Håkon Sigurdsson's gifts to his wife Sigrid
DN 1/537 · uden Dag 1391-1392 · Bergen
What the letter says
In Bergen in 1391 or 1392 Håkon Sigurdsson lists the gifts he has given his wife Sigrid Erlendsdatter. On New Year's Day 1388 at Slinde in Sogn she received a gold wreath with large pearls, the following year a gold brooch, and when she lay in childbed with their first child, the daughter Ingebjørg, she received a new gold wreath and a psalter with gold that had belonged to Håkon's mother. In the fourth year, at her father's at Losna, she received a gilt brooch. Sigrid has given him a large silver bowl from her father and a silver cup.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
I, Håkon Sigurdsson, acknowledge with this my letter the following. When 1388 years had passed from the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, on the eighth day of Christmas (1 January) in Sogn at Slinde, I gave and handed over, in the presence of many good men, to my own wife, Mistress Sigrid Erlendsdatter, a gold wreath in which every other link was set with large pearls. The gold weighs four nobles. The following year I gave her a gold brase (brooch) weighing one and a half øre (øre: unit of weight, an eighth of a mark). In the third year, on the Monday after the Mass of Magnus, when she lay in childbed with my daughter Ingebjørg, her first child, I gave her a new wreath of gold weighing five øre and five white pennies, and a psalter (book of psalms) with gold inlay which my mother owned, and the beitlosten [uncertain reading: probably a belt or a buckled strap] with four buckles. In the fourth year, when we were staying at Losna with her father, on the eighth day of Christmas, I gave her a gilt brooch weighing thirteen øre. These valuables she shall own freely and unencumbered from now on, without claims from me and my heirs, to own for ever. Furthermore my said wife Sigrid has given me a large silver bowl that her father gave her, and a silver cup. For greater truth of this I set my seal to this letter, which was written in Bergen in the fourth year after that named above [1391 or 1392]. Endorsement: On the back in a later hand: This letter concerns the gifts which Håkon Sigurdsson gave Mistress S
Original text (excerpt)
Ek Hakon Siugurdarsson kiænnizst med þesso mino brefue at þa er lidit var fra burd vars herra Iesu Christi *melisimo ccc octogesimo octauo. a attanda dag jola j Sogne a Slindhum, þa gaf ek oc af hende morgom godum monnom hiauerandom mijnne eigne hustru hustru Sigridhe Erllens dottor., ein gull krannz, ok annat huert stykket med storom perlom, oc veger gullet fiora nobola. Annat aret eftir gaf ek henna eina gull brazu som veger halfuan annan øyre. Item a þridhia aret manadagen nest eftir Magnus m
Background
Håkon Sigurdsson was the son of Sigurd Havtoresson and Ingeborg Erlingsdatter and heir to Giske and Sudreim. The mother who owned the psalter was thus Ingeborg Erlingsdatter. Sigrid Erlendsdatter was the daughter of a magnate at Losna in Gudbrandsdalen. The letter is a deed of gift, made so that the gifts would be her own property and could not be reclaimed by Håkon's heirs. Gifts from husband to wife during the marriage were legally vulnerable, and so they were written down. The letter was probably important for the inheritance dispute after Håkon's death, when Sigrid claimed that Håkon had bequeathed Giske to her. The weights are given in nobles, øre and white pennies, which shows that jewellery was also a way of storing value.
People: Håkon Sigurdsson, Sigrid Erlendsdatter, Ingebjørg Erlingsdatter