CAUSES OF DIVORCE. '2~ 



" If a man wants to take his wife against her will out of this 

 land she shall declare herself separated if she likes, wherever 

 they happen to be, if she can do it with reason ; then he is 

 liable to lose her and her property as if they had owned no 

 property together, and he has no more right to that woman 

 after they have separated than to any other woman with whom 

 he has not lived " (Gragas, i. 331). 



A wife could not separate without reason, 1 and even if she 

 left her husband with good reason on her side, he could keep 

 her dower, and could force her to come back. 



In case of a separation, the wife's parents or kinsmen could 

 claim the mund and the lieimanfylgja. 



A bondi, Thorkel, having heard that his wife Asgerd loved 

 another man, was, on his remonstrating, told by his wife to 

 choose one of two alternatives. 



" Thou mayst choose one of two conditions. To stay with 

 me as if nothing had happened ; otherwise I will at once name 

 witnesses, and declare myself separated from thee, and let my 

 father claim rny rnund and heimanfvlgja " (Gisli Sursson's 

 Saga, p. 16). 



If a separation took place where neither party could be said 

 to have beea guilty of criminality, then the wife took the 

 same amount of property as she would have at the death of her 

 husband, or as she would take in case she left him on account 

 of any unfaithfulness on his part. If she left him without any 

 valid cause, or he separated from her on account of her repeated 

 infidelity, then the husband had the right to retain all her 

 property as long as she lived, and her heir had no claim to 

 anything of the tilgjof. But if she was unfaithful only 

 once, she forfeited her tilgjof, and kept the rest of her 

 property. If the man drove her away against her will for that 

 single offence, she came into all her rights. 



" If a wife commits adultery, or separates from her husband 

 without reason, she has forfeited her mund and her increase 

 of a third (thridjungsauJci). If her husband offers to take her 

 back and she will not accept it he shall keep all her property 

 while she is alive and then her next heir shall get her heimnn- 



1 According to Borgarthing Law, a wife after waiting three years for the return 

 of her husband could marry again. 



