THE KING'S MIRROR 61 



On the other hand, it is also quite evident that the 

 treatise can not have been written after the great re- 

 vision of the Norwegian laws which was carried out 

 during the reign of Magnus Lawmender. The new court- 

 law, which was promulgated about 1275, is clearly later 

 than the Speculum Regale: the fine exacted for the death 

 of a king's thegn, which is given as forty marks in the 

 King's Mirror, is fixed at a little more than thirteen 

 marks in Magnus' legislation. In 1273 the law regu- 

 lating the succession to the throne made impossible the 

 recurrence of joint kingships; but the principle of this 

 arrangement appears to have been accepted as early as 

 1260, when the king's son Magnus was given the royal 

 title. Another decree, apparently also from Hakon's 

 reign, which abolished the responsibility of kinsmen in 

 cases of manslaughter and deprived the relatives of the 

 one who was slain of their share in the blood fine, also 

 runs counter to methods described in the King's Mirror, 

 which states distinctly that kinsmen share in the pay- 

 ment.* It is therefore safe to conclude thatthe work was 

 written some time between QQ17 and 1260J) 



The earliest attempt to date the King's Mirror was 

 made by the learned Icelander, Hans Finsen. In an 

 essay included in the Soro edition (1768) he fixes the 

 time at about 1164.f J. Erichsen, who wrote the intro- 

 duction to this edition, doubts that it was composed at 

 so early a date; impressed with the fact that the work 

 reflects the political views of the Birchshank faction, he 

 is inclined to place the date of composition some time 

 in Sverre's reign or in the last decade of the twelfth 



* C. xxxvi (p. 201) . f See page xx of the Soro edition. 



