Settlement on Giske after blows struck during the Easter peace
DN 2/306 · 5 April 1350 · Giske
What the letter says
Peter Sigurdsson and Svein Eiriksson make known that on Giske on 5 April 1350 Kolbjørn Simonsson reached a settlement with Sir Erling Vidkunsson. The case concerned two blows he had struck Gudløg Aresson and Jon Dode, and other breaches of the Easter peace. As a fine, Kolbjørn gave Erling four månedsmatsbol in Mo in Ørskog parish. Erling bought a further two månedsmatsbol in the same farm and paid with six såld of grain and goods worth two marks, and five marks' worth of cloth, probably in Bergen that same summer.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
To all men who see or hear this letter, Peter Sigurdsson and Svein Eiriksson send God's greeting and their own. We two make known to you that we were present and heard on Giske on the Monday after Easter week, in the eleventh and twentieth year of the reign of our worthy lord Magnus, by God's grace king of Norway, Sweden and Scania (the editor dates the letter to 5 April 1350), that Kolbjørn Simonsson reached a settlement with Sir Erling Vidkunsson. The settlement concerned the two blows he had struck Gudløg Aresson, and another Jon Dode [uncertain reading], and everything else he had broken in the Easter peace. The settlement was this: he gave Sir Erling four månedsmatsbol (land rent of one month's food per bol) in Mo, which lies in Ørskog church parish. In addition Sir Erling bought two månedsmatsbol in the same land. For the one bol he paid at once six såld of grain (a grain measure) and two marks' lag in goods (goods worth two marks), and for the other five marks' lag in cloth, this summer in Bergen [uncertain reading: probably paid or to be paid in Bergen this summer]. In truth of this we two who are named set our seals, and the often mentioned Kolbjørn's seal, to this letter, which was made on the said day and year.
Original text (excerpt)
Ollom monnom þeim sem þetta bref sea edr heyra senda Petr Sighurdar son Suein Eireks son q. g. ok sina mit giorom ydr kunniktt at þat woro mit j hia ok heyrdom j Gixska manadaghen en nærsta eptir p ska wiku. elleftha ok tuttughta re rikes okkars wirduleghs herra Maghnusar medr guds n d Noreghs Swya ok Skaney kononghs, er Kolbiorn Simunar son sætez wid herra Erlingh Widkunnar son, wm þau tauu hœgh er hann hafde sleghet Gudlœgh Aara son ok annat Jon doda ok alltt annat er hann hafde brotett j þeim
Background
Erling Vidkunsson of Giske and Bjarkøy was a former drottsete (steward of the realm) and was living on Giske, where the letter was written. The Easter peace was a holy time of peace around Easter, and violence at such a time was punished more severely than otherwise. Why the fine went to Erling the letter does not say, but it suggests that as lord and landowner he had a right to it, or that those who were struck were his people. The letter is a letter of settlement, in which land is used as a fine. Månedsmatsbol was a unit for measuring land by how much land rent it yielded, and såld was a measure of grain. The settlement was made the year after the Black Death came to Norway in 1349, but the letter says nothing about the plague. It shows that Erling went on gathering land in the area around Giske.
People: Erling Vidkunsson