a living law-book 

 for the people ; any who were in difficulties on points of law 

 went to him, not only to the Althing, but to his home. 



The part of the law relating to the regulations of the Thing 

 was recited every summer on the first Friday of the assembly, 

 and this was the lawman's first duty ; all the remaining 

 parts of the law had to be recited by him during the course of 

 his three years of office. 



At the dissolution of the Thing he made public from the 

 law-hill the timereckoning, a kind of almanack for the corning 

 year. Supposing that he was doubtful on any point he was 

 allowed to take counsel with five or more men, wise in law, 

 and their advice was considered sacred. 



If the lawman had not arrived on the first Friday before 

 the people went to the law-hill he had to pay a fine of three 



