Alv Knutsson buys Tolfthestad in Vågå
DN 1/864 · 29 Septbr. 1463 · Bergen
What the letter says
In Bergen on 29 September 1463, Botolv Endridsson sells the farm Tolfthestad in Vågå in Gudbrandsdalen to Alv Knutsson and his wife Magnhild Oddsdatter. He had inherited the farm from his kinswoman Lady Kirstin Torvaldsdatter, and the millstone quarry close by was included. The provost of Bergen and bishop-elect of Stavanger, Alv Torgardsson, was among those who sealed the letter.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
I, Botolv Endridsson, acknowledge with this my open letter: I have granted and sold to the well-born man Sir Alv Knutsson, knight, my land called Tolfthestad, which lies in Vågå parish in Gudbrandsdalen, which I inherited from my kinswoman Lady Kirstin Torvaldsdatter, God have mercy on her soul. With the land goes the millstone quarry that lies close by, and all parts and rights that lie and have lain with it from old to new, inside and outside the fence, free and heimolt (lawfully warranted) against me and every man. It passes from me and my heirs and to Sir Alv Knutsson and his wife Lady Magnhild Oddsdatter and their heirs to own for ever. I, Botolv, acknowledge that I have received the smallest and the largest penny from Sir Alv of what was agreed in our bargain. For further certainty I ask the worthy lord Sir Alv Torgardsson, provost in Bergen and bishop-elect of Stavanger, Sir Torstein Torkjellsson and Otte Mattisson [illegible] to hang their seals together with mine under this letter, which was made in Bergen in the year of our Lord 1463 at Michaelmas (29 September).
Original text (excerpt)
Thet kennis jek Botolff Endridsson med tesso myno opno breffue at iek hawer wnt ok salt welbornom manne her Alff Knwtzsyni riddere iord myna som Tolffthestada heiter liggiandis i Wagha sokn i Gudbrandzdalom ok iek erffde epter mynne *frænkoo frw Kirstine Toraldzsdotter gud henne søl nade, med qwernaberghit ner liggiandis ok allom lutum ok lunnindom som til ligger ok lighat haffuer fra forno ok nyio innan gardz ok vtan frælssa ok hemola fore mik ok fore hwariom manne vndhan mik ok mynom erffwingh
Background
Alv Knutsson of Tre Rosor, who later owned Giske, gathered land in large parts of Norway. The letter is a deed of purchase, made as proof that the right of ownership had passed to the buyer and his heirs. The millstone quarry is worth noting: millstones from the quarries in Gudbrandsdalen and elsewhere were used to grind grain and were a trade good, so it may have been a source of income. That the purchase was made in Bergen and sealed by one of the highest clergymen there shows that Bergen was a centre for the magnates' business, far from the land concerned.
People: Alv Knutsson, Magnhild Oddsdatter, Otte Matsson (Rømer)