Alv Knutsson buys Akerøya in Agder
DN 2/864 · 25 April 1467 · Grefsheim
What the letter says
Four lagrettemenn (lay judges) make known that they were at Grefsheim on 25 April 1467 and saw the handshake between Sir Alv Knutsson and the father and son Kolbjørn Herleiksson and Herleik Kolbjørnsson. Father and son sold Akerøya in Høyvåg parish in Sand ship district (skipreide) in Agder, with Sandøya and Kalvøya, to Alv and his heirs to own for ever. The price was fifty guilders, paid at once in silver cups and bedclothes.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
Be it known to all good men who see or hear this letter that we, Pål Ellingsson, Gudbrand Olavsson, Saxe Vigleiksson and Pål Halsteinsson, sworn lagrettemenn, were at Grefsheim on the day of St Mark the Evangelist (25 April) in the year after God's birth 1467. There we saw and heard the handshake between the well-born man Sir Alv Knutsson on the one side and Kolbjørn Herleiksson and Herleik Kolbjørnsson, father and son, on the other. With the same handshake both father and son acknowledged that they had sold to Sir Alv Knutsson the land called Akerøya, in Høyvåg parish in Sand ship district in Agder, with Sandøya and Kalvøya, freehold, and other rights that lie or of old and of new have lain with it, outside and inside the fence. They sold it from themselves and their heirs and to Sir Alv and his heirs to own for ever with full right of disposal, for fifty guilders. At the same time we were asked by both parties [to witness] that the said money was paid in silver cups and bedclothes, and they were handed over at once, to full satisfaction. For further truth and proof we hang our seals on this letter, which was made on the day and in the year said before.
Original text (excerpt)
Thet se ollom godom monnom kunnokth som thetta breff see ællæ høra ath mit Paal Ellingxson Gudbrand Ollaffsson Saxe Viglæykxson ok Paal Halsthensson sworne logrettes men varom a Greffshem sancti Marci euangeliste dagh arom æffter gudh(z) byrd mcdlxvii sagom ok hørdom a handher band theirra vælbaren man her Alffh Knutsson aff enne halue en aff andhre halue Kolbiørn Herlæykxson ok Herlæyk Kolbiørnsson bade fædger, kiændes the tha bade fædger i same handher bande at the haffde salth fornæmdom her A
Background
Alv Knutsson of Tre Rosor received the Giske estate after Junker Hans Sigurdsson, who died in 1466, so this purchase took place at roughly the same time as he became one of the largest landowners in the country. Lagrettemenn were sworn farmers who sat in the lagrette, the panel of the thing, and who were often witnesses when land changed owner. The letter is a letter of witness to a purchase. The handshake was the formal way of concluding an agreement. That fifty guilders were paid with silver cups and bedclothes shows that ready coin was in short supply, and that objects of value served as a means of payment. Grefsheim lies in Hedmarken, far from Agder, so the bargain was probably concluded where Alv was staying.
People: Alv Knutsson