Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
15 INTRODUCTION.
called Codex A, or membrane B. 69. No official copy — i. e. duly accepted by
the thing and signed by the lawman — of any of the laws has been found as
yet. All the manuscripts we have seem to be but annotations made for private
use by someone, who wished to know the law of the land. Västgötalagen
like all the other laws was handed down by tradition. Its substance is older
than Beowulf, probably coeval with Codex Argenteus or even the New
Testament itself.
The first lawman of Västergötland according to annotations in one
manuscript was Lumber. "And from him we have the expression ’Lame law’,
because he is said to have remembered and made a great part of our law. He
was born in Vånga, and there he lies buried in a mound, because he was a
heathen". Schlyter: Sveriges Gamla Lagar Vol. 1, page 295. Lumber lived in
the last part of the ninth century.
The same manuscript, which is reproduced in the work above named, and
from which these extracts are taken, speaks of Lumber’s successor Björn
Kialki in the following manner: "He was from Mæpalby, there he was buried
in a mound, because to him did not become known the holy Christian
doctrine". These quotations bear evidence, that the law before us is of great age.
The seventeenth lawman of Västergötland was Aeskil. "He inquired,"
says our authority, "carefully into and searched all Lumb’s law and other,
and used the annals of the land for the older. When he found the laws of the
land he meditated upon them with much skill and personal foresight". The
chronicler continues: "He was a great man, very gifted and was above all the
chiefs of the land............ What shall I more say of him, than that låte if ever
will again be born such a man." Aeskil is considered the compiler and the
editor of the oldest edition of the law of the Westgoths, which dates from
about 1200, a. d. It was accépted by the thing of all Goths — Aldræ Götæ
£>ing — the supreme court of the state, and was statute law for Västergötland
until the latter part of the same century, when a revision was made, called
"the younger law of the Westgoths" — den yngre Västgötalagen —, which in
turn was superceded by the General Landlaw of Magnus Erikson.
There are eight manuscripts more or less complete, from which the text is
reproduced. These are found partly in the Royal Library in Stockholm, and
partly in the University Library of Upsala. Schlyter finds four somewhat
different editions of this law, viz: —
1. Den Äldre Codex af Västgötalagen.
2. Den Yngre Codex af Västgötalagen.
3. Lydekini Exerpter och Anmärkningar.
4. Några anteckningar af okänd författare.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
