Anuario de historia del derecho español, No. 74 (2004)
Introduction: Medieval legislation plays a peculiar and very important role in Nordic legal history. These laws are important landmarks or lieu de memoire, which to a high degree have been used for centuries as a symbol of a legal culture different from the European continent. Written in the vernacular and even if not always too easy to understand these laws are still quoted as models of how to write legal texts in a short, clear style accessible to everybody. Due to a strange mixture of ingenuity and romanticism these medieval laws still hold a position as testimonies of a legal culture on a high level. They came into being at the same time as thousands of churches were erected, golden altars were forged and Saxo Grammaticus in his elaborate silver age Latin capolavoro with the title Res Gesta Danorum gave the Danish people a past even if not necessarily a past that could stand for modern critics based as it was on a common European partly legendary tradition. Also the medieval churches built all over Denmark in the 12th century were part of a European tradition. And then why not the medieval legislation? How Nordic are the Nordic laws actually?
“Why Nordic medieval law?”. This question must necessarily precede the question posed above: «How Nordic are the Nordic laws?». The study of Nordic medieval law once had its heyday. For a time it was more or less neglected by legal historians. The time has come to assess whether new knowledge actually has been produced or whether we are just discussing old and well known topics in an apparently new context without really doing progress in our understanding of those legal texts from the past that once were the pride of Nordic legal history. Does a renewed study of old Nordic law really give us any new information or are we just left in a situation where it is not our level of knowledge that is increased but only our level of interpretation? And can we distinguish between these two levels?
How Nordic are the old Nordic Laws?
By Ditlev Tamm
Anuario de historia del derecho español, No. 74 (2004)
Introduction: Medieval legislation plays a peculiar and very important role in Nordic legal history. These laws are important landmarks or lieu de memoire, which to a high degree have been used for centuries as a symbol of a legal culture different from the European continent. Written in the vernacular and even if not always too easy to understand these laws are still quoted as models of how to write legal texts in a short, clear style accessible to everybody. Due to a strange mixture of ingenuity and romanticism these medieval laws still hold a position as testimonies of a legal culture on a high level. They came into being at the same time as thousands of churches were erected, golden altars were forged and Saxo Grammaticus in his elaborate silver age Latin capolavoro with the title Res Gesta Danorum gave the Danish people a past even if not necessarily a past that could stand for modern critics based as it was on a common European partly legendary tradition. Also the medieval churches built all over Denmark in the 12th century were part of a European tradition. And then why not the medieval legislation? How Nordic are the Nordic laws actually?
“Why Nordic medieval law?”. This question must necessarily precede the question posed above: «How Nordic are the Nordic laws?». The study of Nordic medieval law once had its heyday. For a time it was more or less neglected by legal historians. The time has come to assess whether new knowledge actually has been produced or whether we are just discussing old and well known topics in an apparently new context without really doing progress in our understanding of those legal texts from the past that once were the pride of Nordic legal history. Does a renewed study of old Nordic law really give us any new information or are we just left in a situation where it is not our level of knowledge that is increased but only our level of interpretation? And can we distinguish between these two levels?
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